Chip Kelly explains Ohio State's plan to break up spring reps among crowded QB room

If there’s one thing that’s clear at Ohio State going into 2024 spring practice, it’s that the Buckeyes have a deep and talented quarterback room. It’s a room that new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is going to need to manage, develop, and decide on a future starting quarterback from now.

While speaking to the media at the start of spring practice, Kelly opened up about how practice is being designed for those quarterbacks.

“We’re really detailed in what practice looks like and how that’s gonna operate, but I also think you need to let the players go,” Chip Kelly said. “So, I don’t think you need put shackles on them so to speak, and just keep them constrained. I think you need to let them go and let them operate.”

The Ohio State quarterback room is headlined by four quarterbacks. The first is Devin Brown, who is returning to the team from last season. After that, there’s the experienced transfer Will Howard, who many people expect to earn the starting job. Then, the Buckeyes added two excellent freshmen, in Air Noland and Julian Sayin in the Class of 2024.

“We were rotating everybody I think on every two snaps today, and that’s just what we were gonna do on day 1. We’ll reassess it after we get through it, get a chance to count up how many reps, how many plays each guy got, and did they get more in seven-on than they did in 11-on? We’ll go through that whole thing and that’ll be a constant flow in terms of how we’re doing it, but I think the best way people learn is they learn by doing,” Kelly said.

“So, they’ve been great in the meeting rooms. They’re sharp when you get them on the board. They’re really good when they’re watching film, but you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to play the game. So, the more that we can put them in those situations to play the game, the better we’ll have an opportunity to evaluate them.”

Chip Kelly reveals why he left UCLA for Ohio State

It was a surprise decision to leave being the head coach at UCLA to be the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. However, it’s one that made sense to Chip Kelly.

“Sometimes I do a lot of things other people don’t do. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong, but I think it started when we were preparing for a bowl game. Ryan Gunderson is a great quarterbacks coach, left to go to Oregon State as the coordinator. So he wasn’t there. So I actually coached quarterbacks during the bowl game and I just started to think like I hadn’t actually coached a position since 2008,” Kelly said.

“And I think my wife, she’s like, I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time. And to me, the best part of football is football. And so you got to do football, and not do some of the things that involve being the head coach.”