Ryan Day: Kyle McCord will start vs Youngstown State, Devin Brown could play more

Ohio State will keep a similar quarterback plan this week against Youngstown State, Ryan Day told reporters Tuesday afternoon. Kyle McCord will again start, but the hope will be to get Devin Brown more game reps.

McCord completed 21 of 33 passes for 239 yards against Indiana as the Buckeyes came away with the 23-3 victory last week. Brown, however, only threw three passes and played just 6% of the snaps after Day said the goal was to get him “meaningful” snaps in the season opener.

Still, McCord will get first reps this week against Youngstown State — but it still doesn’t mean he’s the long-term starter.

“I’m not trying to, again, draw too many hard lines when it comes to this right now,” Day said. “I’ve talked to the guys about saying our goal is to be a really good quarterback room and win games. And as these first few games start to develop, we get a better feel for what that looks like. Learned some things about Kyle on Saturday, saw some things that he’s got to improve on.

“Again, disappointed that we couldn’t get more on the field with Devin. But hopefully, this week we can and continue to evaluate it. But Kyle will start again this week and then, we’ll keep going from there.”

Ryan Day: ‘We’re working through’ how much Devin Brown plays

Day said the change of plan to cut down on Browns snaps was more about getting a victory. But the goal in Week 2 will be to get him on the field more if the situation allows.

“Yes, but try to get Devin in more,” Day said when asked if the quarterback plan would stay the same. “And as the week goes on, we’ll continue to evaluate it based on how they practice. But yeah, I would’ve liked, again, to get Devin in the game. Like I mentioned after the game, I wanted to do what was best to win the game at the time. That was the first goal.

“I felt like that was the right thing to do. A little bit was gut, quite honestly. I can’t sit here and tell you the analytics and the way to do that. But this week, would love to get Devin in some more.”

How many snaps Brown will play is still to be determined. That said, though, Day said he’ll continue to see how the game is going and keep all options open.

“That’s what we’re working through now,” Day said. “If it was an easy answer, I’d give it to you. I think that’s what’s unique about this season. I wanted to see if we could get into a rhythm in the throwing game a little bit with Kyle and some of the receivers. We do that in practice. I thought at times, we did. Other times, we didn’t. But we’ve got to find that right formula because it’s a long season.”