Ryan Day explains decision to play Devin Brown at quarterback vs. Purdue
Following Ohio State‘s dominant win over the Purdue Boilermakers, Buckeyes’ head coach Ryan Day spoke about the decision to play Devin Brown as much as he did at quarterback in the game.
Devin Brown, who lost the battle to become Ohio State’s starting quarterback this offseason to Kyle McCord, got plenty of playing time against Purdue, even before the game got out of hand. He threw for 58 yards and a touchdown while carrying the ball eight times and adding another score on the ground.
“It started off with the weather,” Ryan Day said. “It was rain, it was wind, and certainly didn’t want to have the same situation that happened last year and wanted to make sure that we had a good plan.”
Ryan Day was referencing the Northwestern game from last season, which was played in sloppy conditions and stayed close as the Buckeyes struggled to constantly throw the ball. Having a package for Brown, Day felt, gave Ohio State an improved rushing attack.
“Devin is very explosive with his feet. He’s very strong, he’s big, he’s powerful, he’s athletic. We feel like he gives us a little bit of something there. He also throws the ball really well, but that’s something that we’ve looked at, we’ve been working on a little bit. We felt like this was the right time on the road to do that. I think it did give us something…numbers in the redzone, but we can’t turn it over on the one-yard line. In a close game, that could have been the difference.”
Despite the package for Devin Brown, Ryan Day still had Kyle McCord in for most of the game, and just because Brown played well doesn’t mean that’s going to change.
“So, Devin’s doing everything for the first time, just like Kyle was doing. So, I’m glad we were able to do that in this moment here, get him going with that. It was good. He took a couple shots. I’m sure he’ll be sore, but I thought he threw a nice ball,” Day said.
“They loaded up the box. We took a shot down there to Brandon [Innis]. Thought that was good to get under his belt, to make that throw, that was a big time throw. So, we’ll keep looking at it, keep building his package because we do feel like it gives us a little of a different change up.”
Regardless of how much Ryan Day uses Devin Brown moving forward, one thing he did do was give another look for Penn State and head coach James Franklin another thing to prepare for ahead of the game on Saturday.
Paul Finebaum on Penn State’s chances against Ohio State
The game between Penn State and Ohio State is going to be huge. However, analyst Paul Finebaum doesn’t think the Nittany Lions have much of a shot at pulling off a road win on Saturday.
“Not fine. I like what James Franklin is doing with this team but going into Columbus and winning that game is a big, big hill,” Paul Finebaum said. “And I just cannot believe — Ohio State has some experience. I mean, they beat Notre Dame. They have some other big wins. They will win this game.”