COLUMBUS – Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced during his radio show on Thursday that starting quarterback CJ Stroud will likely be held out this week and would only be used in an emergency situation.
Stroud has dealt with a sore shoulder over the last few weeks. He has not practiced the last couple of days and the hope is that a full week off will have him back at full strength sooner rather than later.
Speaking with reporters after his radio show, Day was deluged with questions about his thought process in shutting Stroud down at this point.
“Yeah, we wanted to have some rest going into this week and try to allow him the opportunity to get stronger,” Day said. “We’re taking it day by day. But I think the mindset right now would be to use him in an emergency role only on Saturday. But we’ll see how he’s feeling today.”
Stroud didn’t throw on Sunday and was held out of the tougher practices on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Buckeyes will take the practice field Thursday late afternoon and they’ll see how Stroud is feeling at that point. With Akron up next, Ohio State is a very, very large favorite in the game, which also makes this the perfect time to give Stroud the kind of rest that he clearly needs.
It didn’t happen without plenty of conversation with Stroud and OSU’s medical team.
“Well, we talked about it,” Day said. “This wasn’t something that was regulated, we talked about it, we decided that it would be good, really smart to kind of shut him down for a couple days. And we’ll see how he’s feeling right now. See how he is feeling today coming in. But that there was still kind of this feeling that he had that he couldn’t really shake, and so maybe rest is something that would go a long way for him. And then allow some of these other guys to practice and move forward here. But, yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see how he’s doing. We’ll see how he’s feeling. And obviously his feedback is important. If he’s ready to roll, then let’s go. But I think rest here is probably going to be the best option.”
It Stroud’s place will either be true freshman Kyle McCord or redshirt freshman Jack Miller. And to answer the next question, no, true freshman Quinn Ewers is not an option. Day doesn’t even think he would be available to play as he continues to learn the playbook and work on just trying to catch up on everything he has missed by enrolling a year early.
In McCord and Miller, the Buckeyes will once again be turning to a quarterback who has never thrown a pass. It was the same situation they faced in the season opener against Minnesota.
But Day is confident in the talent of his quarterback room. As to which guy will get the start, that will likely be known by Day Thursday night. How much the backup plays against Akron will depend on how the day goes. Right now the plan is to pick one guy and play him until the game allows for a decision about putting in a second quarterback.
“Yeah, probably will pick one and then go from there,” he said. “And then if the opportunity presents itself, let one of the other guys get a drive. But I think the best thing to do is we’ve got to go win the game and figure out which quarterback we think allows us the opportunity to do that. And then go from there.”
Ohio State is favored by seven touchdowns or so Saturday night. In other words, the Buckeyes are expected to look good on Saturday. But because of the talent differential between the two teams, there is some thought that any outstanding performance by a Buckeye will need to be taken with a grain of salt.
That doesn’t mean the quarterbacks won’t be heavily evaluated, however. In fact, if somebody wants to stake a claim at the starting job, this week would be a good time to make a move.
“Well, I think everything is an evaluation for sure,” Day said. “And again, this is a long season. So you just don’t know what’s coming next. And that’s what I talked to our guys about all the time, that all I knew for sure was that in the first week we were gonna have a starter named at Minnesota, and then the season’s gonna go from there. And so here we are. I think it’s a great opportunity for guys to get reps, and it’ll be a great evaluation moving forward. But we’ll just kind of see. I mean, let’s just get through today and and see where this goes.”
COLUMBUS – Ohio State head coach [URL=’https://buckeyescoop.com/live-updates-from-ryan-day-radio-show-lightning-round-sept-23/’]Ryan Day announced during his radio show[/URL] on Thursday that starting quarterback CJ Stroud will likely be held out this week and would only be used in an emergency situation.
Stroud has dealt with a sore shoulder over the last few weeks. He has not practiced the last couple of days and the hope is that a full week off will have him back at full strength sooner rather than later.
Speaking with reporters after his radio show, Day was deluged with questions about his thought process in shutting Stroud down at this point.
“Yeah, we wanted to have some rest going into this week and try to allow him the opportunity to get stronger,” Day said. “We’re taking it day by day. But I think the mindset right now would be to use him in an emergency role only on Saturday. But we’ll see how he’s feeling today.”
Stroud didn’t throw on Sunday and was held out of the tougher practices on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Buckeyes will take the practice field Thursday late afternoon and they’ll see how Stroud is feeling at that point. [URL=’https://buckeyescoop.com/tale-of-the-tape-akron/’]With Akron up next, [/URL]Ohio State is a very, very large favorite in the game, which also makes this the perfect time to give Stroud the kind of rest that he clearly needs.
It didn’t happen without plenty of conversation with Stroud and OSU’s medical team.
“Well, we talked about it,” Day said. “This wasn’t something that was regulated, we talked about it, we decided that it would be good, really smart to kind of shut him down for a couple days. And we’ll see how he’s feeling right now. See how he is feeling today coming in. But that there was still kind of this feeling that he had that he couldn’t really shake, and so maybe rest is something that would go a long way for him. And then allow some of these other guys to practice and move forward here. But, yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see how he’s doing. We’ll see how he’s feeling. And obviously his feedback is important. If he’s ready to roll, then let’s go. But I think rest here is probably going to be the best option.”
It Stroud’s place will either be true freshman Kyle McCord or redshirt freshman Jack Miller. And to answer the next question, no, true freshman Quinn Ewers is not an option. Day doesn’t even think he would be available to play as he continues to learn the playbook and work on just trying to catch up on everything he has missed by enrolling a year early.
In McCord and Miller, the Buckeyes will once again be turning to a quarterback who has never thrown a pass. It was the same situation they faced in the season opener against Minnesota.
But Day is confident in the talent of his quarterback room. As to which guy will get the start, that will likely be known by Day Thursday night. How much the backup plays against Akron will depend on how the day goes. Right now the plan is to pick one guy and play him until the game allows for a decision about putting in a second quarterback.
“Yeah, probably will pick one and then go from there,” he said. “And then if the opportunity presents itself, let one of the other guys get a drive. But I think the best thing to do is we’ve got to go win the game and figure out which quarterback we think allows us the opportunity to do that. And then go from there.”
Ohio State is favored by seven touchdowns or so Saturday night. In oth[URL=’https://buckeyescoop.com/ohio-state-will-have-a-new-starting-quarterback-for-akron/’]er words, the Buckeyes are expected to look good on Saturday. [/URL]But because of the talent differential between the two teams, there is some thought that any outstanding performance by a Buckeye will need to be taken with a grain of salt.
That doesn’t mean the quarterbacks won’t be heavily evaluated, however. In fact, if somebody wants to stake a claim at the starting job, this week would be a good time to make a move.
“Well, I think everything is an evaluation for sure,” Day said. “And again, this is a long season. So you just don’t know what’s coming next. And that’s what I talked to our guys about all the time, that all I knew for sure was that in the first week we were gonna have a starter named at Minnesota, and then the season’s gonna go from there. And so here we are. I think it’s a great opportunity for guys to get reps, and it’ll be a great evaluation moving forward. But we’ll just kind of see. I mean, let’s just get through today and and see where this goes.”