Ohio State football faces a unique challenge with a crowded room of talented quarterbacks ahead of the 2024 season. The Buckeyes have five scholarship quarterbacks on the roster this spring after adding a trio of newcomers either out of high school or via the transfer portal. The battle for the starting job expects to continue into the summer months and the start of preseason camp, but managing that process can be difficult.
“I’ve been impressed with their approach,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said on Late Kick with Josh Pate. “It’s hard to get everybody reps. That’s probably the hardest part about that room when you have five guys getting five guys’ reps. So we did roll those guys in the spring, but we’ll have to prioritize them a little bit more in the preseason.”
Devin Brown returns as a third-year junior and most experienced within the Ohio State program. He played in a total of eight games with one start in the past two seasons while battling injuries. Brown did compete alongside former Buckeyes’ quarterback Kyle McCord for the starting job in 2023.
Ohio State added a proven veteran to its room in former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard, who played in 34 games during a four-year stint with the Wildcats. The dual-threat quarterback threw for 5,786 yards and accounted for 67 total touchdowns.
“The room is strong,” Day said. “Those guys have a really good synergy about the room. And when you have five guys in a room that’s not always easy, but they’re working well together. It’s competitive, it’s talented. I think Will brings in some experience with the fact that he’s won a Big 12 championship before. Devin has been in the program now for three years. So they both have experience — one in the program, one outside the program, but both pushing each other to make each other better.”
The Buckeyes also have three younger options to develop in redshirt freshman Lincoln Kienholz, as well as true freshmen Air Noland and Julian Sayin, who initially enrolled at Alabama before transferring to Ohio State after Nick Saban retired as head coach of the Crimson Tide in January.
“Lincoln was a three-sport athlete, Gatorade Player of the Year coming out of South Dakota, Major League Baseball product, excellent basketball player, didn’t play football year round there,” Day said. “So he got in in the summer. Wasn’t here last spring and so he still hasn’t been here for a year, which is crazy to think about. And he’s growing and building. And you can see the talent there.
“And then you have Julian and Air (Noland), both guys talented. Both come from areas of the country where they kind of play football year-round. So they’re a little bit further along that way, but still young and still figuring it out.”
Ohio State opens the 2024 season against Akron on Aug. 31.
