Why Ohio State Football Must Open Up Their Quarterback Room In 2024

Why Elite QB Play Is Critical To Win It All the more NFL players team X has on their roster the higher odds team X has of winning the national championship this is why the Blue Chip ratio works so well because while you can it's possible Michigan has done it develop three stars into Elite Collegiate players and NFL players it is easier to recruit foreign five-star athletes Blue Chip players and develop them from there Ohio state has one of the most talented potentially the most talented roster in the country right now and they have an elite staff that does a great job of developing and putting their players in great positions to win however for the defensive line the linebacker core the defensive back rooms that are Elite a wide receiver room that once again should be one of the best in the country and Ohio State's best running back room in quite some time potentially under the Ryan day era JK Dobbins was Elite and I don't know if trayon Henderson or quinon Judkins will even come close to his greatness in 2019 but there are two Elite running backs in Henderson and Judkins it's quite fascinating and is a huge Advantage for Ohio State there exists the offensive line but the offensive line returns a lot so they should get better compared to last year and then there's the quarterback room where there is little to no returning production in terms of anyone who started coming back from Ohio State last year Kyle McCord's off to Syracuse will Howard comes in and there's a rule not a rule that is permanent but a rule that's meant to be broken but will be very hard to break and that rule states that in the college football playoff era your quarterback must be in the top 10 of quarterback efficiency to win the national champ chionship and outside of 2017 Alabama and 2018 Clemson with jayen Herz and Trevor Lawrence every quarterback to win a National Championship again outside of those two has been top five in quarterback efficiency the last quarterback to be outside of the top 10 in quarterback efficiency who won it all was Greg McElroy at Alabama talk about a long time ago that's when I was 7 years old and Greg McElroy is now one of the better college football analysts and has his own show at ESPN now his Collegiate playing days and NFL days have long past him and that was in 2009 when Alabama had an elite defense they had Mark Ingram Heisman Trophy winning running back Greg melroy was 17th in qbr will Howard who is likely going to be the starter for Ohio State last year had a 75 .1 quarterback efficiency rating which was 22nd the prior year he had an 82.5 quarterback efficiency rating with much more limited snaps and that would have placed him at 11th in the 2022 qbr ratings so outside of the top 10 and against Alabama and against TCU in the championship game the Big 12 championship game he did not perform like an elite level player earlier in the season against Oklahoma State against TCU partially and Baylor West Virginia and Kansas he looked very awesome but as the season progressed you began to saw cracks and last year he had a 24 to10 TD ratio a 140 passer rating and look those numbers while good they're not great they're not near Elite they're not Elite so what I want to do today is talk about Ohio State's quarterback room and stir up a little controversy because will Howard may be Ohio State's best option he likely will be the starter but what if someone else in the room if given the opportunity to both succeed and fail and to gel with the starting roster and to play in some of the more practice squad meaningless esque games in September that Ohio State state will participate in could there be a quarterback who has a better chance of being an elite player and of being a proven combination of both game manager and playmaker that will maximize Ohio State's chances of winning the national championship as that's this team's goal of course beating Michigan comes before that that's this team's biggest goal but having a quarterback who can take care of the football and make big throws and can be accurate will Howard struggles in two out of those three that would also be very helpful in beating the Wolverines who should have one of the best defenses in the country and a ground game and offense that will keep Ohio State somewhat honest welcome back everyone it's college football with Sam before we resume and continue to dive deep on Ohio State's quarterback room whether it's will Howard Devon Brown Julian saan or anyone else in that deep quarterback room could be the deepest quarterback room in the nation make sure to like this video make sure to subscribe to the channel and click the notification bell all three of those things help out the channel tremendously our first video of the 2024 season that gets 1,000 likes I'll be doing a giveaway after that and after we hit 20,000 subscribers I'll be doing a giveaway as well so there are two giveaways guaranteed that are awaiting you and hitting the notification Bell will help you get notified when I am doing those giveaways more importantly it'll help you get notified when I drop game reactions game previews more preseason content we're so close to the regular season but we still have a little over a month before August 24th when Florida State and Georgia Tech kickoff in Dublin Ireland so make sure to hit that notification Bell also comment your thoughts down below and liking and subscribing is probably the best things that you can do along with watching the whole video to support the channel first and foremost where I want to go is Can Devin Brown Compete For The Starting Job? Devon Brown now Devon Brown I start off with him because at this point watching him in the spring game seeing that he's injury prone last year and the fact that he just didn't look that good he didn't necessarily get a fair shot Ryan day early last year said that he would give Kyle mcor and Devin Brown split reps that never really happened after the Indiana game and then against Youngstown State he didn't look good similar against Western Kentucky against Purdue his qbr was less than 20 which is awful and when playing against Missouri he didn't have Marvin Harrison Jr but he had much of his offensive line he had dravon Henderson in an elite defense and before he got hurt and I hope that he's able to recover he wasn't able to do much nonetheless he's very athletic he's 63 212 lb and he's been touted by Ohio State coaches by Ohio State fans by fellow players and he was highly recruited of high school he was in Drew Aller class the 2022 quarterback class and he was close to a fstar by season's End by the end of his high school career he lost the starting job to Kyle McCord last year I don't know if he's actually competing for the job this season because again it sounds SS like it's will Howard and then there's some Buzz around Julian saian that we'll get to but this time he has more experience he has more experience with Ohio State and within Ryan day's system than Howard does then again there are changes with Chip Kelly coming in and modifying the offense to his tastes but I think that there will still be elements of Ryan day's system after all it was a system that worked brilliantly for most of if not all of Ryan day's time so far at Ohio State so why not combine The Best of Both Worlds some of that experience definitely gives Brown an advantage he had 217 passing yards two touchdowns and a pick last year had a few plays that were just very risky didn't showcase good decision making and qbr takes that into account even if you ignore quarterback efficiency rating he had a sub 140 passer rating which unless you make that up by rushing for tons of yards on the ground ground or maybe you can make big plays and occasional wise decisions through the air that really shows that you are not a good quarterback or at least you're not good at passing the football right now brown is still an unproven raw athlete who has a big arm a cannon of an arm who definitely is gutsy and has some Mobility he's similar to will Howard in a lot of ways now that I'm saying it though of course all comparisons are rough because these players have multiple differences I wouldn't be surprised necessarily if he somehow wins the starting job and I solely say that as in not surprised because it's very unlikely I wouldn't pick it I wouldn't even bet my money on it but there is no CJ Stroud there is no Justin fields and I don't even really think there's a Kyle McCord I mean since the start of last year it really felt like it was going to be especially as the season progressed but in hindsight really from the beginning it was going to be Kyle mccort's job it was that's why he was backing up CJ Stroud even as a true freshman and he he played against Akon in 2021 he backed him up in 2022 he was going to be the guy or at least Ryan Day wanted him to be the guy wanted him to give him a try and if he really failed then he may pull him out with Devin Brown yes injuries have held him back he has hasn't looked good but last year's system and last year's performance and efficiency to his credit was an abject disaster with the amount of talent that Ohio state had they should have been scoring in the high 30s low 40s even with all the turnover they suffered their offense was not even top 25 top 30 in scoring and it was barely at that point even below the before not below but before the cotton bow game against the Missouri Tigers and that 14-3 loss I want to talk about the other two quarterbacks but before I can get to that I want to show you and bring your attention to my 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best chance to win the Big 10 beat Michigan and win the national championship and then there's another part of me that thinks it's very rare that a true freshman can come out and just ball in his first year in college especially with the schedule that Ohio State plays the defenses that they face and the pressure that will be on his shoulders think about this Ohio state will play Iowa they will play Oregon they will play Nebraska Penn State Michigan half of their schedule two-thirds of their conference schedule will be teams that have top 10 potentially defenses all five of those teams could possibly have top 10 defenses so to Circle back it's a little under 2/3 of their conference schedule a little less than half of their schedule but very close and most of those games are bunched close together Iowa happens then Oregon then a buai then Nebraska and Penn State they could face four top 10 defenses in a row defenses that in Nebraska and Iowa are stingy they're used to playing with bad offenses and if those offenses improve those defenses are going to be better than anyone expected and defenses in Oregon and Penn State that should have good offenses it's a question of whether cotal Nikki or Stein's offense will be just good great or if it can be elite Penn States will bring the pass rush Iowa will force turnovers and interceptions Nebraska will stop the run and Oregon's has probably the deepest roster where if they have an injury or if Ohio State's tiring them out they can rotate and they can they can try more things to fix any bleeding they may suffer all the defenses that Ohio State plays will have their own set of advantages and then there's michigans who has some questions in the secondary but overall should be great there they used the portal well at linebacker and have developed well there and they should have the nation's best defensive line or if Ohio state has a better D line than Michigan Michigan will have have the best defensive line that Ohio State faces in the regular season that will have a great pass rush will have an elite run defense could have an Elite pass rush as well and that'll be a big challenge for Ohio State's offense to face as will those other defenses and pitting a freshman quarterback a true freshman quarterback to challenge those defenses and to read them and to dissect them and to beat them is very tough but seyan was a festar out of high school he is being coached by Chip Kelly he has one of the best receiver cores in the country a run game that if the offensive line is greatly improved and not just improved or slightly improved they'll have a ground attack that'll be vicious the Buckeyes will that can take some pressure off of him that can help him open up the passing game with play action and in his senior year in high school 25 touchdowns one pick 2347 passing yards and a few rushing yards and few rushing touchdowns to chip in that to me reads like Dylan riola in the sense that there's upside there there's accuracy there's football IQ there's a strong arm and complete lack of turnovers his Scouting Report compared him to JJ mcarthy except I imagine that you don't have the same Mobility but you probably insane get better accuracy out of high school and I'd imagine also more pocket awareness but you maybe lose out on some of the and this is just me speculating because it's very hard to make some of the crossbody throws and some of the Lucid Mobility or the looseness that McCarthy had last year that benefited him but McCarthy in his freshman year and sophomore year didn't necessarily have the accuracy required of an elite quarterback nor the pocket awareness he had those things last year Saiyan is better at those things out of high school in my opinion than McCarthy is but is he ready to step up and be Ohio State's starting quarterback I think he is the highest upside but that doesn't necessarily answer my question because he could have a much lower floor than will Howard potentially an even lower floor than Devin Brown and with an offensive line that has questions Ohio State won't just be able to run run run run run for 60 or 55% of the time and maximize their offensive success they can't do what Michigan has done in my opinion and they won't be able to do and and shouldn't let's say what PJ Fleck and Minnesota have done that's not a strategy for Ohio State's roster to maximize their potential to win they have receivers that Michigan and again particularly Minnesota have never had and potentially will never have at least it's a collection and unit depth from that perspective and and Howard has a better rushing threat so maybe you can answer this question in the comments below what you think but there's a big part of me that thinks he will be the starting quarterback and I think it would be wise of Ryan Day regardless if he thinks that Howard is the guy or not to where in those first games in the schedule I mean seriously Ohio state does no longer have a Notre Dame in the non-conference against Southern Miss Western Michigan maybe Marshall or maybe this whole thing wants to close up during the first bye in those two to three games and if Ohio State's really confident they can try it against Michigan State maybe even against I but that's cutting it close you have kind of an open quarterback competition you have what dbos swinny did with Trevor Lawrence and I forget forget who the other guy's name was I think Bryant he he transferred to Missouri after the 2018 season when he got beat and I shouldn't be forgetting his name but there's just so many names to remember in fact it annoys me that I can't remember his name so I'm just going to look it up oh Kelly Bryant yeah so I got his last name correct as much as I would nowadays almost never advise a coach to do what dabos swiy does this is an exception to that have that open competition in two three four maybe the first five games and with the defense that Ohio state has there's plenty of cushion have saan have brown and will Howard go out there and see who gels with the team the best see who the team thinks is the best and work from there now let's talk about will Howard let's get back around to The Is Will Howard A Great QB? Graduate transfer coming in from Kansas and someone who is favored right now to win the Ohio State starting quarterback job will Howard he's the most proven out of all of these players in Ohio State's quarterback room he's widely expected to be the starting quarterback for that reason 27 career starts he fits chip Kelly's system with his dual threat ability his power running ability not just picking up big chunks of yards but also being able to power through and break tackles and take risks and also the fact that as a passer he has a strong arm and at times has shown that he can be accurate in 2023 at 2006 643 yards passing 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and in 2022 he had 1,423 passing yards in the regular season 1,633 after what was a bad game against Alabama 15 passing touchdowns four interceptions on the ground he only had 22 rushing yards and three touchdowns last year on the ground he had 351 yards and nine touchdowns he had very good offensive lines at Kansas state with Cooper BB and a very veteran group both last year and in 2022 so that's something else to pay attention to is how does he do with Ohio State's offensive line because maybe it is as good as Kansas State's last year but Kansas state had a very good offensive line full of NFL players and given Ohio State's performance on the offensive line last season and some of the vulnerabilities they showed again in the spring game which you can only take a grain of salt from that but it was a little bit concerning how how does he fit how does he work in if the offensive line is different in a worse way than when he was at Kansas State he'll certainly have better wide receivers tight end Senate was a beast at kstate so I think there'll be regression there and he had du swau and then DJ giddens so he's familiar with working with great running backs so he does in many ways fit the scheme in Ohio State and is familiar with having talent surrounding him I mean Kanas State's offenses were good under Chris kman and Colin Klein they were very underrated offenses and I say that both as an encouragement to Ohio State fans because Howard fits the scheme and he knows how to succeed under Geniuses but also as a cautionary tale that if a Ohio State's offense is not totally in sync will Howard could also look exactly like he did last year and Ohio State's offense could be performing at a Kansas state level which would be good would be great but at Ohio State just being great or good isn't Ohio State's good Ohio State's good is being top 10 more likely with the talent they have and the reputation Ryan day has built top five if not number one in the country and he's had turnover problems he has and that's even with good tight ends good receivers an offensive coordinator that well was hired by Texas A&M and by Mike Elco to help the agies finally win the SEC even with that caliber of an OC will Howard still struggled through three picks last year against an Oklahoma State secondary that was trash struggled against against Southeast Missouri against Troy throwing a pick in each of those games going zero touchdowns passing one interception against UCF had a great game on the ground great game otherwise outside of passing the football and against Iowa State and against Kansas he wasn't exactly in those games the reason why Kansas State won his best performances last year were against Texas late in the game and Texas did have a a pretty terrible secondary he also did well against Missouri who had an admirable defense and in 2022 bad performance against an Alabama team that could have competed in the playoffs beat TCU once lost to him again in the um not again but lost to them once in the regular season did admirably against Oklahoma State very well in that game blew out Bor great against West Virginia all right against Kansas and in both TCU games he was a great player so you see a lot of up and down with him there's definitely the upside but there's also some of those consistent concerns really what describes will Howard as a gutsy quarterback with a cannon for an arm who's not afraid to take risks and probably should be more afraid to take some of the risks but shouldn't be terrified of taking risks like let's say I think maybe Kyle McCord or even Ryan Day himself in some instances he is tough and he's underrated in terms of speed when it comes to scrambling for a quarterback his size will Howard was 64 237 pounds and he talked about how he's trying to slim down have more lean body mass and just be a more NFL ready quarterback so there could be improvements and more development underway with Will Howard which is Ohio State's Quarterback Dilemma encouraging overall there's many good options for Ohio State to choose from I think the two best by a mile are obviously Howard and Saiyan Devin Brown has a lot of questions but he has the talent so if he can stay healthy and be developed properly he could break through too so with da being a full-time CEO I've heard that he's been much less involved in the quarterback room he's not as close to them he's not meeting with them as often this is now Chip Kelly's offense it is and Chip Kelly is going to manage this the way that he wants to and Chip Kelly last year wasn't afraid to switch quarterbacks whether it was Dante Moore and then he abandoned Dante Moore for Ethan garbers and put in Colin shy a little bit here as kind of A Wrinkle In the offense you could see that with Devin Brown just kind of if Will Howard gets tired or his legs are a little banged up you could see Devin Brown still be a wrinkle in a sense with moving the football scrambling maybe some quarterback sneaks or short quarterback runs I think Chip Kelly will run this offense his be more objective as Ryan day to me seems like a person that I'd want to be a friend with that I'd want to take advice from Ryan day I think is a very good person and that's good but while I don't necessarily think this is true there have been people who have said that he needs to look at things more objectively and be more Cutthroat so if those people are correct at that the Chip Kelly hiring I think will be even more of an improvement because you'll have a second set of eyes in the offense because you know that day will still be involved not to the same degree but offense is his thing and he'll want to make sure it's ran properly and him and Kelly go way back so they're going to be in constant communication I think that Howard and brown make the most sense in the system but San's potential is too big to ignore and if this were still day's offense and day was calling plays Saiyan would make the most sense by mile it wouldn't even be close because Saiyan has that Pro style quarterback build that CJ Stout had but with enough athleticism to where he could take off and make plays or like what we saw with Stout against Georgia you can use his underrated athleticism against defenses when they least expect it so I don't necessarily have an answer of who's the best for the job I think it's going to be either Howard or SA and I'm split there I think that really with Will Howard he you know what you have in him and you've seen him perform against defenses the Big 12 isn't exactly known for elite defensive play but you've seen him perform well and have good games and you know what you're getting and you also know if you're on Ohio State staff or a fan that his Supporting Cast and his team and roster is making a giant leap forward forward from Kansas State to Ohio State I think and maybe this is a moot point but whoever has the best combination of talent toughness ball security and pocket awareness should and will win the starting job I think that Saiyan has the the talent and out of high school you can't really tell what else he has but I would say that ball security and pocket awareness are more likely than toughness just because it does take time to get adjusted to the differences and superiority of the college game compared to the high school game Howard definitely has the toughness and I would say the pocket awareness with all the veterany that he has and brown I'd say Talent toughness and really the the ball security is the biggest question with Will Howard and also Devin Brown ironically the ones who fit Chip Kelly system for saying it's that he's very very young and that comes with its own um red flags thank you very much for watching this video remember to like subscribe click the notification Bell and comment your thoughts down below subscribe to my patreon page or purchase merchandise at my merchandise store via links in the description or down below in the pin comment thanks to crash 2488 and Brasa Rascal for being Heisman members and sponsoring this video and channel thanks to Chris Lane Conor o and ismar for being all American members and sponsoring this video and channel and thanks to John Lynn roaming gnome Matthew sale Austin CHR Christ Janisha cochrell for being all American or All Conference members pardon me and sponsoring this video and channel have a great day guys and I will see you all soon bye-bye