Ohio State football: Building experience for all QBs a challenge

The redshirt freshman is a little worse in passer efficiency (24th), and he has thrown an interception in all three starts. He also lost a fumble last week as the Buckeyes beat Tulsa, and he missed a few throws that could have made the win more comfortable.

That is all typical of a quarterback getting on-the-job training, but a sore shoulder is complicating matters for Stroud and potentially his coach.

“I was healthy enough to play,” Stroud said after the Tulsa game Saturday. “I’m definitely not 100 percent, but who is 100 percent around this time?

“It hurts, but life hurts. Winning is tough, so I just have to grind through it. There’s been plenty of guys here who have grinded through injuries, and that’s just playing football.”

Stroud sounds intent on playing through pains — both growing and throwing — and Day seems content to let him, but there are other factors to consider.

Aside from the potential for the injury to get better with rest or worse with use (either of which may or may not be possible based on what’s known publicly about the injury, which is not much), there is also the matter of the backup quarterbacks.

Like Stroud, Kyle McCord and Jack Miller III entered the season with no meaningful college playing experience.

Unlike him, they still have none after three weeks of the regular season. The situation is less than ideal now, but it could become a crisis if Stroud were sidelined and one of them were thrust into action midseason when the schedule difficulty cranks up again.

However, every game rep Stroud can get is crucial to his development, a process Day would like to expedite after choosing him as the starter in August.

“I think that there’s a lot of great football ahead for C.J. Stroud — I just do,” Day said. “When you look at kind of the situation that he’s been put into and some of the throws he’s made, you can see he can do it. Now we just gotta keep growing on it.

“Those other quarterbacks have to keep coming. If they keep practicing well, they will get an opportunity.”

---As for the fourth highly rated recruit in the Ohio State quarterback room, Day made it sound like Quinn Ewers will not be seriously part of the mix anytime soon.

The five-star recruit skipped his senior year at Southlake Carroll High School in Texas and enrolled at Ohio State in August so he could take advantage of endorsement opportunities not available to a high schooler in his home state.

While the decision benefited his bank account, it remains to be seen if it helps advance his playing career.

Ewers joined preseason camp late, missed some of it with an unidentified injury and is far behind Stroud, McCord and Miller in terms of learning the offense.

“I think he would tell you that it’s been hard for him jumping into this thing during the preseason and then being out for a little bit of a stretch,” Day said.

“We’re trying to get him as much information as we can, but there’s a lot of catching up to be done there — and he’s trying. He’s working at it, but once we get in the season it’s very, very difficult for guys to catch up and get them the reps because we need to get reps for the guys we’re going to play in the game.”

The plan was for Ewers to get some practice reps Tuesday, but not enough to prepare for actual game action.

“It’s really impossible once you’re into the season to give somebody reps, and these young quarterbacks need as many as they can just to get ready to play in the game,” Day said. “So we try and figure out ways to get him a few things after practice and get some work there and certainly individual.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Akron at Ohio State, 7:30 p.m., BTN, 1410