COLUMBUS – There are always plenty of unkowns – known and unknown – heading into a new football season and Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has his share as the Buckeyes began their 2021 fall training camp Wednesday.
2021 Ohio State Football Schedule
Along with questions about who will start at quarterback and the quality of the offensive line and linebacker corps, there is still the threat of a rejuvenated COVID-19 pandemic.
“You just don’t know what’s coming next. That’s part of, I guess, the last couple years. So we kind of get this thrown at us and we’ll adjust,” Day told reporters Wednesday, speaking from behind a face mask after OSU mandated facial coverings inside buildings on campus.
The coronavirus played havoc with the 2020 season, which was cancelled, then revived and shortened, by the Big Ten, though Ohio State’s scheduled games against Maryland, Illinois and arch-rival Michigan were called off due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
Day enters his third season guiding the Buckeyes and has a career record of 23-2 with 17 consecutive regular season wins.
The 2021 training camp roster includes 110 players, 12 of them starters – six on offense and five on defense — and 41 returning letterwinners.
It does not include an experience quarterback.
Day acknowledges that he’d sleep a little better if he knew who was going to be the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback.
He has three highly touted but inexperienced signal-callers to choose from before opening the season September 2 at Minnesota.
The candidates are second-year players C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller III, and five-star 2021 recruit Kyle McCord.
None has thrown a pass in a college football game.
Ohio State hasn’t started a QB with zero college passing attempts since John Borton in 1952.