COLUMBUS — The sellout practice crowd of 500 at Ohio State football’s first preseason practice waited about 90 minutes for a real glimpse of the quarterback competition.
About five minutes into the first 7 on 7 period, that crowd got a good look of Devin Brown running his first punitive lap of camp. He had just thrown the first interception of preseason, picked off by true freshman Malik Hartford.
Every drop-back, handoff and pass will be chatted between now and whenever OSU coach Ryan Day decides between Brown and Kyle McCord. Thursday’s opening practice included very few competitive scrimmage-like drills for resuming the comparison between the two.
In that same 7 on 7 period, Brown threw a sideline deep ball that slipped through Marvin Harrison Jr’s hands as the All-American attempted to make an over-the-shoulder catch. McCord had a cleaner period, though both left some balls on the turf behind the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Such is to be expected on the first day of camp, as both pursue the standards left behind by C.J. Stroud.
McCord and Brown traded first-team reps throughout practice. In an individual period for under-center snaps, the QBs alternated with centers Carson Hinzman and Jakob James.
At times they worked separately on side-by-side fields, with McCord quarterbacking Team Scarlet and Brown leading Team Gray.
The drill work, though, included those fundamentals which will likely determine the winner of this competition. One period involved McCord and Brown both executing off-platform throws, then transitioning to the “one inch” drill in which they zipped passes over the top of a screen.
All of which will, in theory, translate to the field on Sept. 2 at Indiana.
