If you’ve been following the saga of this year’s Ohio State football team, you know two things. First, the defense has been far from a championship unit, and secondly, many people are calling for one of the other quarterbacks to get playing time because of the perceived inconsistent play of freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Now, it looks like many Buckeye fans will get their wish. While appearing on his weekly radio show on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus, Day said that Stroud, who has been dealing with shoulder soreness, will be rested for the Akron game (subscription may be required) and only used in dire need.
“Going into this game, we’ve asked C.J. to probably take these last couple of days off, and rest that shoulder,” Day said Thursday. “Kyle and Jack have done a good job, and so the plan right now is to probably — we’ll see how today goes — but probably use C.J. in somewhat of an emergency capacity on Saturday and play some of those other guys.”
The status of Stroud’s shoulder has been a mysterious one. Day didn’t confirm an issue with it until this week, but Stroud has been seen testing his shoulder out on the sidelines and even after some throws down the field in games. We saw it against Minnesota, and each game since. There were even signs that there was a slight issue during a session the media was allowed to attend in preseason camp.
Ryan Day: C.J. Stroud likely to be used only in emergency vs. Akron on Saturday. https://t.co/GXrQhcZkg5
— Columbus Dispatch (@DispatchAlerts) September 23, 2021
It makes sense to rest Stroud against an Akron team that shouldn’t put up much of a fight against a much more talented Buckeye squad, in hopes that he can lick the soreness and get ready for Big Ten play.
Day did not confirm which of the “other guys” would be the starter, but the pecking order in camp seemed to be Kyle McCord and then Jack Miller, with Ewers coming into the fray too late to really be in the mix.
We’ll just have to see how it all plays out on Saturday. As any further developments become available, we’ll be on top of it.
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