Ryan Day

Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day announced Thursday that C.J. Stroud will be the team's emergency quarterback against Akron on Saturday because of a shoulder injury.

With Stroud unlikely to see the field, Day noted that he plans to utilize both Kyle McCord and Jack Miller under center.

Dan Hope of Eleven Warriors reported that the shoulder injury has bothered Stroud throughout the season, which contributed to Day deciding to rest him ahead of the Buckeyes' Big Ten clash with Rutgers on Oct. 2.

Stroud, a freshman, has put up strong numbers so far this season, completing 62.4 percent of his passes for 963 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions.

He did struggle a bit in last week's 41-20 win over Tulsa, though, going just 15-of-25 for 185 yards with one touchdown and one pick.

The Buckeyes are 2-1 this season, losing 35-28 to Oregon, but Stroud was not to blame for that defeat, as he threw for 484 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Stroud had massive shoes to fill this season for the No. 10-ranked Buckeyes, as he replaced Justin Fields, who was a first-round pick of the Chicago Bears.

While Stroud definitively declared himself as the starter entering the season with a strong performer during the spring, both McCord and Miller are talented signal-callers in their own right.

Neither of them have taken a snap yet this season, but McCord was the No. 28 overall player and No. 6 quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class, per 247Sports, while 247Sports ranked Miller as the No. 334 overall player and No. 13 pro-style quarterback in the 2020 class.

McCord has not seen any action as a freshman, while Miller went 1-of-2 for 23 yards and one touchdown as a freshman last season. 

Regardless of how Day splits up the snaps Saturday, OSU should have little issue coming out on top at home against an Akron team that is 1-2 this season and went a combined 1-17 over the previous two seasons.

Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs' seat just went from hot to on fire.

Buckeyes coach Ryan Day laid bare to reporters Tuesday his disappointment with the team's defensive effort, shining a bright spotlight on the lack of production from Coombs' unit. 

"When you look at the results over the last couple games and then coming off last year, it's not what we expect here," Day told reporters.

Day said he's had conversations with the defensive staff since Saturday's 35-28 loss to Oregon and would not commit to Coombs remaining the defensive play-caller moving forward. 

"Honest. I wouldn't say they're uncomfortable. They're real. ... I have no problem having those kinds of conversations. It's pretty simple, to see what needs to get fixed," Day said of the discussions.

The Buckeyes have given up 472 yards and five touchdowns on the ground through their first two games. Oregon's CJ Verdell scampered for 161 yards and two touchdowns for the Ducks on Saturday, with Ohio State never leading the game despite entering as 14.5-point favorites.

Coombs is in his second season at Ohio State. He was the co-defensive coordinator with Greg Mattison in 2020 and took over full-time duties after Mattison's retirement. The veteran coach is in his second stint at Ohio State, having previously served as cornerbacks coach and assistant defensive coordinator under Urban Meyer from 2012 to 2017. 

A former longtime Ohio high school football coach, this is Coombs' first run at being a solo defensive coordinator. 

Following Ohio State's 35-28 loss to Oregon on Saturday, head coach Ryan Day didn't hold back about how he thought his team played.

Speaking to reporters, Day called the Buckeyes' performance "unacceptable" and said they've "got to get it fixed."

The main culprit through two games for Ohio State has been the defense. That unit has allowed a combined 913 yards of total offense to Minnesota and Oregon.

The Ducks put up 269 rushing yards on 38 carries.

While the defensive lapses were a talking point for Day, he also expressed a desire for more balance on offense.

Ohio State did rely heavily on the pass against Oregon's defense. Freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud threw 54 passes, completing 35 of them for 484 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

By comparison, the Buckeyes ran the ball a total of 31 times for 128 yards. They were also penalized eight times for 71 yards, including a crucial holding call against Thayer Munford that negated a 12-yard run for Stroud on 3rd-and-10 late in the fourth quarter when they were trying to tie the score.

Ohio State had to punt the ball away, allowing Oregon to take another 60 seconds off the clock.

Despite entering this weekend ranked No. 3 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and Amway Coaches Poll, the early part of the 2021 season was going to be about Day and the coaching staff rebuilding the roster.

Ohio State lost 10 players from last year's team to the NFL draft. Nine of those 10 players, including all five on defense, were all named to the All-Big Ten team last year.

If they can't get things figured out soon, the Buckeyes are facing the very real possibility of not winning the Big Ten title for the first time since 2016.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day told quarterback C.J. Stroud to "keep swinging" despite the Buckeyes offense's struggles en route to a 14-10 halftime deficit against Minnesota on Thursday night.

"He and I had a conversation early on that we're going to keep swinging, no matter what happens, and we're not going to play close to the vest," Day told reporters. "That's not the way we do it here. And he responded, but I really think it was the guys around him."

Stroud found a rhythm with four touchdown passes in the second half to lead OSU to a 45-31 comeback victory over the Golden Gophers in the season opener. 

The redshirt freshman won a quarterback competition against Jack Miller and Kyle McCord for the opportunity to replace Justin Fields, who left some big shoes to fill after tallying 78 touchdowns (63 passing and 15 rushing) in 22 games across two years as the Buckeyes' starter before joining the Chicago Bears as a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft.

Ohio State got off to a promising start Thursday, as its first drive ended with a 71-yard touchdown run by Miyan Williams. The second drive stalled out in the red zone, leading to a field goal, and its final two drives of the half were an interception and a three-and-out.

The offense was far more efficient in the second half with four touchdowns and a final drive that ran out the final four minutes on the clock to end Minnesota's comeback hopes.

Stroud completed 13 of his 22 throws for 294 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. He added 13 rushing yards on three carries.

"In the first half, my mind wasn't right, I was kind of all over the place," Stroud said. "I talked to my teammates, praying a lot, trying to lock back in. I don't feel like I did terrible, but I definitely do as best as I could."

He added: "Coach Day, he told me no matter how I'm playing, good or bad, he has trust in me. He believes in me."

That trust paid off as Ohio State, the fourth-ranked team in the country entering the campaign, pushed aside the Golden Gophers' upset bid.

Going through a quarterback change always comes with some growing pains, but OSU's switch is further complicated by its difficult schedule right out of the gate with a Big Ten road game against Minnesota followed by next week's clash with No. 11 Oregon at The Horseshoe.

The Buckeyes are likely going to need a more complete, four-quarter effort offensively to take down the Ducks. The good news is the unit should be riding a wave of momentum after its strong performance in the second half Thursday.

On an individual level, if Stroud ends up in the Heisman Trophy conversation at season's end, his four-touchdown half against Minnesota will likely be what jump-started his resume.