Ohio State's Saturday scrimmage could determine frontrunner in QB battle

College QB news - August 10, 2023

Photo courtesy of Michigan State Athletics

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Subscribers get a weekday afternoon college football newsletter covering the quarterback injury, depth chart, transfer portal, recruiting and NFL Draft news of the day. A special game day guide is sent on Saturday mornings.

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL QB REPORT

Quarterback Central | Teams | Players

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said a QB could separate himself during Saturday’s scrimmage, according to Eleven Warriors’ Dan Hope. Kyle McCord (Stats) and Devin Brown (Stats) continue to split reps with the first-team offense, and there doesn’t even appear to be a frontrunner through the opening week of fall camp. Day mentioned the scrimmage on Saturday will be important and he’s previously said he’d like to have a starter 1-2 weeks into training camp.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban said utilizing two quarterbacks is not something the staff has talked about, according to On3’s Nick Schultz. The three-man battle between Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner (Stats), Jalen Milroe (Stats) and Ty Simpson (Stats) continues on without a clear favorite to open the season as the starting quarterback. Saban also said he’d provide an update once one of the three separates himself from the rest of the pack.

Northwestern QBs Ben Bryant (Stats) and Brendan Sullivan (Stats) are competing for the starting spot, interim head coach David Braun told Wildcat Report’s Louie Vaccher. Bryant is still highly likely to win this job after transferring in from Cincinnati, but it’s impossible to know what may happen after a summer coaching change. Sullivan saw plenty of action last season along with Ryan Hilinski (Stats), who is active for fall camp but appears to be the third option on the depth chart at this point.

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DEPTH CHART & INJURY REPORT

Week 1 College football QB depth charts & injuries

The NCAA denied Miami (OH) QB Maddox Kopp’s (Stats) waiver denied to play this season after transferring from Colorado, according to his Twitter account. This is Kopp’s second transfer after starting his college football career at Houston, though plenty of players received immediate eligibility following a second transfer even after the one-time transfer rule was put into place. The NCAA continues to unnecessarily put itself in charge of determine which off-the-field situations matter more than others, and that doesn’t appear to be changing. Brett Gabbert (Stats) will be the starting quarterback for the RedHawks this fall with Aveon Smith (Stats) backing him up.