Devin Brown entered the Cotton Bowl with an opportunity to establish himself as a leading candidate to start quarterback for Ohio State in 2024. That chance only lasted four possessions.
After suffering a severe right ankle sprain against Penn State in October that sidelined him for the final five games of the regular season, Brown returned to make his first career start in Friday night's season finale. However, Brown's opportunity to showcase his skills was quickly dashed on the third drive of the game when he suffered a severe left ankle sprain while being sacked by Missouri safety JC Carlies.
Here's the play that hobbled Ohio State QB Devin Brown. Grabs his left ankle after being brought down by Missouri safety JC Carlies.
Note: Brown missed this season with a right ankle injury. pic.twitter.com/mktgybKlTw
— Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom) December 30, 2023
Brown stayed in the game for one more series before heading back to the locker room. He did not return to the game and ultimately left the stadium in a walking boot.
As a result, Ohio State didn't have a real opportunity to evaluate Brown in his first career start, which was due to Kyle McCord transferring to Syracuse after starting all 12 regular season games.
Brown didn't show much before the injury, completing four of six pass attempts for 20 yards, so a quarter of the game as a starter won't be enough for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes to come out of the 2023 season feeling great about whether Brown is good enough to be their starting quarterback in 2024.
“I don’t have a good answer to that right now because that’s not what we expected from the game,” Day said. “We didn’t have a game to watch, go through and evaluate. We know what we see in practice. But it's certainly different when you're playing in the game. I’m so disappointed we don’t have that.”
Given this uncertainty, Ohio State could add an experienced quarterback via the transfer portal. A source told Eleven Warriors that Ohio State is discussing a possible transfer with former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard, a 27-game starter for the Wildcats who earned second-team All-Big 12 honors this year was in contact with Ohio State.
Brown could have convinced Ohio State that it didn't need a transfer quarterback with a strong performance against Missouri, but the fact that he wasn't able to do so increases the likelihood of the Buckeyes moving forward with a transfer quarterback.
With Brown sidelined for the final three quarters of the game, true freshman Lincoln Kienholz was given his own opportunity to compete for the job, as he was the Buckeyes' quarterback for the final seven drives. But Kienholz looked like an inexperienced quarterback who has only been at Ohio State for six months as he completed just six of his 17 pass attempts for 86 yards in the Buckeyes' 14-3 loss.
Kienholz's difficulties should not cause anyone to discount his potential for the future. Brown had handled most of the quarterback reps on the first-team offense leading up to the game as Ohio State planned to use him throughout the contest, and neither quarterback received much help from the Buckeyes' offensive line, which struggled overall in pass defense Night.
“I feel like Lincoln has been put in a tough spot there, to say the least,” Day said. “And I thought he defended himself. But obviously we didn't help him beforehand. We didn't run the ball well enough. The freshman quarterback is playing for the first time and we're not running the ball well enough up front. Therefore, it's difficult to get a comprehensive review of the game if you can't get the balance right. I felt like we could have helped him in certain areas, but we didn’t.”
Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer, sitting between Day and Kienholz during the Buckeyes' postgame press conference, went out of his way to praise Kienholz for his performance in the game.
“I just want to thank Lincoln for stepping in and playing confidently in a difficult situation,” Sawyer said. “I thought you worked your ass off, man. It's not easy and you went there and did your best. So yell at you, man.”
However, Kienholz's performance hasn't helped dispel the notion that he still has a long way to go in his development. His accuracy was spotty throughout the game and he was unable to lead Ohio State on any scoring drives.
While he gets a chance to compete for Ohio State's quarterback job along with Brown, incoming freshman Air Noland and a possible transfer recruit over the next eight months, Ohio State can't rely on Kienholz being ready to give it to him Starting right for 2024 to be now.
So, just like it did a year ago, Ohio State enters the offseason with a big question mark at quarterback and must quickly decide whether it needs to bolster next year's quarterback roster with a transfer addition.
“It's hard for me to process everything right now, but we have to figure out what's best for the team going forward,” Day said. “And in many areas. So we need to take a closer look and find out. But everything is being checked.”
