First-year quarterback Devin Brown may not be in line to start for Ohio State this season, but he has already recognized the importance of competition during fall camp.
With this iron-sharpens-iron mindset, Brown has navigated his first offseason at Ohio State with a few goals in mind, with soaking up the offense and building up his skill-set as two key focuses. Although Brown has battled with second-year Kyle McCord for the No. 2 spot on the depth chart for much of the offseason, he expressed a togetherness in the quarterbacks room amidst fierce competition.
“You’re competing everyday, trying to be better than the guy next to you. But at the end of the day, we just all have to get each other better,” Brown said. “We talk about this all the time in the quarterback room, that it takes the whole unit to go win games. You never really know what’s going to happen, so you just have to be the best you, be the best teammate you can be to make this team better.”
Brown arrived to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in January as an early enrollee. With attention to his spring arrival, Brown said it was “a huge advantage” for him since it gave him more time to build up his body with strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti. He also got the chance to play in the spring game as a freshman, completing 46 percent of passes for 141 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Now, Brown is two weeks into his first fall camp as a Buckeye and pointed to gaining comfort in head coach Ryan Day’s offense as a primary focus for him.
“The biggest focus is just fully grasping the offense even more. We’re adding new stuff everyday so I just have to wrap my head around all of that,” Brown said. “There’s a lot that goes on offensively, that I didn’t have the role in high school, so it’s a big learning curve.”
Although Brown is working through his first offseason in Columbus, he is not without advice from past Buckeyes. While at Queen Creek High School in Arizona, Brown was coached by former Ohio State quarterback Joe Germaine. With this relationship, Brown said he learned valuable lessons about navigating his first year at Ohio State.
“He’s told me a bunch of stories of when he first got here, and there’s always highs and lows that’s kind of the main thing he told me,” Brown said. “It’s a roller coaster like everything. It’s never as bad as it seems, it’s never as good as it seems so I just have to keep going and keep grinding everyday.”
While Brown hopes to hold starting quarterback C.J. Stroud’s position someday, the current starter said he’s seen Brown come along nicely during his first offseason.
“Devin has done a great job. He’s a natural-born leader,” Stroud said. “He’s definitely done an amazing job leading those young guys and taking those young receivers and building chemistry.”