Through Two Starts Does Buckeyes' Luke Fahey Spark Any Confidence at QB Position?

When the dust settles on this Ohio State season, there are going to be a lot of very fair questions to be asked of Ryan Day about his decision at quarterback.

Certainly, when you lose your starting quarterback as the Buckeyes did, it is very rare that you can keep things on track. It is very hard to do, but some coaches can do it; others cannot. We are seeing right now that Ryan Day might be falling into the latter category, but the reasons are a little bit more nuanced than what's on the surface.

First, there is clearly something that happened between Day and Tavien St. Clair. St. Clair worked his way through Spring Ball and was very clearly the No. 2 quarterback in the room. I was on record saying that after his Spring Game performance, there might be reason to believe that he should challenge Julian Sayin for the starting job.

Then, the season rolled around, and there wasn't much conversation about the backup competition, with everyone assuming that it was going to be just TSC as the backup. Then, against Ball State, when the Buckeyes built a major lead and the backups checked in, it was Luke Fahey who took the field.

It was a shocking development, one that Buckeye fans certainly didn't see coming.

Then the stories started to come out about how Fahey was very impressive and showed up every day to compete. He overtook TSC, and Buckeye fans everywhere bought it. It was against Indiana that Day had to stand on whatever was going on behind closed doors as Julian Sayin's season ended with his arm injury, and he had to go with Fahey to finish the game.

It was a foregone conclusion that, going into the bye week before USC, it was going to be Fahey as the starter. That was until Day came out and said that he was going to hold a competition between the two.

Yes, it was very weird that the head coach tried to get a little bit of an edge instead of backing his true freshman quarterback. Whatever the case was, Fahey started against USC and Oregon, and with a small sample size, the returns are not good at all.

Now, to give Fahey the benefit of the doubt, he didn't exactly get a welcome handshake to his career. Two really tough opponents under really tough circumstances against really tough opponents. 

He less than answered the call. 

Statistically, he has been fine - completing 65 percent of his throws for 823 yards, 5 touchdowns, and just 3 interceptions.

Within the game, he has struggled. He has no awareness of where his best players are, no understanding of when to take risks, and, most importantly, when he has pushed it down the field, he has no deep-ball accuracy. 

He looks like a true freshman, which he is.

The circumstances have been tough, and he has competed and battled hard, but it hasn't been good enough. He certainly has done nothing to convince anyone that next year he should start in the lead, given Julian Sayin's there or not. 

A lot of work needs to be done, and he has three more games to settle in and prove himself to Ryan Day and the coaching staff. His story is far from written, but a lot of work needs to be done.