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Ryan Day remembers recruiting Gonzaga star Jalen Suggs as potential Buckeye QB
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Saturday night, Jalen Suggs provided the world with one of the greatest finishes to a college basketball game in history. The freshman from Minnesota hit a shot near half court with time expiring to lift Gonzaga to a 93-90 win over UCLA in the Final Four to advance to the championship game.
We might’ve been robbed of that moment if Ohio State head coach Ryan Day tried to persuade Suggs to be the next great Buckeyes quarterback.
Monday, Day met with reporters to talk about spring practice. But when the mention of Suggs came up, the head coach reflected on his recruitment of the basketball star as a potential quarterback for Ohio State.
Suggs is a great basketball player, but Day thought he would’ve been a pretty good college quarterback, too.
“Spent a lot of time recruiting Jalen,” Day said, per Eleven Warriors. “He came to our camp. And had a conversation with he and his family and friends, and just said, ‘I’ll do the best I can to get a great evaluation of how we project him out in football and as a quarterback.’ We thought he was really athletic, and told his family that I thought he could be a really good quarterback, but if he’s as good as they say he is in basketball, that probably would be his best avenue to take.”
Suggs was ranked as the No. 15 dual-threat quarterback in the 2020 recruiting class and cracked the Top 400 overall prospects for the cycle, narrowly missing out on a 4-star ranking from 247Sports. As a basketball prospect, he was the nation’s No. 11 overall player.
Suggs probably would’ve made a great quarterback at the college level, but he seems to be doing well on the hardwood.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB