Give Ryan Day credit — the man is more transparent than his peers. And that’s a compliment of the highest order.

After a battle that carried from spring up to the week before the season opener, Day announced Tuesday that Kyle McCord has earned Ohio State’s starting quarterback role over Devin Brown for Week 1 at Indiana.

That’s in stark contrast to Penn State coach James Franklin, who still wouldn’t allow himself to admit Drew Allar will start against West Virginia on Saturday night even though there are likely people in Mongolia who are already aware that Allar will start against West Virginia on Saturday night.

C’mon, James. Don’t treat us like we were born yesterday.

But, whatever. College coaches are a secretive bunch.

While it’s one thing to be sneaky about your quarterback, Indiana coach Tom Allen is taking things to an entirely different level. He won’t even name the Hoosiers’ starting kicker for Saturday’s debut against the Buckeyes.

Tommy got the Buckeyes good with that one. Now the grad assistants will be burning the midnight oil digging up film on both Nico Radicic and Chris Freeman! Otherwise, who will know what angle the ball will come off their feet? Or what foot they even use?

So yeah. With that being the backdrop, Day’s honesty is refreshing.

But it also wasn’t so blunt that he went and said what we’re all thinking.

It doesn’t matter who starts at Indiana. The outcome has been the same for every Ohio State quarterback who has started against the Hoosiers since Kent Graham.

What matters is who starts the next time the Buckeyes visit the Hoosier State — Week 4 in South Bend.

Ohio State’s QB competition is just heating up

Day made it clear that both McCord and Brown will play against Indiana if the situation permits. Unless Tom Allen is also hiding the second coming of Anthony Thompson, the situation will permit.

McCord has the edge in the competition, but it is by no means decided.

“I’m not sure how it’s gonna shake out,” Day told reporters in his Week 1 press conference. “What we are doing is fair based off of what we’ve seen this preseason.”

Day noted that the difference boiled down to McCord eliminating mistakes and making “the routine plays routinely” in the final 2 weeks of training camp — which is decidedly not the same as making the spectacular plays spectacularly.

There seems to be a window for Brown to squeeze through if he can prove it over the next 3 weeks.

This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison of last year’s Michigan quarterback competition in which Cade McNamara and JJ McCarthy alternated starts the first 2 weeks before Jim Harbaugh named his starter. That was a true toss-up. Here, Brown clearly has some ground to gain.

But it feels similar in principle. The best quarterback will have the opportunity to prove he is the best quarterback.

“You would like to have somebody who’s the quarterback to play the whole game,” Day said. “But for me to say, ‘Hey, this guy should just play the whole game and the other one shouldn’t,’ that’s not the right thing to do right now. Because they both deserve to play at this point.”

This extended competition has a shelf-life of 3 weeks. Frankly, it would be foolhardy to not give both McCord and Brown plenty of run against IU, Youngstown State and Western Kentucky.

But come Sept. 23, when Ohio State travels to Notre Dame, a decision must be made. A road game against a ranked opponent is no place for continued experimentation.

It feels likely, as it has all along, that McCord is most likely to be in that position. He’s spent 2 years as CJ Stroud’s backup. And his high school experience playing with Marvin Harrison Jr. is as unique a leg up as any quarterback has ever had in such a competition.

But there’s clearly some reason Day hasn’t closed the door on Brown just yet. It will be fascinating to observe just why that’s the case over Ohio State’s first 3 games.

We do know that the Buckeyes are replacing both starting offensive tackles. And if pass protection is at all a struggle against 3 teams who shouldn’t be able to get into the backfield, opting for Brown’s mobility might be more necessity than choice against Notre Dame.

Ohio State’s extended quarterback competition adds an element of intrigue to what should otherwise be 3 non-descript games. The Buckeyes’ starter at the beginning of September doesn’t matter nearly as much as who holds that title at the month’s end.