COLUMBUS, Ohio - It’s a distant memory at this point given his Heisman candidacy, but there was a time during fall camp when Ryan Day was telling media that there was a serious quarterback competition taking place between Justin Fields and Chris Chugunov. Fields wasn’t having as good a camp as coaches wanted, and Chugunov was the next man up if they thought Fields wouldn’t be good to go.

We know how things turned out with Fields being named starter just weeks before the season began, and although Day never formally announced it, it left Chugunov as the guy the Buckeyes could look to if something happened to Fields.

At this point in the season, Chugunov has only had to legitimate replace Fields on occasions where his helmet came off and he was forced to sit out for a play, but Chugunov has started to rack up some significant playing time with how often the Buckeyes are blowing opponents out, and this culminated in his most active game of the season against Maryland.

Chugunov came in to start the second half against the Terrapins with Ohio State already up 42-0, and he completed eight of his 11 passing attempts 103 yards and a touchdown, not to mention an impressive, would-be touchdown throw to Garrett Wilson that was taken off the board due to holding.

Saturday marked the most passing attempts for Chugunov since 2017, so he was happy to have an expanded role against Maryland.

“I’ve always been pretty confident in my throwing ability. I was definitely happy that I got to sling it around a bit on Saturday,” Chugunov said. “Sometimes, especially earlier in the season when I have to go in the game, we’re kind of just trying to kill clock, so I haven’t always gotten the opportunity to throw it around. I’m here because I love throwing the football, so I was happy about it for sure.”

Chugunov’s numbers for the season stand 214 passing yards on 20-of-27 passing with four passing touchdowns. While Ohio State’s starters are always out of the game by the time he’s in, he’s often still going against his opponent’s first-team defense, so you can’t take anything away from Chugunov this season in limited action.

Day has nothing but positive things to say about how Chugunov prepares himself and how he handles himself on the field.

“He's a guy that's been around a lot of football, smart. He's a guy you can count on, know what I mean? Understand what's going on. He throws a good ball. He's got good touch. He's very intelligent. He can handle a lot without getting a ton of reps. That's hard to do,” Day said. “I think the good thing, he's played a decent amount of football this year. I don't know how many attempts he's had. When he's gone in there, he's competed and done well.”

As the backup, Chugunov has to prepare to come into the game at a moment’s notice without the on-field preparation that Fields gets every week. Chugunov takes what he calls “mental reps” which aren’t first-team reps that Fields is taking every week, but reps he is simply walking through in his mind to best prepare himself.

It may be funny to imagine Chugunov simply just imaging taking reps, but this is an important step in his preparation for games. While they’re just mental reps, these are generally the only reps he is going to get with the first-team offense, and in a situation where he may need to come in against Penn State or Michigan, those reps will be anything but mental.

“In practice, I stand right behind [Justin] Fields when he’s taking his reps, and he does the same with mine, that’s just kind of the culture they have here at Ohio State,” Chugunov said. “I’ll see the play come in and I’ll go through it on my own in my head and I’ll go through the reads. I can tell you where he’s throwing the ball most of the time in the game, aside from the time where he uses his legs. That’s what he does.”

The last thing Ohio State would want to see this season is Fields going down at any point, but Chugunov has given some inspiring performances in limited action this season, so offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson feels good about Chugunov’s development as the second option for Ohio State.

“I think Chug’s playing experience and savviness...he’s very, very good with the ball, he’s well-liked as a transfer. He’s very well-liked around here by his teammates. He has a great relationship with the kids, I think the receivers feed off of him, they trust him, and he’s really developing into being a quality backup for us.”