COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ryan Day didn’t have the athleticism C.J. Stroud currently has when he was a quarterback.

Day's only game was his vision: seeing the field, digesting everything, visualizing everything that needs to happen through a given play. It’s all the Ohio State head coach had, he joked, recalling his lack of athleticism and his lack of speed behind or under center.

“That’s what gave me a chance,” Day said with a smile.

Stroud has everything else.

Even through the highs of his past few months, lighting up the Rose Bowl with a record-breaking performance, ending a season as a Heisman Trophy finalist in which he came into the year without a single collegiate pass to his name, Day is in awe of the progress and the journey his redshirt sophomore quarterback has been on.

Through it all, the head coach has seen a quarterback who’s consistent and constant, humble and supportive, strong and steady.

But in Stroud, he sees a quarterback who is only gaining strength.

The redshirt sophomore quarterback, along with his center Luke Wypler, is a film junkie. And with a year’s worth of film, Stroud has a reference point to go back to, seeing what needs to be done to build off the base of that record-breaking Rose Bowl performance and Heisman finalist season.

That mentality comes to the meeting rooms, too.

“When you are in meetings and you talk about things and you start to see things happening fast and quick at the same processing level that, as a coach, you see it, that’s when you have something very special,” Day said.

Day knows that this single intangible is what separates the good from the great at the college level, but especially at the next one.

“You look at the Brady’s and the Rodgers’ and the Brees’ and Russell Wilson who are like coaches,” Day said. “They see it like coaches because they watch so much film and they study it so much. There’s not much difference there.”

To Day, that’s what separates Stroud from his personal experience as a quarterback.

As the redshirt sophomore continues to learn and grow in the mental side of the game, what he sees, he already has the physical attributes and ability to make those plays happen.

“That’s when you know you have someone very good is when they process information at a high level and they also have athleticism to be able to perform and to make the throws and do what you need to do,” Day said.

Day knows what he has in Stroud. Stroud seems to know what he has in himself, leaving the field at Ohio State’s Pro Day having thrown to Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave and saying it was a good preparation for his Pro Day next year, signifying that 2022 would be the final year of his college career.

But even though it was in jest, saying it with a smile, it’s not a shock.

And it’s because he seemingly has that combination of skills Day’s ideal quarterback shows.

Stroud seems to be Day’s ideal quarterback. He knows it. He’s confident about it. But he’s still not “riding the roller coaster,” as the Ohio State head coach likes to say.

“I don’t see a change with him as a person,” Day said about Stroud taking that position of basically becoming the face of Ohio State football.

“He’s pretty much kept it, he’s been level-headed about it.”