Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud has been plagued by stories about a poor test score in his pre-draft evaluation, and his college coach is coming to his defense.
Stroud has faced extra scrutiny after he reportedly scored poorly on the S2 Cognition Test, which is a new tool meant to measure a player’s cognitive abilities. Ohio State coach Ryan Day decided to do some extra digging in light of that, and shared his findings on ESPN’s draft coverage Thursday.
Ryan Day on the ESPN ahead of the #NflDraft
Day talking about C.J. Stroud and the S2 test controversy. Coach did his own investigative work. #Buckeyes pic.twitter.com/kMcMEKetWI
— Kellyanne Stitts (@KellyanneStitts) April 27, 2023
“I wasn’t sure much about it because when I was in the NFL, this wasn’t tested,” Day said. “This morning, I actually met on Zoom with the institute, and I learned quite a few things about it. First off, it’s all based on your eye reaction, and reaction to pressing buttons. There’s no IQ test, there’s no question and answer, there’s nothing like that. Second, only 15 teams actually subscribe to this test. So less than half the teams actually have this information.
“I also learned that the information that had been leaked … some of those test scores weren’t accurate. And the last thing is, there’s 10 scores that actually get evaluated during the ST process. You don’t know what those scores mean. They’re all evaluating different things. So to just take a number that got leaked and make an evaluation of somebody is a little irresponsible.”
Day went all-out here to defend his quarterback. That isn’t really a huge surprise, but doing the extra research probably doesn’t hurt.
Stroud has been linked to some other unflattering stories, and there has been additional speculation that he could wind up falling further than anticipated on Thursday night. Day’s comments are probably too late to make any difference in some team’s internal thinking, but they might help Stroud’s public perception.
