“We’re here for a common purpose. We know what the goals are ahead of us, and there was a lot of bonding that happens during the last couple of months.” – Ryan Day (Press Pros File Photos)
Ryan Day talked on the radio Wednesday morning, I listened, thought about the season ahead and typed a few thoughts. Between now and the start of preseason practice let’s hope we all find a time and place to relax. Because the 2024 season is coming, and pressure’s coming with it.
Columbus, Oh – Radio appearances for Ryan Day this time of year happen as rarely as solar eclipses, northern lights and going more than three days without rain.
Coach Day, however, sat in studio for the first time at The Fan in Columbus between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Wednesday and talked football and family with Bobby Carpenter and the other morning voices. You probably didn’t know about it. I only knew because of a text message alerting me to the fact.
The Morning Juice show wasn’t just filling time on a slow news day. Ohio State football is a 12-month obsession for many. I was reminded of that fact on Tuesday.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
While talking to my favorite car salesman at my favorite car dealer, the conversation got around to my association with Press Pros Magazine and my job of writing about the Ohio State football program. He called to a fellow salesman – the one in the OSU ballcap and OSU shirt whose cubicle has been blitzed by OSU paraphernalia – to tell him I get to go to all the OSU football games.
“I wish I could,” he replied.
Then he said what every diehard thinks … what every diehard wants to tell Ryan Day … what they would have said to him Wednesday morning had The Fan been taking calls.
“They better win them all this year.”
He (and by he I mean all OSU fanatics) means going to new Big Ten rival Oregon, sure to be a top 10 or even top five team, and winning. He means going to Penn State for what will probably be a hostile white-out night and winning. He means breaking the three-year Michigan curse.
Then he means surviving a postseason gauntlet that will begin with a Big Ten title opponent bound to better than the recent Northwesterns and Iowas the West Division has put on a platter. Could be Oregon, Penn State or Michigan again.
Ultimately he means games 14, 15 and 16 of the expanded playoff. Win those three, and the expectations of Buckeye Nation (I really hate calling it that) will be satisfied. Fail at any point, especially at the end, and the math won’t compute to a successful season.
That’s how it is. Day knows it. His staff knows it. His players know it.
So what is on Ryan Day’s mind these days? If you didn’t hear his Wednesday morning chat, here are some highlights.
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Transfer portal
Day emphasized the necessity of being transparent with players about where they stand in the program. That’s absolutely truer than ever before. The last thing a coach wants is for a player to leave because of a lack of communication.
“You’re constantly talking to these guys, giving them feedback on where they stand, things that they’re doing well, things they need to improve on, what they can expect going into next year,” Day said.
Not only does transparency keep a player in the know about what his coaches think, it allows players to focus on their individual development and team development. The Buckeyes came through the latest portal opening largely intact, including the five-man quarterback room.
“We’re here for a common purpose,” Day said. “We know what the goals are ahead of us, and there was a lot of bonding that happens during the last couple of months.”
The defense
The Buckeyes have assembled the best group NIL money can buy. That’s not a slap at the NIL culture. Not sure how healthy it is overall for the sport, but the players have a right to that money if people are willing to pay it. I hope the schools are counseling the athletes about how to manage their new-found wealth. I certainly would have needed it for much more than buying cars.
Back to the field. The fact that so many starters returned who would have been drafted in April created expectations that Jim Knowles’ side of the ball should be the nation’s best unit in 2024.
“The first thing is you got to get the right people in the right seats, and I think we’ve done that,” Day said. “We’re going to have to play with depth … it’s going to be a long season. It’s all about the mindset. The talent is there. As we head into the summer, now it’s the chemistry, now it’s the group coming together as a defense and building that identity.”
The end in mind
Day talked about the need to reverse engineer the season because the most important games come at the end. The world knows the Buckeyes are more than loaded enough to name the score in nine of their games.
But what about the other three and the playoffs? The question to be answered is will this team come together enough to win at Oregon, which is relatively early on the second Saturday in October? What about Penn State? The Nittanys come so close so often. And the challenge of Michigan – even if this is a giant letdown season in Ann Arbor – is a given.
And then the Big Ten title game and the playoffs. The question that will be pondered during the beatdown tilts against weak nonconference lambs and the non-contenders in the Big Ten is this? Yes, but will they be good enough when it matters most at the end of the season?
The topic of defense surfaced again.
“What needs to be done to win at the end of the season – certainly defense and running the football are two very, very important things,” Day said. “The thing about Ohio State is opportunity – there’s nothing you can’t do here. Now we’re going into year three (with Knowles) and we have an opportunity, with a lot of hard work, to have the best defense in the country. And we know that if we want to reach our goals, we have to play really well on defense.”
Down time
Coaching is year-round in every sport at almost every level. We want Knowles in his lab 365 devising defensive schemes to be dominant in December and January. And we want Day and Chip Kelly next door doing the same with the offense.
But everyone needs vacation time.
“Peace,” Day said. “I love the mountains, my wife loves the mountains. Something about that lets you get away a little bit from the craziness that is college football. Or the islands of the Caribbean. Try to get away as far as you can to a quiet place to kind of gather your thoughts.”
That might be the most important time Day spends this year. Those breaks from work always bring you back with a refreshed mind, a more creative view and a renewed desire to do the job better.
For me, it’s a beach vacation or a couple days of yard work. Anything to get away from the keyboard and the screen to come back to them with, hopefully, a sharper mind.
We all need respites that sometimes seem as rare as solar eclipses and northern lights. So rest up Ryan Day. Assistant coaches take a little break when you return home from recruiting. Players make the most of your time at home with your families and friends.
Because the pressure cooker is gaining steam and waiting for you to jump in and prove yourselves able to withstand the heat.
Which reminds me.
Before we left the car dealer, we decided to extend the lease for six months when it expires in July. That means our final decision on whether to keep the car and pay it off or lease a new one comes due on January 16. That’s four days before the national championship game in Atlanta. A day that might quite possibly be a defining moment for Ryan Day, his football program and the diehards paying thousands to be there or gathered around the big screens they bought for moments like this.
Me? I’m happy the only big to-do in my life that week – other than maybe traveling to Atlanta to watch the Buckeyes play football for three or four hours – will be what to do about a car.
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