Ryan Day explains renewed optimism for Ohio State

Head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes are coming off a heartbreaking loss in the College Football Playoff and back-to-back seasons with a loss to Michigan. So, despite all of Ohio State’s success, the Buckeyes have been unable to get over the hump.

Still, Day has renewed optimism for Ohio State going into the 2023 season.

“I think when you leave the spring you get a feel for where things are, and when you start the spring, it’s hard and I think you hear me say or I’ll say that we’ll get through the spring and we’ll have a better feeling,” Ryan Day said. “So, coming out of the spring, I do. I think the first thing was the back end explosives.”

Ryan Day was speaking following the Ohio State spring game. In that game, he saw the defense prevent explosive plays, the key recipe for success in his mind.

“You saw, today we didn’t really give up a lot of explosives. Maybe just a couple in the second half and that’s important for us. We expect to score a lot of points on offense and if we can avoid explosive play, that’s a recipe for winning, which was the idea in 2019 and we need to continue to do that,” Day said.

“So, as we come out of the spring, we’ll evaluate it. we’ll go through each position, but there’s reason for optimism for sure.”

Ryan Day has a 45-6 record as the head coach at Ohio State. He has taken the Buckeyes as far as the national championship game, though Ohio State hasn’t won one under Day to this point. However, if he’s right to be optimistic, that could change sooner than later.

Ryan Day says Ohio State has grown in its play calling

With Brian Hartline taking over as offensive coordinator, head coach Ryan Day noted how Ohio State has grown in its play calling.

“Today, we didn’t really do much signaling. We just kind of huddled and they kind of relayed the call in and there was back and forth on the headset. And so there’s been some growth areas well through 15 practices. We’ve had different times where we were able to get into some movement situations where both sides were able to call it off the call sheet, not just scripted. So that was great. And that’s what happened today as well,” Day said after the spring game.

“So we’ll look at it and evaluate it and you know, keep working at it. And see how it goes in the fall, long way to the fall. But it’s good for us, it’s healthy for everybody to go through this and it’s everybody on the offensive side of the ball as well. You know, coming up with a game plan, coming up with plays and then installing them, then putting them on the field is more than just play calling. And I think that’s where you continue to grow and guys are in new positions. You learn and there’s only one way to do it. That’s to actually get out there and physically go through it.”