Ryan Day: Ohio State has loads of potential in young secondary

The Ohio State defensive coaches have been singing the praises of their young secondary all spring long. Players like Jordan Hancock and Kai Stokes have received a lot of love this offseason heading into the Buckeyes’ spring game. After the game on Saturday, head coach Ryan Day jumped on the praise bandwagon, highlighting the loads of potential in his young secondary.

” Yeah, you know, all those guys have had a really good spring. I’ve been very impressed with the corners, the safeties and they have shown up and get their hands on balls and being aggressive. I think you saw some of that today; you saw the potential there. We certainly have a long way to go as we get into May and June and July and then in August. But I think they’ve really grabbed on to what coach (Tim) Walton and coach (Kerry) Eliano have been doing with them. They’re playing with confidence; they’re aggressive, and you can see their talent level,” said Day.

Given the Buckeyes’ success over the past decade in secondary talent, it is no surprise that they are attempting to repeat the trend. Ohio State runs a unique style of defense that consists of a two corners and three safety alignment. And with that kind of defense, players definitely have to have a high level of talent and capability, both mentally and physically.

Day shares takeaways from defense following Ohio State spring game

The Ohio State Buckeyes‘ defense was the talk of the town last season as they struggled throughout various points of the year. So it is more than understanding that head coach Ryan Day is focused during spring practices to make sure the Buckeyes’ defense is a strength of the 2022 season.

After the Ohio State spring game on Saturday, Day shared his takeaways from defense following and explained what he was most happy with.

“Yeah, today was very very basic, as you could see on both sides of the ball. But what I liked was just the physicality and guys running around and tackling. And that was something that we wanted to get done in this game. But I thought you saw that certainly. The, you know, depth of the D-line is definitely gonna be a strength of ours. But it was good to see those guys run around and tackle. We’ll take a look at the film and see. It was more about fundamentals and tackling and playing with effort today,” said Day.

In the Ohio State spring game on Saturday, known as the Scarlet and Gray game, their defense experienced its share of highs and lows throughout the game. It would be difficult for those watching and in attendance to assess the level of improvement made by the difference from last year to the spring game. That is mainly because the Buckeyes intentionally kept the scrimmage as plain as possible. Not only is Ohio State looking to improve on their defense from last season, but offensively they are trying to replace the production of their wide receiver core that left for the draft in Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave.