Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate both 'day-to-day' ahead of The Game

COLUMBUS — Ohio State had no problem scoring in bunches against Rutgers despite missing Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith, the top two wide receivers on the team and in college football.

Buckeyes coach Ryan Day touched on their status following the dominant 42-9 win over Rutgers ahead of the Big Ten Championship play-in game against Michigan on the road next weekend.

“They are day-to-day,” Day said postgame Saturday, “and the staff and those guys are working really hard to get ready to play next week.”

Carnell Tate hasn’t played for the Buckeyes since their win over Penn State on Nov. 1, when he had five catches for 124 yards and a touchdown in the 38-14 win. He warmed up ahead of the game at Purdue and dressed to play in that game on Nov. 1, but he did not play. He was ruled out for the Buckeyes’ win over UCLA last week when the official availability report was released two hours prior to kickoff and again for the win over Rutgers

As for Jeremiah Smith, he followed up a career-best 10 catches for 137 yards and a touchdown in the win over Purdue with just four grabs for 40 yards in the win over UCLA after being declared questionable for the game in the pregame availability report. Smith certainly made headlines with his gingerly jog into the locker room at halftime, leading to reckless speculation about his status moving forward.

With both of them out against Rutgers, Ohio State turned to a starting wide receiver trio of third-year receiver Brandon Inniss, former walk-on senior receiver David Adolph and a host of tight ends splitting duty. Bryson Rodgers and Mylan Graham were expected to have a major role in the offense, but they played sparingly on Saturday.

Day mentioned that he was pleased with the effort from his team on Saturday against Rutgers despite knowing what’s coming next week with the rivalry game.

“I give the guys a lot of credit for focusing” Day said. “And I think not having both Carnell and Jeremiah allowed us to focus even a little bit more on the job at hand. Whether that really played into it or not, I don’t know, but our guys have been pretty consistent that way.

“This week has got to be the best. We’ve been working towards this all year. We know that the opponent is different. We know what’s at stake. We know we’re playing for hardware now, but at the end of the day it’s still about us. We can’t all of a sudden change things. We want to keep it as routine as we can knowing that, again, now we’re playing for hardware. Not only in gold pants, but also an opportunity to get to Indy.”

The path to Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game will go through Ann Arbor first. Win and get in. Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate would make a win seem much more likely. They’re that good for the Buckeyes.

And moving into the pivotal week of work ahead, the Buckeyes are hopeful to have both of their elite pass-catching weapons back for the massive trip to Michigan.