“Every year there’s urgency. You don’t think it’s important? Try losing a game at Ohio State. There’s a lot of guys on the team that want to be able to finish the season with some hardware. And that matters.” – Ryan Day. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The promise of early-season victories hasn’t had the staying power Ohio State football needs to be relevant at the end of recent seasons. Can that change this year? Only if the Buckeyes find a way to be the hardest playing and toughest team in the nation.
Columbus, OH – Has Ohio State football maximized its talent under Ryan Day?
Maybe on January 1, 2021, when the Buckeyes ended everyone’s preoccupation with Clemson.
But since that day?
No.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
And so, on Thursday on bright green fields outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the Buckeyes embarked on another adventure to be legendary. At the start of an era of NFL-like seasons for the best teams, every Buckeye hopes to score a pair of gold pants, a Big Ten championship and more than just a chance at the ultimate prize.
“Every year there’s urgency,” Day said after practice No. 1 when asked about this season of great expectations. “You don’t think it’s important? Try losing a game at Ohio State. There’s a lot of guys on the team that want to be able to finish the season with some hardware. And that matters.”
All across Ohio it matters.
The build toward a national championship will require a foundation that doesn’t crack in late November, early December, and, most importantly, January. Day said the message to the team this month is about everything they do well being another brick in that foundation.
And the footer beneath that foundation is the team identity Day covets.
“I want our team identity to be – and I told the team this – to be the hardest playing team in the country,” he said. “That should be our identity: The hardest playing team. When someone watches the Buckeyes this year, they should see that.”
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The best part of that transaction is that coaches – and to some extent leaders – get to decide whether a player is contributing to that identity. They get to demand more of a player who thinks he’s giving 100 percent. With 12 players back who could be in NFL camps and a head coach who senses the urgency to do something special, being the hardest playing team in the country isn’t a stretch. The pieces are locked in place.
To look like the hardest playing team in America, the Buckeyes must continue last year’s mantra of being the toughest team on the field, a trait that has proved elusive in some crucial moments. But what does tough – an abstract idea to some – look like on the football field.
“When you’re talking about toughness, first off being tough is being physically tough and lining somebody up and knocking them off the ball,” Day said. “The other part of being tough is being resilient. The play doesn’t go well be able to put that behind you and move on to the next one. Being tough is being able to sustain throughout a whole game, wearing someone down and beating them up in the fourth quarter. Those are all signs of toughness.”
What to expect? And how much from transfer quarterback Will Howard.
Day, his players and everyone else who has watched the Buckeyes in recent seasons, can agree on one thing. Wearing down good opponents late in the season has been a missing-in-action trait. The Buckeyes have been worn down, lacked toughness, lacked urgency and failed to finish strong in the big games.
Day said coming out of preseason camp the past couple seasons he saw a team prepared to maximize itself. The Notre Dame victories increased that belief. Until … well you know when and against whom.
“Did we do that throughout the entire season the last couple of years? No,” Day said. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re sustaining that throughout the season and then playing our best football and wearing teams down in the fourth quarter at the end of the year.”
The Buckeyes have failed to run the ball for first downs or stop offenses on third downs in the fourth quarter. And they simply haven’t been nastier than their opponents. Talent to do those things exists. But talent, no matter how many stars a player came in with, how quickly he lost his black stripe, how high he is projected in the NFL draft, doesn’t matter without toughness and playing harder than the opponent.
Skill development, of course, matters. Day’s example was that a defensive lineman must be great with his hands and able to get off blocks to make plays. But he knows, as every experienced coach does, talent and skill aren’t enough. Focus and discipline, which require mental toughness but not talent, are at the forefront of the messaging this month.
“We really spend some time as a staff making sure that we’re saying the right things,” Day said. “The same things that we’re teaching special teams is the same thing the coach is going to be coaching you in your meetings. And if we can do that, then we can maximize our talent.”
Offensive lineman Donovan Jackson pushes around some dead weight.
The most obvious positions that need improvement to maximize this team’s ability are offensive line and quarterback. Day clearly sees more from the line. He talked about how well left tackle Josh Simmons is playing and how he can athletically do things most others can’t.
Day and new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly have a choice to make at quarterback between Kansas State transfer Will Howard and last year’s backup Devin Brown. Howard seems to be the frontrunner, and Day said he would like to name a starter within 10 days.
Of all the quarterbacks, Day said: “I thought our guys looked more fit, I think they look stronger, I think they moved better from the spring. They just look like they’ve had three, four months of work on their bodies.”
When asked about Howard, Day said: “I thought there was more zip on the ball, and I thought there was more accuracy today. But it’s day one.”
And the same kinds of things will be said about the entire team after Game 1, Game 2 and Game 3. When Big Ten play begins on September 28 at Michigan State, then the tape will begin to reveal this team’s true identity.
“Praise and criticism are the same thing – you can give it attention if you want, but it’s really just someone else’s opinion,” Day said. “But when you press play, what are you putting on film? That’s who you are.
“You won’t know how strong that foundation is until the storms come and the big games come down the road. It’s going to be a long season this year, so we’re trying to maximize every single day.”
It’s a good plan if they can do it.
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