Ohio State football spokesmen Ryan Day and Will Howard acknowledge all that is swirling around them. But they say the team’s focus remains on what’s next on the field.
Columbus, OH – Noon kickoffs, Wrigley Field, playoff rankings, Heisman talk, championship expectations, and that’s just the stuff we know about.
If Saturday’s drub-a-dub-dub of Purdue proved anything, it’s that Ohio State football players aren’t easily distracted. If they were, it would have been a letdown performance coming off the big win at Penn State.
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The sense is this: Nothing will distract the Buckeyes from their focus to win out and get to Indianapolis for another shot at Oregon. After then, and only then, will they focus on the playoffs.
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“Our leaders are the ones that have to lead the way on this,” Ryan Day said. “We know that we have to be playing our best football right now. You have to sustain a certain level over a period of time. It was important for us to play well [against Purdue]. That’s what championship football is all about, and every week for us is like the playoffs right now.”
Once again this week – for the fifth time this season and the fourth straight game – the Buckeyes kick off against Northwestern at noon Ohio time. It will be 11 a.m. in Chicago near the shores of Lake Michigan. I might still be on my second cup of coffee.
Do the Buckeyes care about these noon starts? Maybe. The best way, however, to deal with what you don’t like or what could become a distraction is to laugh it off. Especially this noon thing because the Indiana and Michigan games to follow are also at noon.
“Well, listen, I got to deal with a lot of fan backlash for other things other than the time of the game,” Day said to a ripple of laughs through the room during his Tuesday press conference. “I’m going to leave that for other people to deal with. I got other things I got to deal with.”
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He was being funny and serious at the same time. But Chip Kelly, Day’s lifelong mentor and offensive coordinator, never misses a chance to crack a joke.
Not long after he walked in the room to follow Day at the podium, Kelly was asked if he saw it coming that quarterback Will Howard would already have five games this season in which he completed at least 80% of his passes.
“Actually, Will said, if he gets to play at noon, he’ll complete 80% of his passes,” Kelly said to laughter that drowned him out. “The controversy is over.”
Howard, playing it straight, said he doesn’t like sitting around the hotel room all day, thinking about the game and waiting to play.
“There’s something I kind of like about just getting up and going,” he said.
Being at Wrigley Field, it would just feel weird not to play a day game. And Fox obliged.
And because the Buckeyes are playing in a baseball stadium, Day is breaking routine. The team will visit the friendly confines – feeling more confined than ever with end zones butted against brick walls – on Friday to familiarize themselves with the oddities, the sod on the infield, the halftime space in the bullpen and the awe of playing in such a historic place. No distractions on Saturday.
Howard went to a Cubs game when he was in high school while at a Northwestern football camp.
“That’s a cool stadium,” he said. “It will be interesting to play football in there.”
The latest playoff rankings were due to come out Tuesday evening – the Buckeyes remained No. 2 behind Oregon – and no one asked about that possible distraction. We all knew what the answer would be: The only ranking that matters is the final one.
“I’m not worried about it,” Howard said, referring to Heisman attention. “As long as we’re winning football games and the Buckeyes are scoring points, I’m happy.”
Howard was asked about the Heisman. His numbers – 74% completions, 2,237 yards, 22 touchdowns, five interceptions – compare favorably with Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, two stars in the Heisman hunt. Howard has a higher QB rating than those two and the third best in the nation. Yet, there is no Howard for Heisman campaign.
“I’m not worried about it,” Howard said. “As long as we’re winning football games and the Buckeyes are scoring points, I’m happy. If you focus too much on individual accolades, then a lot things get cloudy.”
What hasn’t been cloudy is the evolution into a ball-control offense. They don’t quite resemble Woody Hayes teams, but the Buckeyes haven’t been as quick-strike as in recent seasons. The game has slowed down with fewer plays being called, so each play and possession has more riding on it. The drives take more time and usually more plays.
The pace-of-play change for a lot teams this year was created because plays are being called into an earpiece in the quarterback’s helmet instead of being signaled from the sidelines. That means more huddle time for Howard to relay the play call and other instructions coming from Kelly.
The quarterback sees the changes in the running game like this. TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins are talented, but the offensive line’s maturation through injuries and shuffling of positions has been the key. The greatest example was the performance at Penn State, especially on the final game-ending drive.
“A lot of people around Buckeye Nation were concerned, and I really wasn’t,” Howard said. “You could see that look in their eye. They knew that they were going to go take care of business.”
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The Buckeyes are also controlling the ball because of Howard’s accuracy. He completed 61.3% of his passes last year at Kansas State compared to 74% at Ohio State.
“When I’m inaccurate with the ball, you can see my feet go dead a little bit,” Howard said. “So we’re just emphasizing this week of keeping my feet alive in the pocket.”
Howard has also learned from Kelly that all completions matter. They deflate defenses and make them work harder because they are coached to run down ballcarriers on every play. So not forcing long throws and taking short completions works. As Howard said, six yards on first down is always a good play.
“There’s completions all over the field, and that’s something I really emphasized in training camp,” Howard said. “The way Coach Kelly has drilled that into my mind has changed my mindset on it, and it’s helped me be a lot more efficient.”
This season’s practices, since the start of camp, have ended with the Buckeyes adding a brick to a small structure that reminds them of the foundation they are always building toward their championship goals.
“We’ve emphasized every single day matters,” Howard said. “We can visually see that every single day we’re putting in, is building up this little brick tower. It keeps us grounded.”
Brick by brick the Buckeyes – to this point – have remained focus. The expectation is that they will continue to build what it takes to win it all. But, of course, there’s no guarantee.
“Give them credit for being consistent up to this point,” Day said. “But like I’ve said before, nothing we’ve done at this point matters anymore. It’s what we do moving forward.”
No matter the time of day.
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