Returning All-American Caleb Down drops a Spartan receiver last September in East Lansing. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Ohio State must fill lots of holes created by the departure of great players and great leaders. And Ryan Day feels a sense of urgency because the Buckeyes open against Texas.
Columbus, OH – Ohio State’s transition from national champion to a new team wanting the same result has begun in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Ryan Day said Monday he often wakes up and it’s a long time before he thinks about being a national championship coach.
“Life just moves on … it just does, and it’s on to the next challenge … it’s on to the next group of guys,” he said Monday, speaking more relaxed than he has for more than a year, a fact he freely admitted.
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During 15 practices in four weeks, Day and his staff will assess every detail of everything every player does. They will ask each other lots of questions every day.
And when spring practice ends with the Spring Showcase on April 12, they will have incomplete answers to questions like who will play where, who will play the most and who needs a ton of work.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
And while most of the talk will be about the young quarterback room, developing depth and versatility on the offensive line, a running back rotation and all the holes to fill on defense, Day will be watching the aspect of the team he knows the Buckeyes must get right or the season will fall short of annual expectations.
Leadership.
Before you roll your eyes and assume the defiant posture of deflecting coach speak away from your ears, consider the Buckeyes’ run to the national championship. Give Day a ton of credit for authoritatively overcoming the Michigan loss. He deserves it.
But the Buckeyes wouldn’t have left Atlanta with the national championship without a core of great leaders that Day relied on. Those guys – Simon, Sawyer, Tuimoloau, Egbuka, Howard, the list goes on – are gone.
The transition began after the championship celebration in the stadium. Because the team was together that afternoon, Day gathered them in the team meeting room. As they do after every game – but usually not after the final game – they announced the players who graded out as champions.
Then Day, in a ceremonial and symbolic way, began the transition of developing leaders for the 2025 season.
When the team gathers, the seniors sit in the front of the room. The freshmen sit in the back. Day had the seniors relinquish their seats and stand up front with him. Then the rest of the team moved toward the front into their new seats.
“I thought that was important,” Day said. “I shared with them that this is the standard. This is what it’s supposed to look like … these guys right here, what they went through.”
Safety/linebacker Sonny Styles moves to the front row of anticipated leaders for the Buckeyes’ national title ambitions in 2025.
Day continued his first impromptu leadership meeting with the guys in the front row.
“What they went through along their career, and how many of them stuck with the program and showed leadership,” he said about the guys standing with him. “And when do you show leadership and defining moments? When it’s the hardest.”
Who makes up the new group of appointed leaders will be fully determined over the next four weeks. Some are obvious: Sonny Styles, Caleb Downs and whoever wins the quarterback job – though that isn’t likely to be announced until August – from among Julian Sayin, Tavien St. Clair and Lincoln Kienholz. Others are known by the coaching staff and others will rise to that role. The coaches are watching.
When Day’s leadership group is established, they will get homework. He’s already picked out a book for them to read, but he won’t publicly reveal the title until the book is in their hands. And a key for those leaders will be to turn the page from a championship season.
“We’re trying not to talk about last year’s group, but it is good to have that example moving forward of what it’s supposed to look like,” Day said.
The task every season is to establish and learn a team’s personality and all the traits that comprise it. Cody Simon’s earnest approach to leadership helped define the 2024 team. No doubt, as a leader in the Block 0 jersey, his voice mattered to everyone.
The choice to wear the Block 0 will be important again. No hints from Day on who that might be.
Day, still, is the leader of the leaders.
And it is clear he is looking forward. The only championship he ponders is the next one. That’s why on March 7 and on Monday he mentioned Texas multiple times with more than a hint of urgency. The gauntlet of the playoff run picks up where it left off in the August 30 opener at home against the Longhorns.
As much as Day wants to go 100 miles an hour in the spring, he believes that’s not the best speed to pursue. That’s why April 12 is being labeled the Spring Showcase instead of a Spring Game. The long 2024 season, the hoped-for long 2025 season, the late start to spring practice and making sure players remain or get healthy are the reasons.
“Even though we’re calling it a showcase, we’re going to try to do as much as we can during that game,” he said. “Because our first game is against Texas, so we got to come out of the gates running.”
He said whoever wins the starting quarterback job must be the hardest worker, a great leader and a tough guy. Because “if it’s fourth-and-two against Texas, we got to find a way to get three yards.”
During the championship run, the Buckeyes got tough yards, made big plays and prevented both. Talent exists to do it again.
Now, Day is looking for leaders to make it happen.
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