Columbus, OH – Pardon me while I extrapolate.
To begin this exploration into what we’ve actually seen through two football games, the big question is how does anyone know whether Ohio State made progress against Grambling State?
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The Easy-Bake Oven hot take is this: You can’t learn anything about the No. 1 team in the nation when it burns an FCS team to a crisp, 70-0. The first half was a tasty and filling varsity-JV scrimmage for the varsity guys in scarlet and gray. The second half was a half-baked JV game. Lots of you think that. The rest of you are buying way too much stock in the ability of some true freshmen to be game changers.
No satisfying answers in that take.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
After listening to Ryan Day answer questions – some interesting, others not – for 30 minutes during his Tuesday press conference, I embarked on the 60-minute drive home on I-70. It’s a good time to try to make sense of the weekly randomness.
If not, all that is left is to count trucks trying to stay in their lane while slaloming through construction zones. Or count orange barrels. Neither will ever go away in the space between I-670 and Exit 54 where I turn south, so I’ve got plenty more chances for that mindless exercise.
Getting back on course: What did Coach Day learn? He was asked that in so many words. He gave a vague answer open to interpretation.
“It wasn’t a matchup game, and so you try to do the best you can, to recognize things that we got better at, but then the other things that maybe were masked because of the situation,” he said. “There was definitely some good.”
Julian Sayin has proven to be everything you wished he would be…and has done it sooner than even Justin Fields or CJ Stroud.
The high-scoring start and 70-point margin reveals this much to us the watchers: The Buckeyes came ready to play. They were disciplined enough not to treat the game as a nuisance. In early September when every team is trying to figure itself out, that attitude can be enough.
So, my surmised takeaway from two games and what Day said Tuesday, is this. He has his team’s attention, and I think he knows it. They understand being great requires more than recruiting rankings, NIL endorsements and pats on the back. They want more. Greatness requires playing to a standard of effort and excellence, not to an opponent or what the scoreboard says. There is no Natty hangover. But there is Natty hunger for seconds.
Doesn’t mean the Buckeyes will repeat as national champions, but it does mean you can expect them to practice hard, be prepared for every opponent and contend for a trip to the title game in Miami.
That’s my full extrapolation from “there was definitely some good.”
Your opinion may differ.
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We know all about the hunger of last year’s veterans who returned for a shot at being Buckeye legends. They proved their resolve from the start in the non-matchup games, cooking Akron 52-6, Western Michigan 56-0 and Marshall 49-14. They proved it again by paying Oregon back in the Rose Bowl. The largest proof came in winning four straight games after the inexplicable loss to a Michigan team coached by Sherrone Moore.
This season, however, is different. There are seniors, returning starters and stars like last year. But that group had a palpable bond and purpose. You’d like to think this year’s team with new leaders, an inexperienced quarterback and 14 new starters would have the same purpose.
But that’s a lot to assume despite the good early signs.
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Week 3 is probably too early to say this team’s identity is definitively anything. Day will never declare satisfaction if there are more games to play. But he’s learning the psyche of his team so far is to focus on playing great no matter the opponent. That much is clear to me, at least while cruising along I-70.
“You can’t circle opponents on your schedule,” Day said. “You have to continually grow with the process and understand that it’s about us, it’s about our training, it’s not about the results, it’s not about our opponent, it’s not about the scoreboard.”
Coaches learn more about their team’s abilities in evenly matched games like Texas, but they learn more about how much they care in games against Grambling State and Ohio, this week’s opponent. Anyone can get up to play Texas.
Some recent history suggests building this attitude and consistent play in his team hasn’t always been easy for Day. But the way he talks the past couple years it is obvious his CEO role is affecting attitude change against the crumbs on the schedule.
In 2023, the Buckeyes beat Youngstown State in a bumpy 35-7 ride. Day talked a lot about what he didn’t like after that one. In 2021, a 41-20 win over Tulsa didn’t give anyone goose bumps. And the 42-35 win over Indiana in 2020 was nerve-wracking. Ohio opened with a close loss to Rutgers and last week beat West Virginia. The Bobcats won’t be the complete pushover Grambling was, but a focused Ohio State team should have no problem.
Day talks more about the importance of practice the past couple seasons. He’s never not thought it was important, but his message now resembles the adage of “you play how you practice.” And every good week of practice and well-played game makes a team better than it would have been otherwise. Waste not, want not.
The big plays downfield so far have come from Carnell Tate….and not the heavily-defended Jeremiah Smith.
“Whatever you do in your training is going to ultimately reflect how you respond in really pressure environments,” he said.
The closer Day got to choosing Julian Sayin as the starting quarterback the more he praised him for practice habits. So far Sayin’s game performance must be matching his practice reps.
“He had a good rhythm again, he started fast, which was another good sign, he was accurate, the ball came out on time, we pushed the ball down the field a little bit,” Day said. “There were guys open. He did his job.”
This week in practice there is a focus on the punt return team. The job remains with Brandon Inniss, but Day wants to see fewer punts hit the ground and roll, robbing the offense of better field position.
“That’s an area coming out of the game that we’ve got to improve on,” Day said. “I think we lost 47 hidden yards with the ball bouncing around on the ground. A couple of them were very difficult because they weren’t very well hit. But other ones, I feel like we could have fielded.”
Time ran out before Day could answer questions about every position group. And he didn’t offer any unsolicited major concerns.
So for now, “there was definitely some good” must apply to almost everyone. There’s nothing else to extrapolate.
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