Ryan Day watches the first day of practice. This spring he is watching his team closely to try to discern its identity and personality. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Ryan Day is used to replacing starters. But in the transfer-friendly era, he and his staff have 51 new players to integrate on their path to figuring out who this team is.
Columbus, OH – Spring football goals aren’t as far along or as articulated as the media and fans would like. We want answers.
About the running backs.
About Chris Henry Jr.
About the fifth starting offensive lineman.
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About Legend Bey.
About which experienced dudes will wreak havoc in the middle of the line.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com. Follow on X @jw_gilbert
About Devin Sanchez.
About how much Julian Sayin will actually run for first downs when no one’s open.
About dinosaurs.
All in due time.
These questions won’t become extinct. They will be asked again and again this spring, at Big Ten media day in July and after multiple August practices. But mysteries – because that’s how coaches like it – will remain.
However, a day will come – probably in August – when Ryan Day will answer a question that, frankly, not many care about or will understand. His answer will be coach speak to most.
I get it. We all cringe or ignore coach speak. But, about this topic, you should care.
Day had no answer for it Tuesday.
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“We don’t have an identity yet … we don’t have a personality,” he said about an Ohio State team with an unprecedented 51 new players.
But the day will arrive when Day articulates what he believes his team’s identity and personality to be. Because he has to know to get the most out of them. And, for his sake, he needs to be right, or the season could end early again.
Identity and personality are just words, you say?
There’s no mistaking the competitive look in Jeremiah Smith’s eyes. This season more of the team needs that same look.
At the risk of sounding like a coach: Wrong.
Because when Ohio State doesn’t perform to the standard, it’s not all about the play calling. Although, for some of the enlightened among us, football is as simple as that. To perform at a championship level, the Buckeyes will need all the traits we remember as important when those traits are lacking.
Again, not play calls or alignments or the overall offensive philosophy. That identity won’t change enough to notice. But traits like toughness, nastiness, focus, football IQ, teamwork – I could go on – are the ones to instill and know how to coach.
“I know what we want – the coaches have made it clear on what the expectations are,” Day said. “We’ll keep an eye on that and make sure we’re pushing what we want to get done.”
The 2024 championship team’s identity had many sides. Most of all, they were determined. Their collective personality was built around the idea of brotherhood, to never let each other down, to be unselfish.
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Those traits allowed them to rebound from losses together and leave no doubt who the best team was. Day said “leave no doubt” in public a hundred times. He knew his team.
Last year Day often said he liked “the look in their eye.” But the losses to Indiana and Miami proved that the look was deceiving and that the offensive mindset required to win those games was lacking. Maybe they didn’t know who they were or maybe their personality was only partially formed.
Day didn’t figure out his team’s identity enough to get them over the top. That’s not to lay all the blame on him. The offense didn’t play well enough. There were plenty of factors.
Ryan Day says new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith knows the pass game as well as he knows the run game.
This year’s offense, with another new man in charge, needs to be mentally much more like the 2024 team than the 2025 team. The chip should be prominently back on the shoulder. This team needs to push itself harder than last year’s. And Arthur Smith’s presence, his drive to prove he can succeed in the college game, might produce a unit that knows who they are.
“He really does understand the pass game, the run game, at a very high level,” Day said. “It’s been good for our offensive staff to see a different way to approach things, but also not losing our identity.”
As much as we lazily think so, it won’t be Smith’s play calling that determines ultimate success. All the parts must mesh into a singular purpose.
That purpose will be largely up to an experience offensive line that was rightly criticized last year for its shaky performances in the regular season and its substandard performances in the postseason. They are the key. They know it. And that’s a positive.
Quarterback Julian Sayin played the position at a Heisman finalist level last year, but he must be determined to play the position well enough to be a runaway Heisman winner. And that includes running the football when the situation demands it.
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Day called Sayin running for first downs an X factor again this week. Still, we must wonder how encouraged Sayin will be to actually run for the sticks. Will Howard did not run the football as much as we thought he might in 2024. Just sayin.
The running backs must develop a 2024 identity that Quinshon Judkins described as running violently. The line will be better. The backs must make them look good.
The receivers around Jeremiah Smith must push themselves to be like him. If they do, they will make Sayin look even better. And as new receivers coach Cortez Hankton talked about, they must improve at gaining yards after the catch. There’s that determination gene again.
Devin Sanchez (6) and Jermaine Matthews show their frustration during the final seconds of the playoff loss in the Cotton Bowl. They will help lead a defense with a well-established identity of playing to a high standard.
The defense? Not much to wonder or worry about on that side of the ball.
Matt Patricia and his staff will get the most out of their units. Major talents left for the NFL, but major talents are always on the rise, too.
Day’s identity is clear. With Smith here to run the offense, he will be the CEO he was in 2024. He likes being that person. He likes being the leader who makes sure the program is adapting to the ever-changing landscape of college football.
He’s the one with the personality to navigate NIL, transfers, playoff changes and whatever else crops up. He figures if he doesn’t, he will go the way of the dinosaur.
Yes, literally the dinosaur. He recently watched a Netflix documentary and learned how some adapted to climate change and lived while others didn’t and died. Then at Pro Day, NFL people told him he is insane to coach in college, specifically this season because of challenge of integrating 51 new players into the program.
“They’re right, but either you adapt, or you die,” he said. “This is another phase of it, bringing in a whole half of your team. They’ve never played a down of football here, and we’re not allowed to lose a game. So we’re going to adapt, we’re not going to die.”
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Day knew he had to accelerate the adaptation for the new guys in his search of that identity and personality. So at last Saturday’s practice he challenged everyone in the building to mark the day with great energy and competitiveness.
“Passed with an A,” he said. “It was as competitive of a practice as I’ve been around. It was edgy. There were guys flying around making plays. It wasn’t perfect. There was a lot of mistakes made, but just the way our guys responded together, the way we competed was excellent.”
Still, Day said, three Saturdays before the spring game is too early to know who this team is. The work continues.
“We need to create an identity and a personality,” he said. “The only way to do that is by communicating and talking and guys understanding what we’re looking for.”
Maybe by April 18, but more likely sometime in August, Day will find what he’s looking for.
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