The message: The Buckeyes don’t have a game Saturday, but they have plenty of work to do.
“Everybody else in the country is playing this week — for the most part — so we have to as well,” Day said of the second-ranked Buckeyes, who are 2-0 after beating Akron 52-6 and shutting out Western Michigan 56-0.
“I mean, we’ve got to get each other better, so each player is going to be given things that they need to improve on from their position coach. We’re going to work hard to go out there and practice and work on our fundamentals, but also look at things that we may need to project out that we may need on both sides of the ball and all three phases.”
After two games against teams from the Mid-American Conference, the Buckeyes tied for fourth in the nation in scoring (54 points per game) and points allowed (three) while checking in 10th in total offense (543.5 yards per game) and second in total defense (138).
Of course, that does not mean a whole lot given the sample size, strength of opposition or depth of Ohio State’s season goals.
Day wants his team to continue developing depth and for the new starters to continue to learn to work together after making a noticeable improvement from Week 1 to Week 2.
In particular, that includes quarterback Will Howard, center Seth McLaughlin, running back Quinshon Judkins and safety Caleb Downs, who are all transfers who started at their previous school.
“When you look at it, you don’t usually have two bye weeks,” Day said. “I think maybe there’s been a year where we did have two bye weeks, but especially not this early in the season.”
While one open week in the regular season is common now, Ohio State had several seasons without even that earlier this century.
That was a result of the NCAA making the 12th regular season game permanent in 2006 while the Big Ten still had a policy of not playing games after Thanksgiving.
The latter changed in 2010, restoring byes for conference schools, and Ohio State had two open weeks in 2013, ‘14 and ‘19 (Day’s first season as head coach of the Buckeyes) when an extra Saturday falls between Labor Day and the end of the November.
“These guys are hungry,” Day said. “They don’t want to rest right now. They feel like they’ve got momentum coming out of this game. Now, at the same time, we’re not going to practice on Saturday or Friday so they do get an opportunity to catch their breath, but we are going to work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday because they understand how important this is, how early it is in the season, and they don’t want to lose their edge either. They know they have to get better. When you have a group of veteran guys who understand that we’re only two games in and we’ve got a long way to go, they get that.”
The Buckeyes will next take on another opponent Sept. 21 when Marshall comes to Columbus for a noon start at Ohio Stadium.
“The No. 1 thing this week is that we’ve got to stay in rhythm,” Day said. “We’ve got to have a good week of practice and think of it like a game week.”
NEXT GAME
Saturday, Sept. 21
Marshall at Ohio State, Noon, Fox, 1410
About the Author
