Well, Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day is facing a double-edged sword. Last year, ‘Fire Ryan Day’ calls started to mount up against him after the Buckeyes lost to Michigan. However, he was able to zip up the haters by bringing home a Natty. That’s when the ceiling is even higher for Day’s program as they are the defending champions this season. While the Buckeyes fans might be looking towards the head coach for some reassurance, that’s when he chose to dish out more reasons for the fans to panic. Meanwhile, the fans are already aware that something is off in Columbus. After all, a $3 million coach thought of breaking Ohio State ties. Well, Day did not push the topic under the rug but rather addressed the internal rift.
The Ohio State football team has less than a week left of Spring practice. However, Day will have to swallow the bitter pill. Ohio State had to let go of their star quarterback, Will Howard, who is up for the 2025 NFL Draft. Even winning the National Championship title was not enough for the Buckeyes to lock the doors tightly. They ended up losing 26 players. That’s how something is beyond Day’s control. This year, the Buckeyes will be playing a lot more young guys. It’s more true when it comes to the defensive side. Now, this might be too concerning for Day and the Buckeyes. After all, they had the top-ranked defense in the country in 2024, and that had a whole lot to do with a suffocating defensive front.
They scored 12.9 points per game and 1.11 points per drive, topped up with a total defense of 254.6 yards per game. Now, will we be able to witness a successful Ohio State defense 2,0? The answer lies with the huge swath of young players who are competing. The squad includes Jack Sawyer, Ty Hamilton, JT Tuimoloau, and Tyleik Williams. Each of them logged well over 500 snaps, and the Buckeyes’ rotation wasn’t deep. On April 9, Day made an appearance on the Big Ten Football podcast. That’s when the head coach sounded underconfident. “I mean there’s a lot of inexperience there. Guys have played before, so it’s not like we don’t know if they can do it or not. They can. The question is, can they sustain it and can they consistently produce? And that’s where the challenge is right now.”
Sophomore phenom Eddrick Houston will lead the way for an inexperienced unit. Kayden McDonald, Tywone Malone Jr., Will Smith Jr., Jason Moore, and Eric Mensah are fighting for snaps. Right now, there is a trial-and-error run going on in Day’s squad. Meanwhile, Kenyatta Jackson turned heads, being the only defensive lineman besides that senior core to be on the field for more than 231 snaps. As the head coach revealed, “Kenyatta and Kayden on the edge. We’ve moved CJ Hicks around a little bit so that that’s been good to see have some new faces in there as well.” Day had two costly losses this year.
He lost big bodies like Tyleik Williams and Ty Hamilton held down the interior of the Buckeyes’ defensive line this past year making the Buckeyes feel like a fish out of water. But atleast for the pressure situation, the players are giving their best. As Day noted, “Losing Tyleik and Ty is felt. So, it’s been competitive. There’s been growth there but we know that that’s an emphasis for our defense to make sure we’re strengthening here. Especially the depth.” Meanwhile, Ohio State fans can smell some in-house tussle. But Day came up with a confirmation.
Ryan Day’s attempt in downplaying the Jim Knowles drama
Amidst the mass exodus of the players, Day’s program will not have one of their best craftsmen, Jim Knowles, around. And as it was a big loss for Ohio State, James Franklin and Penn State made use of the golden opportunity. So much so that he hunted Knowles down with a $3.1 million offer. Ever since then, Ohio State fans were running after, looking for the exact reason behind Knowles’ falling out of Day’s squad. Going by the buzz, the former coach somewhere felt stunted while exercising his authority.
Now come on, he got that authority. After all, he was the one who led the Buckeyes to their first national championship of the 12-team College Football Playoff era. But somehow, Knowles’ confident attitude did not sit well with the Ohio State associate head coach Larry Johnson. After all, Knowles was a newcomer as compared to Johnson. That where the ego clash took place for which Day’s squad might pay a heavy price. But the HC in no way wants to accept it. On the 97.1 The Fan’s Common Man & T-Bone podcast, Ryan Day claimed, “Alright, so what happened after that game?’ The first thing I would say, and you can ask Larry, Jim, or anybody who was in that room, there was never any issue between Larry and Jim, never.” On what point did they disagree?
Knowles’ three-man front scheme remained on the back burner in the OSU defense as Johnson stuck to his four-man philosophies throughout the season. The former HC refused to accept Jack’s hybrid method. However, Ryan Day tried to paint a happy story. “I thought they both were very professional. Got along well, worked together well, and if you grab either of those guys, they would say the same thing. But when we got out of that game, I mean, the bottom line was what happened in that game was we didn’t get a line fast enough. We didn’t.” Let’s hope that Ohio State doesn’t have to pay heavy taxes now that they lost a gem.
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