Like when he inserted himself into the defensive meetings in October, Day is now spearheading some changes to the offense as Ohio State prepares to take on Tennessee in the College Football Playoff. With three weeks between that puzzling rivalry loss and the massive win-or-go-home showdown against the Volunteers, Day believes the right changes are being made to the offense.
“Definitely been spending some time with the offense. We’ll look at it and see whatever makes the most sense to win this game,” Day said Sunday. “We’ll do whatever it takes. And you know, we’ve already been looking at Tennessee, as you can imagine. We’ve been looking at them. Now we know for sure. So all the stuff’s been done ahead of time. I got a head start on this thing, so we’ll dive into it tonight, hard into tomorrow, and then have a really clean game plan, probably by Tuesday, with third down, red zone, goal line, all those things tied in so that we’ve got about 10 days to work it, flush through all the issues.
“So that’s the good part of this thing. It’s not too far where you’ve got a month where you’re kind of in bowl prep, but it’s also not a week where it’s on. You get two weeks to work on this thing and work through the issues and try to put our guys in the best position to be successful. So yeah, I’ll make sure I’m a big part of it, and whatever it takes to get done, we’re going to get done.”
The changes Day helped make to the defensive side of the football have worked wonders. No team has scored more than 17 on this team since the Oregon game; two have been held to fewer than 10. The defense is allowing 10.8 points per game in the last six games, and it’s creating plenty more havoc.
Can the offense see a similar renaissance? It’s possible, especially if Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly have a better game plan than they deployed against Michigan, a team that is good at stopping the run but struggles against the pass — yet Ohio State ran more often than it should have, Day admitted.
It’s all going to start with the Buckeyes much-maligned offensive line, which is down its top two players in midseason All-American left tackle Josh Simmons and Rimington Trophy finalist center Seth McLaughlin. Ohio State feels that it isn’t getting enough from the starting five it played against the Wolverines, so Day and the offensive staff are exploring other options, including new guards and center combinations in place of the struggling Tegra Tshabola, Carson Hinzman and/or Austin Siereveld.
“I know who’s going to be in the mix,” Day said about trying new offensive line combinations during prep for Tennessee. “I’m not going to get into that just yet. You know, we have two weeks of prep that we’ve got to dive into and identify what gives us the best chance in two weeks to go win this thing. And so we’ll look at it and make sure it’s right. But yeah, there’ll be some guys in the mix. “
Luke Montgomery will be in the mix.
Josh Padilla will be in the mix. And we’ll make sure that it’s right. Based on how they practice, we’ll figure out how it’s going to look.”
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