Ohio State Football Notebook: 'If your focus goes anywhere else, I think that's dangerous'

Marshall! Marshall! Marshall!

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day spent last Saturday watching college football with his family. He followed along with all of the coaching decisions and mused aloud about how he would handle particular situations. Along the way, he also saw some key quarterback injuries.

Wisconsin starter Tyler Van Dyke went down early in the Badgers’ game against Alabama with a season-ending knee injury, essentially sinking their chances against the Crimson Tide before they had even begun. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers also strained an abdominal muscle and had to leave the Longhorn offense in the hands of backup Arch Manning.

On Tuesday, Day was asked what his thoughts were of his own quarterback situation after seeing those two injuires.

“It’s the same thing as it was before watching that on TV,” he said. “We’ve got to build up at every position and obviously that’s one. We got four guys in the game last Saturday that was good. You don’t know what this week’s going to bring. We’ve got to go play Marshall. We’ve got to beat Marshall and then we’ll figure out the rest of it later. If your focus goes anywhere else, I think that’s dangerous.”

There is no replacement for playing in an actual game. Quarterbacks are never live in practice, so there’s no way to replicate the real thing that players experience in the game. But the practice reps will continue and the more game reps that can be made available will be key because more than one quarterback needs to be ready to lead this team.

“We’re going to get these guys reps in practice and the more game reps we can get them the better because we do know that’s going to be important,” he said. “I totally agree with you but there’s not much we can do about that right now. Let’s go have a great Tuesday. Let’s get these guys as many reps as we can and then we’ll have an opportunity to get guys in the game.”

Hanging Your Hat

Ryan Day talks every season about the process of finding out what this offense is going to hang its hat on. Sometimes that was the precision passing of CJ Stroud or the dominating running game of JK Dobbins. The best offenses, however, have more than one hat and the ability to wear a different hat for different occasions.

The Buckeyes are just two games into the season, so they’re still in front of the mirror at their local haberdashery. Day likes what he sees to this point, however, as the Ohio State offense is currently rushing for 220 yards per game and throwing for 322 yards per game.

“I think we’re getting there,” Day said. “I still think that it’s early in the process, but I think you saw a little bit of that last Saturday just in terms of the mix that we have. Some of the schemes that we’re running — running inside zone, running stretch, getting the ball on the perimeter, mixing in play-action passes, trying to get the ball into our guys’ hands. The mixture of all those things along with the quarterback run, mixing up tempos, those type of things put stress on the defense and I think our guys are getting more and more comfortable.”

The ability to run the ball is the kind of hat hook that can withstand the weight of an entire defense, let alone a few different styles of hat.

“We always want to have a combination of zone schemes and gap schemes up front and we’re starting to get there,” Day said. “We’re still not where we need to be. We still don’t have a full complement of stuff out there just yet, but we’re building towards that right now. But I think at least the balance that we had and the energy we played with a couple weeks ago is what we’re looking for, but it’s just a starting point.”

Heeeeere’s Donnie!

The Buckeyes will get starting left guard Donovan Jackson back this week after missing the first two games of the season with an undisclosed injury. In Jackson’s place, redshirt freshman Austin Siereveld started twice and got better each week.

Now with Jackson back in the fold, the Buckeyes will take the field with a full complement of upperclassmen on the offensive line. Left tackle Josh Simmons is a fourth-year junior, Jackson is a fourth-year senior, center Seth McLaughlin and right tackle Josh Fryar are fifth-year seniors, and right guard Tegra Tshabola is a third-year sophomore.

The Buckeyes got better on the offensive line from week one to week two, and that progression is expected to continue this week with Jackson back in the lineup.

“I just think this solidifies everything up front,” Day said. “Seth has done a very, very good job of communicating across the board. He brings a certain level of experience and stability in there with the communication. Now you add Donovan into it, that’s two guys with a lot of experience. They’re good communicators. They’re very sharp.”

This will be the first game with what is expected to be the fully-realized version of the Ohio State starting offensive line. Illnesses and injuries in preseason practice limited their time together, but the two weeks in practice leading into Saturday should have them prepared for the level of communication they’ll need against Marshall.

“I think just overall everyone’s going to be on the same page even more and allow guys to communicate well because that’s important,” Day said. “Everything up front is about communication. The more these guys can communicate and get everybody on the same page, the better we can execute.”