Buckeyes Have A List Of “Do’s And Don’ts” For The Visiting Boilermakers

Before I go too deep into the gist of my article, I just want to say how excited I am to be joining Buckeye Huddle. I look forward to contributing to the site, and look forward to interacting with you.

The 20-13 win at Penn State last week was thrilling, but now it is crucial that Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and his coaching staff do everything that they can to focus upon the task at hand, and that is the upcoming visit from the Purdue Boilermakers.

Although Purdue comes into the game at 1-7, and Ohio State a healthy favorite (-38 point spread), Day emphasized that “their record may not say it, but they’ve been playing really good football.” Ohio State CB Denzel Burke echoed the mindset of his coach, stating, “Their record doesn’t really show for what type of team they are. They are a pretty solid team with a good quarterback and solid receivers. Their head coach is a defensive guy and we have to make sure that we are on our Ps and Qs.”

While complacency and overconfidence are always a concern for any college football coaching staff, there are a few other items that may be of interest to Day as he and the coaching staff finalize their game plan for the Boilermakers. Below are a few “Do’s And Don’ts” that I will be keeping an eye out for when the ball kicks off at 12pm ET on FOX…

Don’t play the starters beyond the first series of the second half. While I am not a gambler by any stretch of the imagination, I believe Ohio State will have the game comfortably in hand by halftime. Considering the importance of the games remaining in November, why not rest the starters to lessen the wear and tear that the players are starting to experience?

Do play the backups as much as possible. This kind of goes hand in hand with the first point, but it also reinforces the idea that getting valuable game experience can only help these players get ready for 2025, and (it is a challenge to type with fingers crossed, by the way) extremely important if someone gets hurt during these remaining November games.

Do continue to emphasize the running game. The Ohio State running game came up big at Penn State last week. As the calendar has now turned to November, with unpredictable weather, it will be important to have the Ohio State offensive line and running game playing at a high level. This kind of ties into the first two points, with players such as RB James Peoples the kind of player I could envision getting a lot of work in the second half of the game.

Nothing too exotic, maybe some of you would even say it is kind of bland, but a win is a win at this point. All Ohio State needs to do is win the game, and not worry about what the critics may have to say about how it looked on the field.