Ohio State Football Notebook: 'That's above my pay grade'

Who’s Gonna Judge The Judge?

When Ohio State sophomore linebacker Arvell Reese was ejected in the fourth quarter of the Buckeyes’ 21-17 win over Nebraska this past Saturday, it also meant that he was going to be forced to miss the first half of this Saturday’s game at Penn State.

Fortunately for Ohio State, the NCAA Football Secretary Rules Editor overturned the call this week after it was submitted by the Big Ten after OSU filed an appeal.

Buckeye head coach Ryan Day explained part of the response that he received from the rules officials following the appeal.

“Yeah, just that he’s able to play in this game and that they realize that it should not have been targeting,” Day said on Tuesday. “And I think part of that was the fact that he was ruled a runner. And then if you’re ruled a runner, then, you know, it’s hard to be defenseless. So, how does that become targeting? And so there was a lot of conversation there. Excited that Arvell is going to be with the team this week and fired up for him.”

Asked this week what an acceptable punishment should be on a call that can be disputed by multiple different experts on the subject, Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles didn’t have a great answer.

“I don’t know if I have that answer. I mean, I think everybody’s trying to work through protecting the players. You don’t want to see any shots to the head or anybody lowering their head. I mean, that’s how I see targeting. Keep your head up, don’t hit the other guy in the head and keep your own head up. You know, to me, that’s a pretty good definition and that’s for the safety of the players.”

Should a player be ejected from a game and possibly a second game if nobody can seem to come to an agreement on what is and isn’t targeting?

“Yeah, that’s above my pay grade,” Knowles said. “I mean, I don’t know. But we did free Arvell, right? We freed him. Free Arvell. Free Arvell.”

Who’s Left?

The biggest question for the Buckeyes this week as they prepare for their game against No. 3 Penn State on Saturday is who will be starting at left tackle. After losing starter Josh Simmons at Oregon three weeks ago, Ohio State turned to fourth-year junior Zen Michalski. He stepped in at Oregon and got the start against Nebraska.

Michalski struggled throughout the game and then eventually left in the fourth quarter with a leg injury. He had to be helped off the field and then was placed on a cart and taken to the locker room.

Ryan Day was asked on Tuesday how the situation at left tackle was looking at the moment.

“We’re still going to work through it. I’m not going to kind of throw that out there yet,” he said. “We’ll see how the week works, see how Zen comes in today and we’ll keep going through it.”

When Michalski went down last week, senior left guard Donovan Jackson slid out to left tackle and sophomore Luke Montgomery came into the game at left guard.

If Michalski is able to go this week, he could very well be back in the lineup according to Day.

“If he could go, he would be, yeah,” he said. He also then added later on that if he can go, they’d still continue to evaluate the situation.

“I don’t think we’ve made a decision on that yet. We’ll have to first see if he can go and then go from there,” Day said.

Part of the decision-making process concerns the immediate nature of the season, but the coaches are also thinking long term as well.

“Yeah, you’ve got to put the best line up out there and have enough to not only just win this game, but be able to play the rest of the season,” Day said. “So you’ve got to think of a short-term plan and then you’ve got to come up with a long-term plan. So, we’ll do everything we can to win this game and that’s what the focus is right now.”

The bigger question here, however, is how different is the short-term plan from the long-term plan?

As Big As It Gets

For the second time in three weeks, the Ohio State football team will be on the road against the No. 3 team in the nation. Last time it was the Oregon Ducks, and Ohio State came away with a 32-31 loss. This time, it’s the Penn State Nittany Lions, and the pressure is greater than ever for the Buckeyes to stay in the Big Ten title picture.

But regardless of what happened in Oregon, this game was always going to be big according to Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.

“Yeah, I don’t think you compare either game to each other because I think they’re their own separate entities,” he said on Tuesday. “But when you look at the schedule and you know you’re playing Penn State at Penn State, that’s enough to get you excited. That’s why you play, and that’s why you came to school here is to play in games like this. You came here to win games like this.”