“This will be an important preseason,” he said. “We’ve got to start off the season well. We’ve got to play well in our first game, and that starts next week.”
Here are five takeaways from Day’s discussions with reporters Wednesday morning:
1. Day is happy with the leadership quarterback C.J. Stroud has shown in the offseason.
“C.J. has always had very good leadership skills. He’s always had a voice. Once you go on the field and you show credibility that you can do it, you walk a little differently, and guys look at you through a different lens. I think that’s been the case.
I think, when you’re young and you go into a season and you haven’t played, you’re just trying to figure out a way to complete that first pass, get that first win, and you’re so focused on your job and maybe the offense. This offseason he’s done a great job of taking a bunch of guys on defense over to his house. He’s cooked for them. He’s really approached it like a coach, and that’s what leaders do, and that’s what really good quarterbacks do. For a third-year player to take that kind of approach has been great to see.”
Michigan expects experience of beating Ohio State to carry over to new season https://t.co/knmEhuwZH9
— Marcus Hartman (@marcushartman) July 27, 2022
2. Day is optimistic some growing pains in 2021 when the lineup was very young will yield dividends this fall.
“That’s something that (OSU director of athletics Gene Smith) and I spoke about in the past was just playing as many young guys as possible so that when they get to year two, three, and then four, they have a lot of experience,” Day said. “Because there are a lot of teams in this conference that when they get to the fourth-, fifth-year seniors they are a little bit more veteran. And so, we want to make sure we get experienced to our young players. And we did that last year. And when we had some really good games. We also had some growing pains along the way. So hopefully that does pay off an investment last year.”
3. The No. 1 offensive line had a good offseason for new offensive line coach Justin Frye.
“I’m really excited about the offseason that Dawand Jones has had,” Day said. “He’s lost a bunch of weight. He’s in really good shape. Same thing with Matt Jones. Donovan Jackson stepped up and had a really good offseason as well. Luke (Wypler) has been a leader, and Paris (Johnson Jr.) moves to left tackle, so that’s a pretty good group right there.”
As for the reserves, he confirmed Josh Fryar will be available after missing spring ball because of an injury, and said Enokk Vimahi and Zen Michalski both had good offseasons.
Credit: DaytonDailyNews
4. Opening the season with Notre Dame has added some juice to the offseason.
“I think they feel the excitement,” he said of his team. “I think they feel the anticipation. I think they just feel the community rally around this team.
“But that first game being a night game is – I mean, how else do you cut it? It’s going to be electric, and our guys know that. So there’s a little bit of urgency about them, and there’s going to be this preseason.”
But they can’t blow all their enthusiasm in the early part of the season.
“I think when you look at our season, we have to have competitive stamina,” Day said. “We have to play really good at the beginning of the year, and we’ve got to play really good at the end of the year. That’s the challenge of being Ohio State — you’ve got to win them all. So competitive stamina is one of the things we’ve been talking about as a team.”
5. Day sees the Buckeyes as being “edgy” in the wake of a deflating loss to Michigan at the end of the regular season.
“Maybe at some places (a record of) 11-2 with a Rose Bowl victory is a good year,” Day said. “It isn’t at Ohio State. Our three goals are beat The Team Up North (Michigan), win the Big Ten Championship, win the National Championship. That’s our goals, and those things didn’t happen last year. It doesn’t change next year or the year before. Just a different team with a different group of guys, more experienced.
“Again, when you think about those first few games last year, we had a lot of young guys, and now we’ve gone through a whole season and offseason together, I think our guys are a little scarred, they’re a little calloused. They know what it’s like to lose a game, and that’s not fun. We remind our guys about that regularly, but we also know we have to move forward and focus on what’s coming next.”
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