Eight players who are starters or could be considered co-starters have missed at least one game this season.
That includes star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has been limited to the first and third games of the season, and running back Miyan Williams, who was a surprise scratch last week after a breakout performance against Rutgers in Week 5.
Day said with the exception of reserve receiver and captain Kam Babb, the hope is everyone who is not out for the season — linebacker Mitchell Melton and running back Evan Pryor — will be ready to go when the Buckeyes play host to Iowa on Oct. 23.
That is dependent on how various recoveries go, of course.
“They still have to come along,” Day said. “They have to have a good week and all that, but that’s the goal right now is to get them healthy this week and have a full week of practice next week and have those guys ready to roll.”
That includes players who have been able to suit up but are not 100 percent, a common status in a game like football at this point in the year.
Day did not identify players who fit that description, but running back TreVeyon Henderson, defensive lineman Michael Hall Jr. and Zach Harrison, cornerback Cam Brown and safeties Lathan Ransom and Josh Proctor have all missed at least one game because of injury.
Henderson was pushed into heavy use last week with Williams unavailable, and he ran for over 100 yards in the first half before leaving the game one play into the third quarter. He took a helmet to the knee or thigh and did not play again, but Day said Saturday he probably would have if the game had been closer.
Hall only played a handful of snaps at Michigan State but still collected 2.5 sacks. Defensive line coach Larry Johnson said they limited him to some pass-rushing situations because he also has an injury they were hoping not to aggravate before the off week.
“He had fresh legs,” Johnson said when asked if he had seen such production from such a small sample size before.
Other than getting healthier, Day said the focus of the week will be self-evaluation and improvement across the board.
“We want to, as a staff, look at what we’ve done, look at where we’re headed,” he said. “Evaluate everybody in the program and kind of see things we’ve done well and enhance those and the things that we need to improve on.
“We obviously want to get healthy, get some guys back on the field. Want to get some guys who are playing with a few things healed up.”
They will also pit the first teams against each other to try to further develop skill and toughness while revisiting some fundamentals that can start to decline by this point in the season.
“As you get five, six games into the season, you can start to get scheme-oriented, and we can’t do that,” Day said. “So we’re going to dive back into fundamentals and techniques, and try to identify the things that we’re going to need to get done here and in the homestretch.”
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