The most interesting thing I heard at Ohio State on Tuesday

The most interesting thing I heard at Ohio State on Tuesday was a rhetorical question from Ryan Day.

That is why I keep harping on this running game.

Yes, clowning Wisconsin for playing its cornerbacks eight yards off the ball and loading the box to avoid getting run on or beaten over the top was kinda funny to watch.

Carnell Tate proved continued his breakout season, and Julian Sayin is a Heisman candidate now.

Ohio State-Wisconsin postgame thoughts

Plus Ohio State was just overdue to really light someone up offensively.

Just kidding, that actually happened two weeks ago against Minnesota, but you would have thought the days of Woody Hayes were back with some of the discourse I saw online about the play calling being too conservative and what not.

I happen to think the play calling has been just about right, especially based on what the opponent was doing on a given week.

That was also part of Day’s answer when asked about having Julian Sayin air it out to Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith, Max Klare and a handful of others Saturday at Wisconsin.

That is how it’s supposed to work, of course, but it has felt at times like they were being stubborn with trying to make the running game work.

That is not a criticism. I think they should do that.

I also got the impression Day still thinks they should, but we’ll see what happens.

I also understand there are times you have to let it rip, not only to see what your guys can do but to punish the opposing defense for what it’s not doing.

What changes might we see when Ohio State returns to the field Nov. 1 against Penn State?

We will dive into that later in the week for the Friday newsletter, but it looks like the running back room remains wide open.

Day also acknowledged the offensive line is being evaluated after a sub-par day in Madison (and Illinois for that matter).

The bottom line is we have seen this movie before with the offense looking unstoppable through the air but struggling on the ground.

That’s fine until you run into a team that can actually slow your passing game

Day is aware of this, so I sincerely believe he is aiming to get it fixed — which is not how I felt in 2021 when he said after the Oregon game they needed to be more balanced then lapsed back into being too pass happy multiple times later in the season.

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The bigger question now is whether or not that is actually possible with the players they have on hand.

Now, writing them off after seven games would be foolish, but so would assuming they figure it out.

There is still a lot of newness there, both with the right tackle being a transfer and the left guard only entering the starting lineup late last season while the left tackle was in a rotation at guard.

Day was also pretty candid about things what went wrong with the running game in Madison, citing both missed assignments and poor technique.

That’s kind of all there is, right? Usually we don’t hear that from coaches, either, so I get the sense he could be getting frustrated with that.

The good news then? When Day gets frustrated with something, he generally gets it fixed (See the defense as the prime example).

I suppose this is also a time to come back to the value of Day having been in the big chair for a few years and seeing first-hand what it takes to get to the top of the mountain.

He could easily decide to abandon the running game (I suppose he still might), and he could have panicked earlier about implementing their season-long plan to bring along redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin.

We saw some of these same things in 2021. That running game was much more explosive with a young TreVeyon Henderson, but it was also inconsistent.

On the flip side, they threw to set up the run last season against Tennessee, and that launched an unforgettable run into immortality for the 2024 Buckeyes and Day.

But what was the key to that working?

That when they wanted to run the ball they could (except against Texas).

So forgive me if I’m wary of getting stuck only being able to throw the ball again — no matter how good Ohio State is at doing that.

Am I crazy for that? Am I right on the money?

Feel free to comment or email me your thoughts!

I want to be in touch with the readers so I can avoid getting sucked into the groupthink elsewhere online (like Twitter primarily).

And as always, please do me a favor and share the newsletter with anyone you think might enjoy it.