Vo. 1, No. 30

This week in Ohio State football, Ryan Day wants to know who will provide impact plays this fall for the Buckeyes.

That word — impact — came up more than a half-dozen times during Day’s press conference, so it’s obviously something that was on his mind.

There’s likely good reason for that…(after our ad break):

Since the most interesting thing Ryan Day said Tuesday was about dinosaurs, here’s No. 2:

What players are going to step up to provide big plays on each side of the ball?

That caught my ear for multiple reasons.

For one, I think it confirms they hit the transfer portal hard the way they did to raise the floor of the roster. That gave them a bunch more guys they know can handle playing majors snaps in college football already whether any or all of them end up being starters this fall.

Beyond that, explosiveness is viewed as the key to winning at the highest levels of football now: Creating and preventing explosive plays is the name of the game as far as coaches are concerned.

That is behind the rise of two-high safety defenses and the subsequent renewal of the running game in the NFL, trends that are trickling down to college football.

After getting spread out and torn apart by spread offenses, defenses in the NFL decided if they were going to die, it was at least going to be more slowly.

“Putting a roof on the defense” became the norm, and I would say it might be working even better than expected¹.

In college football, a similar trend developed in the three-safety defensive schemes, one of which Jim Knowles installed at Ohio State in 2022 and Matt Patricia built off last season.

I know everything is cyclical in football, but I tend to think this is where things are going to stay for the foreseeable future (barring unforeseen rules changes that break up the equilibrium).

Forcing the offense to execute is just smart (assuming you can execute your own defensive scheme, of course). Big plays are where it’s at because once those points go on the board, they don’t come off. (Look at the impact of the two long touchdown passes against Michigan last season.)

That said, defenses need their own big plays to disrupt an offense, especially one that has gotten into a rhythm.

Sacks, tackles for loss, interceptions and pass breakups — these are called havoc plays.

Caden Curry, Kayden McDonald, Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles took 42 tackles for loss and 23.5 sacks with them out the door.

Senior Davison Igbinosun had eight pass breakups, but no one else had more than three, and no one had more than two interceptions, either.

McDonald was also a great run-suffer, and Caleb Downs cleaned up most everything else (but only continued nine havoc plays).

Kenyatta Jackson returns at end. He posted 11 TFLs, including 6.5 sacks, but others are going to have to fill the void.

Will defensive line transfers James Smith, Qua Russaw and John Smith prove to be just place-holders, or can they get in the backfield? What about Wisconsin transfer Christian Alliegro at linebacker? Can he be at least a poor man’s Reese with his ability to play on or off the ball?

Then there are returners Payton Pierce, Riley Pettijohn and TJ Alford at linebacker and Will Smith Jr., Eddrick Houston and Beau Atkinson up front — talented players who don’t have as much experience but could have higher ceilings.

Jeremiah Smith tied for third in the country with 44 receptions that gained 10 or more yards last season, so that’s a start.

Bo Jackson tied for 11th in runs of more than 10 years (36), but he only had six runs of more than 20 yards so that’s an area for improvement.

While Day sounded less than thrilled with what he has seen from the running backs this spring (Jackson and Isaiah West, the top two, are limited as they recover from surgeries so that doesn’t help), new receivers coach Cortez Hankton said running after the catch is an emphasis this spring.

The ‘25 Buckeyes did not give up big plays, but they didn’t make them, either, despite having two receivers who will be taken in the first half of the NFL Draft this year and next year, respectively.

Then again it’s worth noting that the 2023 and ’25 national champions were not big-play machines on offense, either.

Ohio State was second in the nation in offensive success rate and 124th in offensive explosion last season while national champion Indiana was fourth and 114th, respectively.

The story was similar in 2023 when Michigan was 12th in success rate and 90th in explosion on offense while Ohio State was a more balanced 23rd and 78th.

And when the Buckeyes won it all in ’24? They ranked third in success rate but were No, 13 in explosion, so that is an exception.

At the end of the day, Ohio State’s 2025 formula was very close to being enough, so it’s not like they need to reinvent the wheel.

Winning often comes in the margins, and a few big plays can make all the difference like a baseball game in which a team has six singles vs. having three singles and three extra-base hits.

It’s fair to figure the 2026 Ohio State offense should be very efficient again. Smith, Jackson, quarterback Julian Sayin and most of the offensive line are back, so there is a baseline to work from clearly.

There again it makes sense to concentrate on what was a weakness last year.

How they fix it should be fun to watch.

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At PressProsMagazine.com, Jeff Gilbert wrote about Day’s desire to establish this team’s identity.

He correctly notes that sounds like coachspeak, but it is important nonetheless. Having an identity gives the coaches something to reference throughout the season to reiterate how the team should be playing.

It can be the mortar for the building, holding together all those blocks they are evaluating now.

What will it be? The offensive linemen spoke about wanting to be nasty and physical, something that is long overdue in Columbus, but only time will tell.

There’s more than one way to win a football game, but doesn’t that sound more inspiring than, “We’re going to efficient you to death!”?…

Lastly I was intrigued to see what new Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike McCarthy had to say at the NFL owners’ meetings about Will Howard.

That comes after Ben Roethlisberger endorsed Howard at least twice in the past year, but it remains to be seen what kind of opportunity he gets.

BONUS CONTENT!

Aside from jumping into a few discussions on the message board at BuckeyeSports.com, I contributed a few pieces to MensJournal.com:

The Playstation Plus April Games of the Month for April have been revealed, we know who will be featured on NFL Hard Knocks on HBO this year and next, and fans of both of Ohio’s MLB teams have reason to be excited for the future after they had young boppers sweep the league’s player of the week honors to open the season.