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Vo. 1, No. 31
This week in Ohio State football, Ryan Day declared the quarterback is back to being The Man for the Buckeyes.
Or at least he better be.
That was just one of a few noteworthy developments to drop into the Ohio State football universe.
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Ryan Day threw down the gauntlet for Julian Sayin
I wrote about this for Press Pros Magazine, but it just kept getting bigger in my mind the more I thought about it.
“Well, he’s not young anymore, so now he’s gotta help some of those other guys around him and make everybody on the field better.”
Yes, coaches say this sort of thing regularly, but keep in mind for the last three seasons Day downplayed how much of a difference-maker the quarterback needed to be.
After C.J. Stroud went to the NFL, Day said he was looking for a reliable distributor to win the job between Kyle McCord and Devin Brown in 2023. (None did.)
A year later, the expectations were much the same for Will Howard since his ceiling was already reached when he was at Kansas State: Come to Columbus where the weapons are much more dangerous and you can work smarter, not harder.
Howard had some hiccups in the regular season, but he largely understood the assignment.
Day and Chip Kelly put more on his plate in the playoffs, but it’s not like Howard became Troy Smith. Howard was still more of a Craig Krenzel charged with running the offense correctly because the plays were there to be made for Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins.
Howard brought leadership qualities McCord certainly did not even if his throws didn’t have the same RPMs, and he was rewarded with a national championship ring and a spot forever in Ohio State lore.
As a redshirt freshman, first-year starter, Sayin wasn’t expected to provide that same moxie or headiness last year.
They let him grow into the job, and the schedule played out perfectly for that, but if there was a switch to flip to turn him into more of a focal point of the offense, that never happened.
This year there is no time to waste as Ohio State could face six or seven ranked teams, including trips to Texas and Indiana in the first half of the season.
Sayin has to do more, including using his mind to make sure they are in the right play before the snap and his legs to move the chains when necessary.
“We’ve talked before about just the physicality of standing in the pocket, being able to escape and make plays with his feet when that’s appropriate, but he’s gotta be at his best on third down and in the red zone and in two minute (drills). We know we’re gonna have to win games in the fourth quarter looking at our schedule, so we need him to be on his stuff when it comes to that. And when you’re young, typically what happens is we try to protect the young quarterback through running the ball, defense, and all that.”
Sayin said at the start of spring ball he is on board with that, and I don’t doubt the intends to try to make the next step.
The answer is, as always, can he do it?
Read more:
NOTE: I sent This Week in Ohio State Football as usual last Friday, but you probably didn’t get it because of some technical issues with my site and Google. (I made some adjustments and it messed some stuff up.) Those have been worked out, so hopefully this edition finds you like normal. Here is the link to last week’s edition in case you missed it.
What about the rest of the offense?
The Ohio State offensive line was a deficiency at the end of the season but could be a strength this year thanks to more seasoning… depending how things shake out with tackles perhaps.
Day revealed starting tackles Austin Siereveld and Phillip Daniels are out of the last two weeks of spring after having some sort of surgical procedures, but that means Ian Moore and Carter Lowe get lots of reps against the No. 1 defense that should be valuable.
Some think Moore could be ready to step in as a starter this year, perhaps meaning Siereveld or Daniels move inside. Day did not dismiss that possibility.
“We need (Lowe and Moore) to finish with two really good weeks of work, and they’ll be right at the point of attack,” Day said. “They need to really step up for us, because not only are they playing for depth, but they’re playing for a starting position. Everything is on the board, and the more guys we have that can play, the more we’re going to put them in the game.”
“We’ll try to find the best five,” Day said. “Josh Padilla is another one that has been out this spring, so how does he fit in? That’s what we’re trying to figure out. The good news about Austin is that he has flexibility right there (to move to guard), so we’ll look at it. Josh has flexibility. So we’ll try to find the best five, the best we can, and all we can do is just keep practicing every day and evaluate what we have.”
The running backs were a weakness last year, and they might be again with the top two guys not able to get valuable reps this spring because of injury. Legend Bey, a prospect and a project with great potential but in need of much seasoning, also has missed some practice time so Day sounded overall displeased with this group.
Receivers are always a strength at Ohio State, and they have the best one in the nation to build around in Jeremiah Smith.
However, that group could actually be better this fall if it has more depth, something Day has indicated he might see developing. Last season it was pretty much Smith and Tate and Not So Great, but there are a few candidates to step up as the third and fourth receivers (not to mention whoever replaces Tate as the starting flanker): Transfers Devin McCuin and Kyle Parker and incoming freshmen Chris Henry Jr. and Brock Boyd.
Brandon Inniss is also there as a glue guy and returning captain heading into his senior season.
Day shouted out transfer tight ends Mason Williams and Hunter Welcing, too, so the plans for that position to continue to be a fulcrum for the offense could be coming together, but that is also an area they could get more production relative to usage than last season.
How is the defense progressing, anyway?
Placing that unit at the top of the nation again would be near a miracle after all the losses to the NFL, but I wouldn’t completely put it past Matt Patricia and the rest of the staff to do it.
Early returns are positive at all three levels, but this is spring after all so that should be expected.
Florida State transfer Earl Little Jr. has gotten a lot of praise as a potential Caleb Downs replacement, to the extent that is possible, and Leroy Roker is said to be making sure the other open starting safety spot doesn’t just fall to Duke transfer Terry Moore.
“How do you replace Caleb Downs? You can’t, but Earl has been doing a great job of really communicating back there. Jaylen McClain has been doing a good job back there. So that’s been exciting to watch.”
Ultimately, the defense shouldn’t need to be perfect, as it did against Indiana and Miami when push came to shove because the offensive line couldn’t push or shove enough people out of the way to keep the offense on schedule and Sayin missed a read or two that could have led to game-breaking plays…
Yep, we’re back to the quarterback, but that is not a bad thing — especially when Ryan Day is the coach and the quarterback is a returning starter who was a five-star recruit.
Fine is probably where things landed, at least if we grade on a curve. He was great at times, providing more than they needed in the regular season, but he came up short against Miami and Indiana.
So did others, but now it’s up to Sayin to make sure that doesn’t matter.
What do you think? Do you like hearing the quarterback is under the gun to be a great player this fall?
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Aside from PressProsMagazine.com, I’m also writing for The Associated Press and MensJournal.com.
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