Improvement week is here for Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have issues to tackle after a comfortable but rocky win over Ohio, and after a round of film to see where his team is coming up short, Ryan Day hopped on 97.1 the Fan's Buckeye Roundtable show to update where the team's focus is at entering its first off week.
Day continued to stress his team's need for improvement in the red zone, but spoke very highly of his squad's defensive line play, saying "that's what we're looking for." There's no specific timetable yet for Lorenzo Styles Jr. to return at nickel, but Day hopes Styles “can heal quickly” and is confident in his team's depth at the spot.
- On what he was most pleased with and what needs improving: "I thought the effort was good. ... On offense, we were explosive and certainly finished drives in the second half. ... We need to make sure that we're finishing drives when we're in the red zone and not turning the ball over, obviously."
- Day spoke highly of the performance of his defensive line against Ohio. "That's what we're looking for. We want guys to be really disruptive. ... K-Mac in particular was really knocking back the line of scrimmage. I thought KJ and Caden Curry set the edge well. ... The coverage and the rush have to work together. ... When we can knock the line of scrimmage back like we did and get them off schedule like that, that's what we want."
- On his running backs: "Each of the guys has their own strengths and weaknesses and things that they need to improve on. ... I won't get into all those right now, but it's pretty clear to see their strengths. ... All three of those guys are three-down backs ... so that certainly gives us a lot of flexibility."
- Day didn't have a timeline yet for Lorenzo Styles Jr. to return, but is confident in his backups. "We have some depth there, so we'll take a look to see how Lorenzo is doing coming out of this week." Day mentioned Aaron Scott Jr. and Bryce West as guys who can help out at nickel alongside Jermaine Mathews Jr., who moved inside against Ohio with freshman Devin Sanchez taking his place outside after Styles went down. “Hopefully Lorenzo can heal quickly, but when it comes to that position moving Jermaine inside is something that we've been working on here in camp in terms of building depth.”
- On the team's focus during the off week: "We really call it improvement week. ... We're gonna catch our breath a little bit ... but we're gonna get ready for some situations ... get ahead of these opponents and make sure we're putting these players in the best position to be successful."
- Day emphasized the importance of punting, even without the unit getting any work against the Bobcats, and said special teams continues to be a focus. "We have certain areas of special teams that we want to continue to work at."
- On whether it will be beneficial to sit back on Saturday and scout Washington: "They got a chance to see us to play this week, and they'll do that. ... It's more about us than it is them ... we'll get a chance to see how they do on Saturday."
