Monday was an informative day at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Three items in particular stood out as significant news. First, Ryan Day is taking play-calling duties back from Brian Hartline as the Ohio State receivers coach prepares to become head coach at South Florida. Day overseeing and calling the offense could have benefits as the Buckeyes try to fix the issues that hurt them on that side of the ball in a 13-10 loss to Indiana, but he’ll have to juggle offensive play calling and game planning with everything else that comes with being a head coach, including the transfer portal if the Buckeyes advance to the College Football Playoff semifinals and beyond.
Day also revealed that right guard Tegra Tshabola will miss at least the first game of Ohio State’s CFP run. We have varying degrees of confidence in the combination of Gabe VanSickle and Joshua Padilla to fill in at RG and get the Ohio State offensive line rolling in the College Football Playoff after its worst performance of the season, though Ohio State's OL also entered last year's CFP off a bad outing in a loss and stepped up to pave the way to a national title.
Lastly, Jeremiah Smith is a warrior. He revealed that a quad strain was the injury he dealt with in November and that he came back faster than the usual three- to four-week timeline for that injury to take the field against Michigan. He wasn't 100 percent for that game, Smith said, but is at full strength now, and we expect him to be highly motivated as he plays his hometown team after getting snubbed from the Biletnikoff Award.
Andy Anders, Chase Brown and Dan Hope break it all down on a new episode of Press Coverage, which you can watch at the top of the page.
