Ryan Day highlights ‘unfinished business’ for returning Ohio State players

Ohio State was not shying away from the expectations that have been placed on their program both internally and externally during Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday. The talented Buckeyes enter a new look Big Ten Conference with a roster and coaching staff most believe is more than capable of winning a conference title and a national championship this upcoming season.

A large part of why the Buckeyes look so ready to reach college football’s mountain top is because of their strong group of veterans who decided to return to Columbus instead of heading to the NFL. A group that Ohio State head coach Ryan Day opened up about at media days in Indianapolis.

“The term that a lot of them gave me was unfinished business, they felt like they wanted to have something to show for all the work they put into the program,” Day said. “That was what a lot of them said to me. But like you said, each of them kind of did it on their own. That being said, I think they were in communication a lot to get started.”

“Jack [Sawyer] was a big part of it, Cody Simon was early on, decided that they wanted to. Lathan Ransom jumped in and then slowly guys started jumping in and it was a big deal, it really was. Because we haven’t had that since I’ve been at Ohio State and they led the way on it.”

The Buckeyes’s slew of players who turned down the NFL to return for one last season only set the table for what the Buckeyes would become during the offseason. Adding big time players out of the transfer portal like Caleb Downs and Quinshon Judskins. Also making one of the biggest hires of the offseason with the addition of former UCLA head coach and offensive mastermind Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator.

“We infused a few guys in the portal and a few guys in recruiting the freshman class and then really went to work on getting the coaching staff the right way. So there’s a lot of a lot of excitement around the program right now,” Day said. “We’ve worked really hard to get this team to where it is right now, and I think when you get around our guys, you’ll see that they’re focused right now and they’re not caught up in the emotion of the expectations of what this is or isn’t. We know we got a long road ahead of us.”

The goal is a conference title and a national championship for the Buckeyes, an in-house motivation that was revealed nationally at media days. With returning players not afraid to admit why they came back, new players looking to help them achieve that goal, and a head coach who will look to set up his ream for the success that he believes they deserve.

“I think you owe it to the guys that came back, these guys didn’t come back for no reason, they came back for a reason and we owe that to them. You know as coaches we owe that to them, as everybody else who is part of the program that are there to support them,” Day explained.

“We’re thinking big, and these guys are thinking big, and we know what’s at stake and we want to do everything we can to have them leave with a legacy behind and a bunch of hardware. So we’re not going to shy away from that, but that’s not also the focus. The focus is getting to work here in the preseason and building this foundation.”

“Our guys know how to work, they’ve had a great summer.”