Ryan Day: It's an exciting time to be a wide receiver at Ohio State

Ohio State‘s offense year in and year out has been a perennial attack highlighted by elite play and depth at the wide receiver position. This season the Buckeyes have been missing their leading wide receiver from last year in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has missed a majority of the season with an injury, but have gotten the same consistent production out of other players. Head coach Ryan Day spoke on the wide receiver culture that has been built at Ohio State, starting by answering if he would’ve expected such a great season through the air without Smith-Njigba.

“If you had said to me that was gonna happen this year I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are and that’s football,” Day said. “You have to overcome these types of things and that’s where depth becomes critically important and understanding that when you come here you come here to play.”

The Buckeyes have gotten tremendous play out of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka this season during the absence of Smith-Njigba, as the two currently rank second and third in the Big Ten in receiving yards and first and third in touchdown catches.

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“When you play, that’s kind of up to you and how fast you can get on the field and how quickly you can get to starter level. But you’re gonna have great opportunity and our guys have taken that opportunity and run with it,” Day said.

Day also attributed their consistent elite level of play at the ride receiver position year in and year out to the culture they have built specific to that position group, crediting their process and passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline.

“But I think you can see the development, you can see the blueprint, you can see how we do things schematically, fundamentally the way Brian teaches. And so it’s an exciting time to be a wide receiver at Ohio State,” Day said.

Day was also asked what the presence of Smith-Njigba to their lineup would bring to their offense, as they’ve proven to be successful without him and the status of his return this season still being questionable.

“It’s hard to say now that we’ve played ten games and not really had him available,” Day said. “But listen, Jaxon is one of the best receivers in the country, one of the best slot receivers I’ve ever been around so he’s been missed.”

Day and the Buckeyes have definitely proven that they can consistently produce at wide out and set their receivers up to make it to the next level, which should surely continue to help them in recruiting wide receivers in the future.