Ryan Day explains Ohio State's emotions heading into season opener against Notre Dame

Ohio State is playing in one of the headline, primetime games of week one at home against Notre Dame. Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day discussed the vibe of his team heading into their matchup with the Irish at Big Ten media day.

“It’s been real, I think our guys feel it. They feel the excitement, I think they feel the anticipation, I think they just feel the community rally around this team, but that first game being a night game, how else do you cut it? It’s gonna be electric and our guys know that so there’s a little bit of urgency about them and there’s going to be this pre season,” Day said.

Day also reflected on their opener last year against Minnesota, and detailed the similarities and differences between that game and team, and this year’s opener with his current squad.

“Last year we started on the road at Minnesota and that was a big conference game on the road with a very inexperienced team, so we had to play well in that game, that’s similar this year,” Day said. “Now we’re at home, a little bit more experienced team, but the plan’s gonna be the same, we had to play really good football in that first game and I think when you look at our season we have to have competitive stamina. We have to play really good at the beginning of the year and we’ve got to play really good at the end of the year and that’s the challenge of being Ohio State, you gotta win them all. And so competitive stamina is one of the things we’ve been talking about as a team.”

Day was also asked about the possibility of Notre Dame joining the Big Ten in the future, highlighting that their current coach Marcus Freeman was a former player at Ohio State.

“Well I think it’s an exciting time for our fans, and exciting time for our team, it’s obviously an exciting time for the the Big Ten, and obviously the things that have gone on here in the last couple months and so I just think it’s a great opportunity to play against a really good opponent. Marcus Freeman does a very very good job, he’s got a very good staff, they’re very knowledgeable, very energetic, do a great job of recruiting, do a great job schematically, so it’s gonna be a really big challenge for us,” Day said. “They’ve got a really good team coming in to Ohio State so all those things kind of have our guys attention and so I think there is a little bit more attention to our guys just knowing what a big game we have have to start the season off with.”

Day may have avoided talking in depth about Notre Dame potentially joining the conference in the future, but he and Ohio State can’t avoid their week one game against them, as they clearly understand the weight of the challenge ahead. ESPN’s FPI gives the Buckeyes a 83.5% chance of winning their opener against Notre Dame, that will air September 3 at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.