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Ryan Day not sharing Jaxon Smith-Njigba's status vs Penn State

ns_headshot_2024-clearby:Nick Schultz•10/27/22•

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Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a catalyst of the Ohio State offense. (Matt Parker/Lettermen Row)

The big question for Ohio State is the availability of wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. It sounds like the Buckeyes won’t know until Saturday before kickoff against Penn State.

Ryan Day told reporters he didn’t want to get into Smith-Njigba’s status for the game, which kicks off at noon ET from Beaver Stadium. He said a decision will be made in time for the availability report ahead of kickoff, but as of Thursday afternoon, he declined to indicate whether his star wideout could go.

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“I’m not going to do any injury updates today,” Day told reporters via Zoom. “We’ll do the availability report on Saturday, but just kind of stay away from all the injury updates at this point.”

Smith-Njigba’s status has been week-to-week since he suffered the injury in Week 1 against Notre Dame. In fact, last week against Iowa, he appeared to be limping a bit after an overthrow by C.J. Stroud. However, Day reaffirmed Smith-Njigba wasn’t injured on the play and left the game because of a “pitch count.”

That said, Day leaves the decision on Smith-Njigba’s availability up to the doctors, and they’ve opted to evaluate him on a week by week basis rather than rule him out long-term.

“That’s the conversation that’s made on a daily basis,” Day said. “It has been for weeks. But I leave it up to the doctors and the professionals in that area. I certainly don’t know a lot about the ins and outs of all of what you’re talking about. That’s why we have such a great crew here.”

Earlier this week, Day said “the plan” is for Smith-Njigba to play on Saturday, but said he’d know for sure as the week went along.

“As the week goes on, we’ll know more,” Day said. “When you come out of games like that, you’ve got to keep evaluating and see how things go. But we’ll keep figuring more stuff out and by the end of the week, we’ll have a better idea.”

Smith-Njigba has five receptions for 43 yards this year, but emerged as the top target for Ohio State last season. He hauled in 95 receptions for 1,606 yards and nine touchdowns while also putting together an impressive showing in the Rose Bowl. In that game, he totaled 347 yards and three touchdowns against Utah.