Ryan Day reveals how Week 1 victory can help Ohio State long term

Ohio State started the season with a major test to head coach Ryan Day’s offseason crusade to have the Buckeyes playing tougher on both sides of the ball and improving the defense. A 21-10 win over Notre Dame — featuring a pair of grind-it-out second half drives to take the lead and bury the Irish — certainly earned Ohio State a passing grade.

Winning that way might not be what Ohio State has grown accustomed to as the Buckeyes have spent the first few years under Day frequently boat-racing opponents. But a pair of losses where Ohio State got pushed around in 2021 spurred Day to bring in Jim Knowles to refurbish the defense — and the head coach to demand the Buckeyes get back to playing with a serious edge.

“So, I think looking back we could’ve been more efficient, certainly in the first half, on offense. Because every play matters in those styles of games,” Day said. “But I thought the attitude was excellent, I thought the toughness was excellent. I thought the way we played — we took care of the football, we tackled well. Those are the things you need to do in opening games. And certainly with the help of the crowd we were able to kind of push through in the fourth quarter. I think it was a seven-minute drive there in the fourth quarter where typically, in the past, we’d be going a little faster and, you know, maybe trying to score a little faster. But we were controlling the game and felt like if we scored there, we could make it a two score game and if we got one more stop, the game was probably over. And again, that’s not typically how maybe we’ve done things in the past here, but when you’re playing good defensively and you’re running the football, a win’s a win.”

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In two losses in 2021 — to Oregon and Michigan — Ohio State gave up 269 and 297 yards rushing, respectively. The Buckeyes also gave up more than 200 rushing yards to Utah in the Rose Bowl but won courtesy of supernova performances from quarterback CJ Stroud and wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Day made it widely known that the offseason mandate for Ohio State was steeling itself to win those sort of games.

And after an offseason of pointed work to get stouter on defense and tougher overall, the Buckeyes got to test their mettle right out of the gate against a Notre Dame team that wanted to run the ball, slow the game down, and wear down Ohio State up front. Day had to be pleased when, come the fourth quarter, it was the Buckeyes pounding it on the ground with TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams to ice out the Irish.

“I mean, coach [Marcus] Freeman talked about it after the game, their game plan was to shorten the game and run the ball and control the clock and limit the possession our offensive side of the ball,” Day said. “So when teams want to do that against us, we have be able to win in those games and respond. And that’s something that’s a little bit of a common theme for us. So being able to run the football, stop the run, control the game in the second half and play good defense is what we have to be able to do, and we did that.”