Ryan Day shares key areas where Ohio State has improved in offseason

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been towards the top of the food chain of the college football landscape for some time now, but they’re still striving to be better.

Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day recently joined analyst Greg McElroy on ‘Always College Football’ to discuss how his team has improved this offseason, starting with the defensive side of the ball.

“Well, I think the first thing is on defense,” Day said. “Coming out of those last couple games I know everybody on the defensive side of the ball, there was a lot of progress made there, but the way that it ended just left a sour taste in everybody’s mouth. So that’s something that we’ve looked at hard and tried to identify the areas, certainly explosive plays were the ones that kind of jumped off the screen.”

The Buckeyes held opponents to just 16.9 points per game last season, that was until their final two games, where they gave up 45 points to rival Michigan and 42 points to Georgia in their only losses of the year.

Ohio State’s defense may have ended the year on a low note, but various factors lead Day to believe that their defense could come back stronger this upcoming season.

“Jim Knowles will be in his second year and it’s significant because we really didn’t lose much on that side of the ball, we have a lot coming back, a lot of experience, have added some new pieces through the transfer portal. We don’t do a lot of that but I think we’ve added some nice pieces there,” Day said. “So a lot of experience on the defensive side of the ball, year one you’re learning what to do, year two and three you’re learning how and why and I think those all matter. So we’re going to have to win some games on defense this year.”

On the other side of the ball, per usual, the Buckeyes return a lot of firepower at multiple positions. As Day broke down his offensive personnel with the season just a few months away.

“On the offensive side, one of the most skilled groups I’ve been around when you look at the receiver depth, when you look at the running back depth, when you look at the tight ends, certainly quarterback room, very very deep across the board,” Day said. “The big focus has been the offensive line losing Paris (Johnson) and Dawand (Jones) at tackle and losing Luke (Wypler) at center, we’ve had to replace to some guys there. Feel great about our guards, coming out of the spring made some good progress there.”

From the outside looking in, the quarterback position seems to be the biggest concern surrounding the Buckeyes’ offense, as Devin Brown and Kyle McCord continue to battle for their first starting quarterback job of both of their respective collegiate careers.

But it’s clear that Day has confidence in that position group amongst others, as the Buckeyes continue to develop certain areas of their offensive line, and their team as a collective before their Week 1 matchup against Indiana.

“Continuing to work hard in the weight room here this summer, but August will be important. Again we’ve added a couple pieces there, some young guys that have done a nice job and then also some guys in the portal,” Day concluded.