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Ryan Day speaks to offensive line, calls on second string to ‘make a push’ for playing time
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Ryan Day is not dodging the fact Ohio State’s offensive line needs to continue to develop and play better this season. It’s an area of concern during some of the slow starts for the team this fall, including against Maryland in Week 6.
At his Tuesday press conference, Day admitted the offensive line is an area the coaching staff continues to examine every part of in an effort to figure things out:
“I think you got to figure out: What are the areas we’re maybe coming up short in… If there are areas you gotta improve in, we gotta look at everything,” said Day. “Gotta look at what we’re doing, how we’re doing, how we’re preparing, how we’re practicing, how we’re calling it. Every part of it, and that’s going on.”
One specific area Day pointed to on Tuesday included a current lack of depth along the line. According to Day, the guys behind the 5 starters have not pushed enough to carve out playing time on a regular basis.
That can change with a lot of football still ahead, and Day challenged the guys on the 2-deep to “feel free to make a push” for playing time.
“I think so. We looked hard at it, I just don’t see any of those (second-string) guys pushing. I’d like to see that,” Day admitted. “But don’t see them pushing on the door enough to say someone deserves 20-30 snaps a game just yet, but still a lot of football left to play, and feel free to make a push. We would want that in practice.”
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.