With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic shutting down schools, athletic events, and essentially all large social gatherings, the B1G has implemented a moratorium on spring sports, including spring football.

All teams are playing by the same rules, and there are no exceptions. All 14 teams have halted team activities for the time being, and there’s a good chance players won’t return to the field until summer.

But Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith believes that when it’s time to get guys back on the field, the Buckeyes will be ready for the season. He’s got a lot of trust in Ryan Day and his staff.

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“Fortunately, Ryan’s extremely talented, and he’s got an experienced staff,” Smith said, according to Eleven Warriors. “We will have to come up with a strategy, particularly when we’re allowed, to have team activities in the strength and conditioning space to make sure that we help our young men get back to where they were. Fortunately, we do have very mature players, they know how to work out on their own, they know the proper training techniques.”

Ohio State is coming off a 13-1 campaign in Day’s first season as the head coach of the program. The Buckeyes won their first 13 games of the year, defeating every team in its path by a double-digit margin. The only defeat came in the Fiesta Bowl to Clemson.

Day is hoping to follow his first season in Columbus with another run at the College Football Playoff and a chance at a national championship. Though the Buckeyes lost a plethora of talent to early NFL entrees and graduate, the program has more than enough remaining in the cupboard to take another shot at a title.

Smith says he believes everyone will be ready.

“I think at the end of the day, we’ll be able to get our guys back up on track and be competitive in the fall,” Smith said

The Buckeyes open the 2020 season at home against Bowling Green on Saturday, Sept. 5. They’ll have an incredible challenge in the second week of the season, traveling to Eugene to play Oregon.