Ryan Day is eager to get star linebacker Tommy Eichenberg back on the field with Ohio State’s defense. However, the head coach had to get adamant with Eichenberg to take Week 12 to get back to full health for The Game and beyond.

Immediately following the win over Minnesota, Day said Eichenberg was ready to go and wanted to play, so much so that it was “almost a fistfight” between the two. The head coach admitted it took some late-night messages to convince Eichenberg not to force things Saturday night, but the LB will be ready for the Michigan matchup.

“I feel like we have all of our weapons here and healthy. We’ll get Tommy back for next week. Tommy was ready to play in this one, and I had to pull him back,” said Day. “It was almost a fistfight, but I won. It took some late-night texts last night — he wanted to play.”

Day took an extra minute to emphasize how much Eichenberg wanted to be playing for Senior Day. He praised Eichenberg for his contributions to the program and pointed out the player did calm down when the coach outlined all there is in front of Ohio State.

“This is a guy who has put so much into this program. Coming back and for Senior Day, for him not to be out there, it was really hard for Tommy. Really hard. But I just explained to him, there’s just too much on the line moving forward to risk any kind of setback,” Day explained. “We need him at his best. After some calming down, he was okay, but it was not easy to not play in this game, and that was my decision.”

Eichenberg has not been in the lineup since the game against Rutgers, but he still leads the Buckeyes with 73 tackles in the middle of the defense. Ohio State has managed his absence as well as possible, but it will be all hands on deck against the Wolverines.

(H/T WBNS 10TV)