COLUMBUS — With the calendar flipped to August, the wait for Buckeye football has reached its final stage as Ohio State hit the practice field on Thursday for the first of 25 practices ahead of the season-opener on Aug. 31 against Akron.

Lauded by many as having one of the best rosters in the country, Ohio State enters the preseason with enormous expectations after another disappointing season that saw the Buckeyes lose to Michigan for the third consecutive year before nearly being shut out by Missouri in the Cotton Bowl to end the season. A host of draft-eligible players elected to forego the NFL in the winter to return for one last shot at creating a legacy in Columbus, setting the stage for what could be a defining year in head coach Ryan Day’s tenure at Ohio State.

But before he and his team can go about trying to change the narrative surrounding the program, Day said they must continue building a strong enough base to withstand the challenges that will soon come in a season that, if all goes according to plan, will be the longest in program history with the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams.

“You learn a lot every year,” Day said on Thursday. “I think the thing for us, and we’ve talked to our team about and will continue to do, is every year you have to rebuild. We’re calling them bricks —there are bricks in the foundation — and you won’t know how strong that foundation is until the storms come and the big games come down the road. It’s going to be a long season this year, so we’re trying to maximize every day, every meeting, every walkthrough, and every practice because I feel like (having) the right people in the right seats, I feel like if you asked me what I’ve learned overall, it’s having the right people in the right seats. That started with the players, certainly, the players coming back, and then it came to adding a few guys in the transfer portal, the recruiting, the coaches, and the staff, and then putting that all together into some hard work this offseason.”

Day added, “I think the foundation up until this point has been excellent from when it started at the end of the season until now, but the preseason is going to be a critical part of this. It has to be physical. Guys have to have an edge to them. But this is what everything else is built on, and today is just the first day, but we know it’s going to be a long road to the end of the season.”

While the return of several key pieces on both sides of the ball will add continuity throughout camp, there is no shortage of newness in the program. Ohio State added seven transfers in the winter, five of which came on the offensive side of the ball. Add in a new offensive coordinator in Chip Kelly, who will be the first person other than Day to call plays since he was named the head coach in 2019, and much is still to be determined about how Ohio State will look offensively when it takes the field for real later this month.

Perhaps no single determination is more pressing than who will be taking the snaps for Ohio State as, for the second consecutive season, a quarterback competition will dominate the camp talking points. After being beaten out by Kyle McCord last season for the starting job, Devin Brown elected to remain at Ohio State this season in hopes of leading the Buckeyes. Not content with what was returning, though, Day added Will Howard as well as true freshman and former five-star recruit Julian Sayin from the transfer portal this offseason, once again setting up a hotly-contested battle with Brown.

Adjusting to a new offensive coordinator only adds to the degree of difficulty for each of the quarterbacks, and it would undoubtedly be beneficial for Day and the offense to identify the guy who will lead it as early as possible in camp. It’s not a decision Day will make before he’s beyond certain, though, regardless of how long that takes.

“It has to happen; you can’t force it,” Day said. “Ideally, we’d like to have someone as the starter and then go into the season and get going with that. How that shakes out, I’m hoping it happens in the first week to 10 days, but it’s the same thing that happened last year. I’d like for it to happen and it didn’t. Even after the first couple of games, I didn’t feel like it happened … We’ll see how it all shakes out. I think all the guys are doing a good job. I think we’re going to need them all, as I’ve said. But you’d like to have that done in the first couple of weeks.”

Along with the quarterback position, the starting right guard spot is the only other position on either side of the ball that doesn’t have a clear frontrunner to start this season. Thursday’s practice did little to shed any light on the current pecking order as Carson Hinzman, who started 12 games at center last season, missed practice with an illness. With the addition of Alabama transfer center Seth McLaughlin this offseason, Hinzman is a prime candidate to slide over to guard.

Day has praised Hinzman’s offseason and physical growth in the months leading up to camp, and his experience would seemingly give him a boost in the competition. The job won’t be easily won, however, as West Chester, Ohio native Tegra Tshabola is beginning to put everything together after arriving at Ohio State with plenty of fanfare as a top-50 recruit.

Asked about Tshabola, who is physically imposing at 6-foot-5-inches and 327 lbs., Day said the junior has demonstrated he knows what he’s supposed to be doing and now needs to show the ability to stay strong in his technique over time as practices stack up or, come the season, plays stack up and games are on the line in the second half.

“He’s changed his body some and had a good offseason,” Day said of Tshabola. “(Strength and conditioning coach) Mick (Marotti) does a great job of putting them in tough situations, creating conflict amongst the team, and putting them in situations where when they get tired, they have to stay focused. We know we’re going to wear teams down this year and win games in the fourth quarter, and if that’s our goal, we have to be able to do that, especially up front with the offensive line. If he can show consistently this preseason that he can do that, he’s going to find himself in games.”

Ohio State will return to the practice field on Friday for day two of preseason camp.

Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.