Ohio State head coach Ryan Day prepares to lead his team onto the field before a game against Western Michigan on Sept. 7 in Ohio Stadium.
Joshua Keeran | The Gazette
COLUMBUS — With the first of two bye weeks in the rearview mirror, No. 3 Ohio State is back in the flow of game-week preparations ahead of its final non-conference game of the season against the Marshall Thundering Herd on Saturday.
Last week, head coach Ryan Day referred to the bye week as an “improvement week” and stressed the importance of his team utilizing the practice days to get better while not letting the quirkiness of a week-three bye disrupt their momentum. Speaking with media on Tuesday, Day was pleased with how his team handled the challenge.
“It’s just based on how you approach it,” Day said of the potential disadvantages of an oddly timed bye week. “Our approach was that it is what it is and we’re going to have to handle it. So we went out there and had an improvement week, and I felt like we had three hard, physical days out there. And then we had a chance to step away for a couple of days and watch some games on Saturday, and we kind of asked everybody to do that and get some rest.”
Day said of the ability of the coaches and players to watch football, “It gives you good perspective. It gives you the chance to see some games and see some situational things to learn from, see some other teams out there. Just watching the game in your living room is a different experience, and I think our guys got a chance to get some of that. We visited on Sunday and had our team meeting … The idea was to get better. I think we did that last week and now we’ll get back into game week. But we tried to keep the same rhythm last week as we rolled through it.”
Like Ohio State, Marshall was also off last week, allowing the Herd to recover following a 31-14 loss to Virginia Tech in week two. Asked about this week’s opponent and the challenges he expects to face, Day was complimentary of fourth-year Marshall head coach Charles Huff and the program he’s built.
“They have a very good (coaching) staff,” Day said. “Coach Huff is very well respected and does a great job of recruiting, does a good job with his team, and has been a very good coach in college football for a long time. He’s hired a very good staff with a mix of youth and experience, and he gets his guys to play hard. They’re athletic. They have a big front on the defensive side. They have an identity on offense where they want to spread you out and throw it around a little bit while mixing some runs in.
“So I think he does a very, very good job, and they’re going to come in here and play open and free. And we’ll have a great environment, so they’ll be jacked up for that. But a lot of respect for his program and what he does.”
Ohio State can expect to be near full health on Saturday thanks to the return of starting left guard Donovan Jackson, who missed the first two games due to injury. Day said Jackson could have played last week if necessary but will be “ready to roll” this week assuming Jackson has a clean week of practice.
In Jackson’s absence, sophomore Austin Siereveld filled in admirably, and Day wouldn’t rule out the possibility of utilizing Siereveld as a sixth offensive lineman on the field should Ohio State ever find itself in a position where such a formation could be deployed.
“It hasn’t really come up a bunch, but if we need that type of situation, now you have somebody that you trust and has earned that trust from the guys around him by the way he’s played in the first couple of games,” Day said.
At right guard, Tegra Tshabola continues to hold down the starting position after winning the job in preseason camp. While Siereveld’s play has turned heads and created badly needed depth at the position, Day said nothing has changed with Tshabola’s status heading into Saturday.
“He is the starter and has played good football,” Day said of Tshabola. “We’ll see how the week plays out. We’re going to try to find ways to get Austin in the game because we feel like he’s earned that opportunity. How it shakes out this week, we’ll see. But right now, Tegra is the starting right guard.”
Day said he believes Jackson’s return “solidifies everything up front” and will improve the communication along the line, which he noted is critical for the offense’s execution. By solidifying the line of scrimmage, Day hopes his offense can continue to push toward finding its identity as the weeks progress and the stakes continue to rise.
“I think we’re getting there,” Day said of the offense finding its identity. “I still think it’s early in the process, but I think you saw a little bit of that last Saturday just in terms of the mix that we had and some of the schemes we’re running. We’re running inside zone, running stretch, getting the ball on the perimeter, mixing in play-action passes, and trying to get the ball into our guys’ hands. The mixture of all those things, along with the quarterback running and mixing up tempos, puts stress on the defense.”
He added, “We always want to have a combination of zone schemes and gap schemes up front, and we’re starting to get there. We’re still not where we need to be. We still don’t have a full complement of stuff out there just yet, but we’re building towards that right now. At least the balance we had and the energy we played with a couple of weeks ago is what we’re looking for, but it’s just a starting point.”
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.
