Day Sticking To Game Plan Despite NCAA Rule Change

Ohio State’s offense was quickly introduced to the NCAA’s new rule changes intended to speed up the pace of play this season, as they logged just 10 total possessions in their season-opener against Indiana last Saturday — a number that they exceeded in every game during the 2022 season. 

While the program is well aware of these changes  — which no longer stops the clock on first downs unless there is under two minutes to play in a half — head coach Ryan Day said he has no intentions to alter his playbook, as he is sticking to his standard offensive scheme

“I don’t think you can get into that,” Day said on Thursday. “I think that that’s where you run yourself the risk of possibly losing the game. The number one goal every week has to be to win the game. And when you start worrying about anything else other than that, that’s when you can put yourself at risk. Now, we all like to win by a lot and we’re used to that, but at the end of the day you have to leave with a win and you can’t let your pride get in the way.

Day, who admitted that he would have liked to have more possessions against Indiana, said his team must walk the fine line between playing fast with aggression and playing rushed amid these new rule changes. According to the Buckeyes’ leader, an inability to balance that could lead to poor decision making. 

“As much as I was frustrated and wanted to keep going and scoring more and more points, we have to finish the game with a win. If you start turning the ball over, get reckless, then you can find yourself in a bad situation fast. And so we want to grow, we want to learn, we have to get better, but at the same time the goal is to win the game, and we did that.” 

Although he does not wish to change his play-calling and scheme, Day did mention that he considered ways to gain an extra possession during the season opener. This, according to the Buckeyes’ head coach, occurred before the game had already started, as he considered receiving the opening coin toss to start on offense to begin the game. 

“(We were) definitely considering it,” Day said. “Full disclosure, I’ve thought about it long and hard. I think there’s pluses and minuses to both. You have an opportunity to maybe set the tone for the game early on. But at the same time, winning that middle six minutes of the game is important too, when you can finish the two minute drive, and then you can come out in the third quarter and do really well, dominate that third quarter…So there’s a back and forth there. But I think it’s definitely worth considering and something that I’ve thought about here (the) last few days.

Despite the hesitancy to alter his gameplan, Day is still committed to playing with pace, intensity and aggression on offense throughout the season, as it is an approach that has been ingrained in his team’s identity since he arrived in Columbus in 2019. 

“We also have to make sure that schematically we’re doing the right thing, and that we’re putting guys in the right situation to be successful,” Day said. “So we’ll always have tempo as part of our game. And when we can utilize it as a weapon we will.”