Ryan Day's involvement in defensive rotation is a damning sign for key Ohio State assistant
The Ohio State Buckeyes sit 3-0 and have blown out each opponent thus far, but Saturday's contest against Marshall revealed a concern for Ryan Day and one of his staff members. With the Big Ten schedule starting this week, as Ohio State travels to Michigan State, one potential area for weakness has emerged. Day stepped […]
The Ohio State Buckeyes sit 3-0 and have blown out each opponent thus far, but Saturday's contest against Marshall revealed a concern for Ryan Day and one of his staff members. With the Big Ten schedule starting this week, as Ohio State travels to Michigan State, one potential area for weakness has emerged.
Day stepped in as he noticed a lack of gameday adjustments. Well, there were adjustments, but just not quality ones. This has continued to be an issue under defensive line coach Larry Johnson.
The Buckeyes were without star defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, who is a top-20 player on our 2025 NFL Draft Big Board. But that's not an excuse to allow what happened against Marshall. The Thundering Herd dominated the first half with long drives, racking up 46 plays and bleeding the clock.
While it's good that the Buckeyes got four tackles a new career-high in snaps, only Kayden McDonald was effective. It was a bad time for J.T. Tuimoloau to have another quiet outing and Williams to be out. The Buckeyes only produced four defensive pressures on the day.
Zach Boren and Austin Ward of THE Podcast talked about a verbal interaction they noticed between Day and Johnson during the game. Day was visibly upset about the packages of personnel Johnson was using, calling for a rush package when the Marshall offense was about to have a major advantage.
It's not like Day to step into personnel decisions on defense, as he's trusted the 72-year-old as the Associate Head Coach. Johnson has been with the Buckeyes for more than a decade. However, recent years have shown cracks in his foundation, as Ohio State has lacked a star edge rusher since Chase Young left.
Now, the Buckeyes also appear aware of their lack of depth and a viable rotation. If Day doesn't trust Johnson to read situations correctly, then Johnson's tenure should honorably end after this season.
Despite his reputation as an incredible person and coach, Johnson's touch has disappeared, and Day seems to have lost some trust in him. Of Ohio State's top-graded players this week, Tywone Malone was the only tackle to post a quality number from PFF.
Jason Moore, Ty Hamilton, and Hero Kanu were in the average range, which is not good enough for Ohio State's goals.
This is now a tricky situation for Day, as he's dealing with unprecedented expectations and pressure in 2024-25. The Buckeyes have a championship-caliber roster, but it's possible they got complacent with a coach who is living a bit too much off reputation and not on-field results.
