Ohio State head coach Ryan Day speaks during an NCAA college football news conference at the Big Ten Conference media days at Lucas Oil Stadium, Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Indianapolis.
AP Photo | Darron Cummings
Polls and predictions?
Those two rituals of the preseason in college football say Ohio State will be one of the top teams in the country this season.
Ryan Day called them noise and distractions on Tuesday during the first day of Big Ten Football Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“Our focus is on this preseason as the next step. You’ll hear a lot of coaches say you can’t worry too much about what happened the season before and you can’t worry about what’s coming down the road. We all know there’s a lot of noise and other things about this team,” Day said.
“We can’t let those distractions distract our focus from what we need to do day in and day out. We have to have a great preseason, we have to lay a foundation for what’s to come,” he said.
The OSU coach, in his sixth season in that job, said, “Anytime you’re at Ohio State you’re always going to have expectations. It’s our job to block that out.
“Our guys know what the expectations are – win the rivalry game, win in this stadium to win a Big Ten championship and win a national championship. Every time we’ve gone into a game at Ohio State in my eight years, six years as head coach, we’ve expected to win.”
Day said the foundation of this season’s team started with several players who decided to come back for a fourth season at OSU instead of entering the NFL draft. That group included the three Buckeyes who came to media days – cornerback Denzel Burke, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka and defensive end Jack Sawyer.
“It started with the guys who decided to come back. They made that decision and now in the preseason you can see that look in their eyes,” he said.
Thursday’s session of media days started with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti speaking to the media.
Petitte said the Big Ten football championship game will remain in Indianapolis through 2028, though it is possible that game and other championship games could have new homes in the future.
He also said the Big Ten is not looking for more expansion at this time.
“We’re focused on the 18 right now. We’re really comfortable with where we are,” he said.
