Today’s Topic: Is Ryan Day In a Hurry to Name Starters?
Way back in Urban Meyer’s day, the former Buckeye head coach would like to have as much of the two-deep set by the end of spring as possible.
He wanted his quarterbacks to be set. He wanted to know who his starting middle linebacker was. Overall, his assistant coaches needed to have a very good idea of what their respective depth charts looked like, and they knew it.
This would then allow the coaching staff to spend more time gameplanning for the first week’s opponent during training camp — or the second week’s opponent if the first one was a pushover.
It was still possible for the depth chart to change over the summer or during fall camp, of course, but whenever possible he wanted the depth chart set by the spring game.
Based on how things went this spring for new OSU coach Ryan Day, he isn’t quite as militant. He sees the process of choosing starters as ongoing. He wants the competition to continue because it makes the players better.
“Guys are continuing to compete for those spots,” Day said at the end of spring ball. “They’re trying not to look too much like it’s spring and then preseason as opposed to just a continuous practice. We have 15 here, spring game and then we go into the preseason. We just want to pick up from where we left off that way. And it’s the same thing with the competitions. Preseason’s a long time, it’s three weeks. So injuries happen, different things happen and we like to mix up the different guys working with each other.”
That isn’t to say he wouldn’t want to know who his starting quarterback is going to be at the earliest possible date, but knowing who the three technique defensive tackle is, or the strong safety, or the right guard isn’t the end all, be all at the moment.
What is more important for Day is that each of the players in the running — and those out of it — continue to get better. By having that starter’s carrot still out there dangling, players may stay locked in throughout an entire offseason, and then into fall camp.
“I think some positions it’s more important than others, but we always want to have competition,” he said. “So we’re not in a rush to name starters or anything like that. I don’t think that’s appropriate really until you get into the preseason. So yeah, the competition is really good because that drives guys to get better.”