Today’s Topic: What Will Buckeyes Be Doing Over the Summer?
Spring practice has been over for two months now, but that doesn’t mean the Buckeyes are taking it easy.
The process for championship teams doesn’t allow for much time off, even with NCAA rules in place to make sure there is no actual football going on.
While football activities can’t be organized by the program, players are free to do it on their own. Quarterback Justin Fields, for instance, will be sure to get with his receivers and throw often in order to build their rapport.
Players are permitted to participate in up to eight hours of team activities, which would include weight room work, conditioning, and also film work.
“Yeah, so they’re lifting, and they are in lifting groups based on what their class schedule is,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said last week. “Usually have three lifting groups a day and then we break them up differently every day. So sometimes it’s by position, sometimes by class, sometimes it’s offense and defense based on what kind of running we’ll be doing. We’re at an eight-hour week, and so you know those guys are in the weight room too. It’s lifting, they’re on the field doing some running, different drills and then they have classes.”
The players are still entrenched in the football facilities, however. The building has been retrofitted to be as inviting to players as possible. Study areas. Practice areas. Play areas. The Woody Hayes Athletic Center has it all, and the more the players are there, generally the better they do.
But the summer is not just about being somewhere, it’s more about doing something.
“Well, the first thing is leadership,” Day said. “The second thing really is you know getting some team camaraderie going and building those relationships with each other, building those relationships with the coaches. You know you don’t have a full course load in the summer, it’s a little lighter, so you get an opportunity build some of those things, you spend more time together, and I think that’s really really important.
“The football part of it, you know, in terms of strength and conditioning, speed, power, all those things are really important. We tested in the 40 last week and the numbers were off the charts, and that’s going great. But it’s really about building that team esprit de corps right now.”
