Ryan Day, Buckeyes Focused On Eliminating Unnecessary Penalties

It has never been all that unusual to see an Ohio State football player jogging around the perimeter of the field during practice. It usually means that that player is dealing with some type of minor injury and while he isn’t able to practice, the coaches and strength staff still want him to get some exercise in.

Now if you see a player taking a jog, they may be perfectly healthy, they’re just being punished for committing a penalty.

No team in the nation last year committed more penalties than Ohio State (116) or for more yards (1,055). Six times, the Buckeyes committed 10 or more penalties, including games against Penn State (10-105), Purdue (10-86), Maryland (10-79), and Michigan (12-150).

Two of those games were 1-point wins for the Buckeyes and a third was a 29-point loss.

Imagine the outcome of the Penn State or Maryland game if the Buckeyes had committed an ill-timed 11th penalty.

Ryan Day has likely done just that because he’s had enough of the penalties and it has been a focus so far in camp.

“Huge. Any time somebody does a false start, they do a lap,” he said. “We stop practice right then and there and they do a lap. May not seem like a big thing, but they missed the whole period. It matters now. So far in camp we’ve done a pretty good job.”

The Buckeyes were whistled for 142 penalties last season, 116 of which were accepted. Of those 116 penalties, 27 were false starts, 13 were offside calls, and six others came before the ball was ever snapped.

The most frustrating aspect of the penalties for Day is how many of them had nothing to do with talent.

“A lot of it was the false starts, amazingly,” he said. “Some of them were holding. I know there were other penalties along the way. If we can cut down on those non-talent ones where it’s just false starts, procedures, illegal motions, any of the pre-snap stuff, it’s just a matter of us staying disciplined, we’ll be fine.”

Day acknowledges that penalties are part of the game. He’d just rather see them come about as part of the play itself, rather than happening before the ball is ever snapped.

“The effort stuff, sometimes there will be a holding, maybe a late hit, because you’re giving effort. That’s one thing,” he said. “But the procedural stuff we have to put an end to. That’s been the emphasis in preseason.”