More Intense Than Originally Planned Spring Leaves Ryan Day Hungry for More As Ohio State’s Offseason Continues

When Ohio State began spring practice on March 17, Ryan Day was worried about the toll 15 practices might take on his players’ bodies after a 16-game season. When Ohio State concluded spring practice on Saturday, Day found himself wishing the Buckeyes had 15 more spring practices.

Day’s shift in mindset from wanting to dial things back this spring to wanting as many practice reps as possible occurred rapidly and steadily over the last four weeks. While Day went into the spring saying the Buckeyes would hold fewer padded practices than past springs in the interest of prioritizing players’ health with hopes of making another national championship run this fall, he said during the final week of practices that it ended up being “one of the most physical spring balls we’ve ever had.”

That increase in intensity reflects two realities that Ohio State is facing entering the 2025 season.

One of them was on full display between the first and second quarters at Ohio Stadium on Saturday. The senior leaders of last year’s national championship team – Will Howard, TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Donovan Jackson, Seth McLaughlin, Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, Cody Simon, Denzel Burke and Lathan Ransom, among others – were in the Shoe on Saturday not in uniform, but in street clothes, to receive their championship rings. In total, Ohio State is expected to have 15 players selected in the NFL draft later this month (and another two potentially signed as free agents), which means the Buckeyes have to replace the significant majority of their stars from last season.

The Buckeyes still have some very notable returning stars from last season, starting with wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and safety Caleb Downs, arguably the two best players in college football. And they have plenty of other talented players with the ability to emerge as stars around them. But they have just six returning players who were full-time starters for Ohio State last season – Smith, Carnell Tate, Tegra Tshabola, Sonny Styles, Davison Igbinosun and Downs – and that lack of established veterans has increased Day’s sense of urgency to ensure the rest of Ohio State’s potential starters get plenty of quality reps in practice before the season begins.

“I think once you get past some of the guys who have played football here with the ones, it quickly gets inexperienced fast,” Day said after Saturday’s spring game. “Even the guys who are going to be starters next year, they haven't played a lot of football as starters. They’ve played football, but not as starters. That's a whole different deal. You have to produce regularly. You have to be able to handle an increased number of snaps at a high level. It's a whole different deal.

“We lost talent, but more importantly, we lost experience. We're still talented, but we lost the experience. And every time you go out there, you're either remembering or you're learning. We have a lot of guys learning right now. We do. So we've gotta just accelerate that learning process and figure out what that plan is here this summer and how we do that. Our offseason program’s still going to be as hard as ever. And then as we get into preseason, we've got to do a great job of making sure, again, we're creating as many game situations as possible.”

Making Ohio State’s preseason preparation all the more important is the fact that the Buckeyes open their season against Texas in a game that could very well be a matchup of the preseason No. 1 and No. 2 teams. While the Buckeyes had the benefit last year of opening the season with an easy slate of non-conference games against Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall, they must be ready to play their best football right away this season if they want to avoid taking a Week 1 loss.

“We know who our first opponent is, so we know we have to hit the ground running,” Day said. “We don't have the luxury of kind of easing into the season – not that that's even really the case, I shouldn't say that – but you know what I'm talking about. So the margin for error, I guess, is the best way to look at it.”

Given that, Day was glad he decided to proceed forward with Ohio State playing a traditional spring game after initially leaving the door open for not finishing spring with a full scrimmage by rebranding the final practice of the spring at Ohio Stadium as a spring showcase.

“Right from the jump from when we got off the bus to when we just finished there, I'm glad we did this. I'm glad we did the spring game. I wasn't sure, but it was definitely the right thing to do,” Day said. “I wish we could have stayed out there for another four hours and gotten these reps and gotten these guys to work.”

“We have a lot of guys learning right now. We do. So we've gotta just accelerate that learning process.”– Ryan Day on the inexperience of this year’s team

Day’s comments throughout his post-spring game press conference made it clear that he doesn’t think his team is where it needs to be yet if it’s going to beat Texas or win another national championship. He talked about the need for continued growth at just about every position group he was asked about, and indicated that Ohio State will consider further additions to its roster – particularly along the defensive line, where Ohio State still has a clear need for defensive tackle depth – as the transfer portal reopens next week for its post-spring window.

But this spring also offered plenty of promise for what the 2025 Buckeyes have the potential to become. Julian Sayin’s strong spring game showing, as well as clear signs of improvement from Lincoln Kienholz this spring, created optimism at quarterback. It’s apparent that Ohio State remains loaded with playmakers at the offensive skill positions, and its offensive line looks stronger coming out of spring than it has at this time the last few years. The spring game didn’t offer a great look at Matt Patricia’s defensive scheme, as Day said the Buckeyes intentionally kept things “very, very vanilla” on that side of the ball, but there were plenty of up-and-coming defenders who showed the potential to emerge as new stars on the defense alongside Downs, Styles and Igbinosun this season.

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Most of all, Day came out of spring excited about the competitive drive his team showed over the past four weeks. Although the Buckeyes’ returning players are still less than three months removed from winning a national title, Day saw no complacency from his team this spring as it looks to build upon what it accomplished last season.

“I think the first thing you notice about this team is they compete. They're competitive. They're edgy,” Day said.

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