Ryan Day had a lot of issues to solve this offseason. The championship glory quickly shifted to a mass exodus gloom at Columbus, forcing Day to become hyperactive in the portal. The beleaguered head coach continued to surrender to that call, bolstering their 2025 class. Recently, they added five-star cornerbacks Davin Sanchez and Na’eem Offord to the chart. But would it suffice to stop an electrifying Texas defense during a tough early-season test in August? Well, take that chance with a pinch of salt for now. Because a new Texas defense is brewing red hot!
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The Ohio State locker room exits have taken a serious toll on their post-championship era, no matter how hard Day tries to refill it. Firstly, the OSU defense faced a strong challenge when their championship-caliber defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles, moved on to Penn State. They have also lost eight of their senior starters, including Jack Swayer, JT Tuimoloau, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon. There has also been an impending change in the defensive scheme, replacing their four-front-down strategy with a new one devised by the new DC.
Julian Sayin question continues to sting Ryan Day’s offense
“A lot of us coming into the spring season were under the assumption that it was going to be Julian Sayin. Well, by all accounts, that’s not really the way it’s working out right now,” McElroy said on the Always College Football podcast. “Julian Sayin, by all accounts, did not have a great scrimmage last week. It sounds like he kind of struggled on Saturday. The expectation level of Julian Sayin was nowhere near what we ended up getting, and that’s a little bit concerning.”
Sayin must stand out among the other competitors, Lincoln Kienholz and Tavien St. Clair. And as far as the Spring observation depicts, Kienholz looked a lot more poised and in better control last week than Sayin. But even if we ignore that and deem Sayin as a winner of the job, the future might not look like a guarantee.
On3’s JD PicKell puts Sayin in his place, saying he doesn’t just need to produce well on the starting gig. He rather needs to play the role of the elevator to the entire offense, just like his predecessor (Will Howard) used to do. We will see if Ryan Day will find the answers going forward and flip the script during the epic fight with the Longhorns.