Ohio State Football: Biggest area of adjustment for Ryan Day

Heading into this season, the Ohio State football team sees some pressure. Specifically, Ryan Day will have some pressure. This is the first year where the majority of the roster is made up of his recruits. They are no longer Urban Meyer’s recruits. That means Day has full command of the roster.

Day is also coming off his worst season as head coach. He lost two games in the regular season and the Buckeyes lost to TTUN for the first time in ten years. That’s something that can’t be repeated this year and he knows it. He knows he has to make some adjustments.

The biggest thing he needs to work on is instilling mental toughness in his team. The Ohio State football team was soft last year, plain and simple. They folded in the biggest moments when things got tough and didn’t try to impose their will in the two games they lost. Heck, they didn’t do that in some of the games they won too.

Mental toughness is an underrated skill. It’s something that all coaches want their teams to have, but only the best teams can lean on it when things get hard. Ohio State wasn’t able to do that a year ago and that’s why they didn’t play for a Big Ten championship.

If Day doesn’t get his team to change its mindset, it could be more of the same this year. The Buckeyes have all of the physical talent in the world to have a great season. What’s between the ears is what’s going to make or break the season in terms of results.

We’re going to get a good look at how mentally tough this team is in the first game of the year against a good Notre Dame team. That will tell us how much work was done in the summer to change the mindset within this team.