Ohio State football: Day’s toughest non-conference challenge yet

The Ohio State football program is going to have its work cut out for them in the season-opener. The Buckeyes are playing a top-five team in Notre Dame now that the Coaches Poll has come out. It will be the toughest non-conference game Ryan Day has coached in and it’s not just because of Notre Dame’s ranking.

Playing a top-five team is always hard, but this one will have extra juice to it. Ever since Marcus Freeman said some things about his alma mater, Ohio State football fans have circled this one on the calendar. It’s going to be an emotionally charged game.

This is also the first game of the season. At least when the Buckeyes took on Oregon last year they had a game to warm them up, not that it did them any good. But this Notre Dame team is more talented than that Oregon team that came in and beat the Buckeyes, and that’s scary.

Day hasn’t had to face many tough non-conference opponents in the regular season so far as a head coach. he coached the TCU game in 2018, but that TCU team ended up losing six games. They didn’t play any Power 5 programs in the non-conference schedule in 2019 either.

While this will be his toughest non-conference test so far, I think it’s a test he can pass. We know how good the offense is, but the entire offseason has been about building the defense. As long as Jim Knowles has this defense more ready to play than they were against Oregon last year, it will be an improvement.

These are the types of games that elite coaches win. Day has some impressive wins on his resume already. He could add another one with a win on September 3rd.