The Ohio State football team has less than a week left of Spring practice. They have gotten a lot of work done to get their young guy reps. This year, the Buckeyes will be playing a lot more young guys because of how many players they lost from the national championship team.
That's especially true on the defensive side of the ball. They are replacing nine starters, including the entire defensive line. That side of the ball is going to be more concerning for fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes this season because of how many new guys will be out there.
Ryan Day sounds like he's more concerned with that side of the ball, as well. One of the issues that he specifically called out as a problem is the defensive tackle position. It sounds like he is worried about that spot at this point in the Spring, which is concerncing.
Ryan Day is worried about the Ohio State football team's defensive tackles
After practice on Monday, Day was specifically asked about the defensive line. He remarked that he is worried about the defensive tackles, and he thought they would be further a long at this point than they are.
Ryan Day on what he's seen from Ohio State's defensive tackles this offseason:
— Chase Brown (@chaseabrown__) April 7, 2025
"There's been flashes," he said, "but in order for us to play defense like we did last year, we're gonna need those guys to step up more than they have. I think, again, there's ability there, but…
Day is holding this group to a high standard. He wants this group to play like they did last year. In order to do that, they need to play with more consistency than they have shown thus far. Of course, the Buckeyes still have six months to figure out how to get the defensive tackles to play better.
These comments also show that the Buckeyes might have more of an open competition at the defensive tackle spot than originally thought. It's unclear at this point whether or not that's a good thing. The Buckeyes still have to prove they have guys they can count on up the middle.
Some of this depends on what defense Matt Patricia wants to run, as well. It seems like he's probably going to run multiple defenses, but it's still unclear. Perhaps we learn a little bit more about that when the team takes the field for the Spring Game on Saturday.