Did Ohio State’s 2023 schedule best prepare the Buckeyes to beat Michigan?

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio State always has a large poster of its regular season schedule up on the wall of its team meeting room with the home games in red and the away games in white.

This year’s features a schedule with six of each color with many of its biggest games being in white. It’s been a challenging schedule for a team, needs to replace a quarterback and three starters on its offensive line. But according to head coach Ryan Day, it’s ben the perfect way to build up to the most important game of the season.

“We have the schedule right over there and I point to those white blocks right there,” Day said. “The teams we knew we had to go on the road this season more than we had in the past and certainly knew we had to go on the road for this one. Like I said before it’s all preparation for the for the last game of the year.”

The Buckeyes are closing out the regular season with a road game against a ranked opponent with the entire world watching. Though it’s a tough environment, it’s also not the first time it’ll have that experience.

They’ve already have games under their belt such as a primetime game against Notre Dame when the Fighting Irish were considered a top-10 team. They’ve also beaten Penn State and played on the road against Wisconsin. The environment in Ann Arbor takes things up a notch. But Day knows that having to play in multiple big games throughout the year already has him team prepare for whatever happens on Saturday.

“It’s been great to get battle-tested,” Day said. “Our team does have a relative reference point. It’ll be loud, it’ll be hostile (and a) great environment. We’ve been in those before. A reference point going into the game is important.

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What else did Day say?

• On the intensity of this year’s game, and what he’s told his team about keeping composure: “You have to play with emotion, but you can’t let emotion play with you.”

• Thinks they’ve made some progress in different areas of the run game, and TreVeyon Henderson coming back has been a big part of that.

• On putting personal feelings aside this week: “Not that it’s easy, but the only thing that matters is this game, is this team, is preparing. We have got to stay disciplined enough.”

• “I was taught that the way you respect a rivalry is to work it every day, whether that’s in the weight room, game-planning, talking to your players...We do. We respect the rivalry. Certainly excited to play on Saturday.”

• Playing in big game on the road earlier this season has been a big positive this season, considering Saturday will be a loud, hostile environment.

• Does Ryan Day respect Jim Harbaugh: “With everything going on and the things that are out there, we’ve just stayed focused on our team.”

• On playing well in the red zone against Michigan: “First off, they haven’t had very many snaps down there. So there’s not a ton to go off of. You’ve got to do a great job of execution.”

• There have already been conversations about how Ohio State plans to handle being in the tunnel at Michigan Stadium heading out to the field making sure they “focus on what matters.”

• On The Game being different moving forward: “I don’t know if that’ll be the case, I’m sure there’ll always be just as much on the line when these two teams play.”

• On confidence of the offensive line: “You’re seeing improvement every week.” Said there’s been improvements both individually and as a unit, and that they’re as confident as they’ve been all season.