'Not a lot of sleep.' With CFP, signing day on tap, OSU coach Ryan Day is going full speed
Ohio State hasn’t played a game in more than two weeks and won’t play again for 2½ weeks.
Yet this might be the most hectic time of the year for Ryan Day.
The Ohio State coach is leading the No. 4 Buckeyes in preparing for their College Football Playoff semifinal game against No. 1 Georgia at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve.
Day also is trying to secure OSU’s recruiting class before next Wednesday’s early signing day, a task complicated by a landscape transformed by name, image and likeness rights established last year.
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Then there’s the transfer portal, which re-opened last week. Linebacker Teradja Mitchell and defensive backs Jaylen Johnson and Jantzen Dunn have entered the portal.
How does a coach navigate all of it?
“Just don't sleep,” Day said with an I'm-not-exaggerating-much smile. “You're not allowed to sleep.”
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Day said he would jump on a plane for recruiting trips after Tuesday’s practice and return for practice Thursday.
“Growing up, when you hear the month of December, you think about Christmas and holiday times and everything else,” Day said. “When I think of December, I think about bowl practice. I think about recruiting. I think about home visits. I think about the transfer portal. I think about all these different things.”
For players, this is final exams week before winter break.
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Day questions the wisdom of having the December calendar be so crowded, but he’s not complaining. Better to be swamped for a CFP semifinal than have to prepare for a non-playoff bowl game.
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“You want to be in the CFP this time of year,” Day said. “You want to be involved with great recruits. You want to have all this stuff going on, and that's exciting.
“It's energizing because you're relevant this time of year, and you're involved in some great recruits, and you're swinging as hard as you can. It's exactly the way you want it, even though sometimes you wake up with not a lot of sleep.”
The Buckeyes’ playoff chances looked slim after their loss to Michigan, but Utah’s defeat of No. 4 Southern California in the Pac-12 championship game gave OSU what Day has termed a second lease on life.
He said his team looks determined to take advantage of it.
“I think our practices have been spirited so far,” Day said. “I think the guys have really had good urgency about them. They have a good feel for what this is going to be like and just the electricity and how important every play is going to be in this game.”
Day said the team is working on fundamentals now, with game-planning to start soon before the team heads to Atlanta on Dec. 26.
“I think the biggest thing I notice is that this time of year, usually you're taking a big exhale and catching your breath for finals," he said. "I just feel a bit of urgency when we walk on the field. I just feel a little bit of a different look in their eye, like when we're on the field, we're out there to work.”
Ryan Day on Ohio State star Jaxon Smith-Njigba
He said he is generally optimistic about the team’s health. One player who won’t play is wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who announced last week that his hamstring injury won’t heal in time.
“Nobody was more frustrated than Jaxon,” Day said. “Nobody wanted to play more than Jaxon. I know that.
“It was tough this year, not having him. We had a lot of the offense kind of designed around him and then had to adapt as time went on.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ryan Day, Ohio State football have busy December with Signing Day, CFP
