How Ohio State is Solving the Biggest Challenge of the College Football Postseason

Winning the National Championship is hard enough in college football, but the schedule that the NCAA has created makes it nearly impossible. Staying competitively sharp is one of the hardest things that these teams have to do.

Ohio State's last football game was against the Indiana Hoosiers on Dec 6th, and they won't kick off against the Miami Hurricanes until December 31st. Its a 25-day gap in between football games, or 3.5 weeks, and that is just another challenge that these playoff teams face in the postseason.

Last year, the Buckeyes were on the positive side of this coin as they got to play a football game just two weeks after their final regular-season game and then caught an Oregon team that was on an extended break, making that Ducks team look like they never played football.

Part of that was that Ohio State was by far and away the better team, but there is absolutely an impact on the extended time off on how the team performs.

So much of a football season is how a team settles into a routine. Every Sunday is the same, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the same. Fridays can differ slightly based on travel, and then Saturdays are the game, and then the routine starts back over. 

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The players settle into their schedule, and they get into a weekly rhythm of balancing their academics, social life, and football life. Their body clocks build so that they are at their competitive peaks on Saturday.

Then, prior to the most important month of their football lives, its blown up.

It's no excuse, and it certainly is not a surprise. That doesn't take away from the fact that they still have to respond to it. 

Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia commented on it during his media availability earlier this week.

The intensity of practice has really been pretty high. Also, trying to balance how long we have been out there. Really try to hit it as hard as we can and then get off. Making sure that we are getting the proper rest... Some of those really competitive periods kind of keeps everyone with their edge, for sure.

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When he talks about those "competitive periods," he is referencing the specific times during specific practice days when the team competes "good on good." These periods are not an opponent scout period; they are Ohio State's best offense against Ohio State's best defense. 

These types of periods have a tendency to get very heated and super competitive. They could be in any situation, too. It could be a move the ball, 2 minute drill, red zone, coming out, or whatever crazy scenario Ryan Day wants to create.

I used to hate them as a quarterback because my mind was so locked in and set for what my opponent was doing that week that switching to a completely different scheme was a challenge.

However, in the past couple of weeks, Ohio State didn't have an opponent. They had the ability to focus on sharpening their own axe and keeping themselves competitively sharp. 

They need to be on it because they are catching an opponent who already got their feet wet in the playoffs and is set for their second game.