Ohio State's Ryan Day is taking over control of his Buckeyes heading into this postseason run.
Ohio State's offensive coordinator Brian Hartline has been half in and half out on this Buckeyes team over the past month. He's hardly to blame, as he is now the new head coach for the University of South Florida Bulls, so while simultaneously taking over a program, he is supposed to be creating a game plan for the Buckeyes.
Sometimes, there just isn't enough time in the day.
A couple of other coaches this cycle were doing the same thing. Jon Summeral was announced as the new Florida head coach while leading Tulane against Ole Miss, and Bob Chesney led James Madison into Eugene before taking over UCLA. Both of those teams got crushed in their first round games, and their offseasons started.
The difference between Hartline's situation and the other guys is that his team has the expectations of winning the whole thing.
In the one data point that Day has of Hartline double-dipping, the Buckeyes scored just 10 points against Indiana and twice had the football inside the 10 yard line and they came away with zero points.
Day, however, is not going to let that be the reason the Buckeyes don't repeat as National Champions.
On Monday, Day announced that he is taking over offensive play calling for the rest of the post season.
"It'll be a group effort. Keenan will be very much involved; everyone will be involved with the play calling. Ultimately, it will be my decision what calls go into the game. This game, I kind of wanted to take that off of Brian's plate as we head into the playoffs."
Historically, the Buckeyes' offense has thrived in these scenarios when Day decides to take over the play-calling duties heading into the postseason. The most recent examples of this were in 2022, when Day took back play-calling before Ohio State played Georgia, and they put up 41 on the Bulldogs.
Then, the time before that, in 2021 when the Buckeyes faced the high-powered Clemson Tigers and Day lead them to a 49 point explosion.
When Day has his hands on the trigger, this offense operates at a much higher rate. More importantly, when he is calling the plays, he goes for the dagger time and time again. He doesn't ease into a game or feel it out. He takes the game to the opponent and is the aggressor from start to finish.
I can predict that we won't be seeing much 13 personnel against Miami. Day is going to dial up a gameplan that is going to put the Buckeyes in the best position to score and to score in bunches.