Ohio State is walking into one of its biggest tests of the season, and Ryan Day made it clear Tuesday that Saturday’s trip to Bloomington will be about more than rankings.
The No. 4 Buckeyes head to Memorial Stadium to face No. 5 Indiana, and Day spent his weekly press conference zeroing in on the parts of the matchup that figure to decide it: health, line play, Indiana’s passing game and the need to stay sharp for four quarters.
There is some good news for Ohio State on the injury front. Day said Monday on the Buckeye Roundtable Show that several of the five or six starters who sat out last week’s win over Maryland could be back against Indiana, though he stopped short of saying all of them will return.
"I don't think we'll get all of them back," Day said Tuesday. "But we should get a good portion of them back for Indiana."
Offensive lineman Austin Siereveld, who missed the Maryland game with an unspecified illness, is still day-to-day. Receivers Brendan Inniss and Devin McCuin, linebacker Christian Alliegro and offensive linemen Phillip Daniels and Leroy Roker III are all in the mix to come back.
Day also pushed aside any temptation to linger on Ohio State’s loss to Indiana in last season’s Big Ten Championship Game. He said the past can offer lessons, especially after the Buckeyes struggled on third down and in the red zone in that game, but his focus was firmly on what comes next.
"Nothing that happened in the past has anything to do with this weekend," Day said. "We can learn from the past, so some of those guys that played in that game can learn from all the reasons why we came up short, and that's good.
That's fine. But the focus has to be on right now, and that's it."
If there was one theme Day returned to over and over, it was the battle up front.
"Everything is going to start up front in this game," Day said.
That’s a big point for Ohio State if the Buckeyes are leaning on offensive line depth again. Day didn’t sugarcoat the challenge posed by Indiana’s defensive front.
"It's going to be a huge challenge. They do an excellent job up front on defense," Day said. "Their defensive line is one of the biggest challenges we'll have all season."
Indiana’s offense got plenty of attention too, especially quarterback Josh Hoover and his top targets Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh. Day said Hoover has been efficient and credited the Hoosiers’ structure for helping him take care of the ball.
"He's playing really efficient. They're doing a good job of putting him in the system that takes care of the ball," Day said. "You have to give a lot of credit to their scheme."
As for Becker and Marsh, Day was just as direct in his praise.
"These guys in particular are very clean route runners," Day said. "They're really strong on contact, have really good body control, have run-after-the-catch ability.
"Certainly, Becker has made some big-time plays in big-time moments, and Marsh is playing as good as anybody right now. This is a huge challenge for our secondary."
Marsh is coming off his best game as a Hoosier, finishing with six catches for 187 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns against Nebraska. Combined with Becker and Marsh’s big-play history against Ohio State, Indiana enters Saturday with two receivers who can flip the game in a hurry.
Day also knows what kind of setting his team is about to face. Ohio State has already been tested on the road at Texas and Iowa, but he expects Bloomington to be a different kind of atmosphere.
"It's going to be loud," Day said. "So we've got to be able to handle the silent cadence."
Indiana has not lost a home game under Curt Cignetti, and with a top-five showdown on deck, Memorial Stadium is shaping up for one of its biggest nights yet.
Day’s final warning was simple: no lapses, no breathers, no drifting.
"You have to stay focused for 60 minutes," Day said. "You take a play off, and these guys will hurt you. We can't do that."
Indiana’s rally at Nebraska was the perfect example. The Hoosiers erased a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit and pulled out a 20-17 win, a reminder that this team doesn’t need much room to make things swing fast.
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Indianas Offense Showed Exactly Why This 6-0 Start Feels Different
Indianas 6-0 start has been impressive for plenty of reasons, but the win at Nebraska offered a clearer look at why this team feels different. In a tight road game, the offense found answers when it needed them most, with Josh Hoover managing the game cleanly and delivering 263 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Up front, Carter Smith helped keep the pocket steady, and the unit as a whole stayed remarkably composed, drawing only one penalty from center Austin Leibfried.
Nick Marsh supplied the kind of late-game burst that can turn a good start into something more, finishing with six catches for 187 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Indiana has won in different ways already this season, but this one carried a little more weight because it came away from home, in a close finish, and with the offense showing it can stay patient, protect the quarterback and still strike quickly when the moment opens up. [Read more 🡒]
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Indianas win over Nebraska looked nothing like the shootout many expected, and that made it stand out all the more. In a game between teams that had both been averaging more than 40 points per outing, the Hoosiers won 20-17 by leaning into defense, something that has become a genuine point of pride as the season has worn on.
Pro Football Focus grades backed up what the scoreboard already suggested, with Mario Landino, Tobi Osunsanmi and Preston Zachman drawing strong marks for work in the run game, pass rush and coverage. Indiana also asked a lot of outside linebackers Rolijah Hardy and Isaiah Jones, who logged plenty of snaps and were tested often through the air, another sign of how hard Nebraska had to work just to move the ball against this group. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Faces Its Biggest Ohio State Problem In Season-Defining Rematch
Indiana heads into its rematch with Ohio State with plenty on the line, and the setup feels familiar in all the ways the Hoosiers would prefer to avoid. Both teams are unbeaten in Big Ten play, both are sitting near the center of the conference title picture, and the winner will take a major step toward controlling the race and improving its College Football Playoff position. For Indiana, the added wrinkle is a new quarterback in Josh Hoover, who now gets the chance to steer the offense through the biggest test of the season.
On the other side is the problem that has loomed over so many Ohio State opponents this fall: Jeremiah Smith. The star receiver has been productive enough to change how defenses have to play the Buckeyes, and that makes him the clear focal point for an Indiana defense trying to pull off a second straight win over Ohio State. If the Hoosiers are going to keep their place near the top of the Big Ten picture, they will have to deal with the game-breaking threat that has made Ohio State so difficult to contain. [Read more 🡒]