Ryan Day coaches his team from the sidelines during the Ohio State-Penn State game Saturday. Ohio State won 33-24. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
The Buckeyes know all about the College Football Playoff rankings.
Albeit, it’s been a while since No. 5 Ohio State owned a loss prior to the unveiling of the initial CFP Top 25.
The Buckeyes suffered their loss to Purdue when senior wide receiver Chris Olave was a freshman in 2018. That year, the playoff selection committee ranked a 7-1 Ohio State team No. 10.
Since then, two of the four losses Olave has experienced came in the playoff. While the Buckeyes placed No. 5 Tuesday, he said he knows the rankings can look much different at the end of the season.
“I feel like we all see the rankings, but we don’t really talk about it much,” Olave said. “It’s the first playoff rankings. We just got to keep playing.”
If the season ended today, Ohio State would just miss the cut for its third-straight playoff appearance. However, the Buckeyes are ranked ahead of undefeated conference leaders No. 6 Cincinnati, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Wake Forest and unranked UTSA.
Two of Ryan Day’s three losses as a head coach have come in the playoff. He said Tuesday while the playoff rankings offer great conversation points for college football, the Buckeyes don’t talk about them much.
Day said the fact that this year’s Ohio State team has experienced a lot in just nine weeks will help the Buckeyes down the line in future rankings.
“I think that’s good for a young team to have experienced big wins, big losses,” Day said. “It’s kind of been one of those seasons where we’ve already experienced a lot of things.”
Ohio State’s Week 2 loss served as a wake-up call for a team that entered that afternoon having won 22-straight regular-season games. The Buckeyes then turned defensive play-calling duties to secondary coach Matt Barnes, while defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs moved upstairs to the press box.
Ohio State’s offense then rolled to the No. 1 spots in total and scoring offense, while its defense currently leads college football in defensive scores. Day said he’s liked the way the Buckeyes have approached each day of the season, game days or otherwise.
“We are still young, but we’ve gained a lot of experience throughout the year,” Day said. “I’ve been impressed with how these guys have approached practice, how serious they approach their preparation.”
Graduate offensive lineman Thayer Munford, who was also around when the 7-1 2017 Buckeyes were ranked No. 6 in the first rankings before dropping to No. 10 following a loss at Iowa, said he doesn’t talk about the polls at all.
Munford has made two trips to the playoffs and said he knows to tell the younger Buckeyes to continue taking it one game at a time and not get caught up in rankings.
“Keep our head on straight, just keep doing us,” Munford said. “If we do the stuff that we do during practice and during games as well, we’re going to be in the semi-final and to the national championship again.”
The Buckeyes may be on track to follow Munford’s vision, completing a tall task in taking down then-No. 20 Penn State in a 33-24 win in Week 9. Prior to that, Ohio State had outscored opponents 231-44 over Weeks 4-7.
But, Munford said “you can’t look so far in the future,” and Olave expects the Buckeyes to do their thing. The preseason All-American receiver said, “November is the best football.”
The larger challenge of the season comes this month as Ohio State is scheduled for two top-10 matchups with No. 3 Michigan State and No. 7 Michigan.
Day said he believes in his team and feels it has learned a lot about itself. If Ohio State continues to play at the standard it holds itself to — while Day has yet to lose a conference game — the only ranking that will matter is the final one.
“I think this team likes football. They like preparing at a high level, and so now we’ve got to really prove how consistent we are here in November,” Day said. “This is where championships are won.”
