Ohio State is making a few small changes to its pregame routine before home games this season.
During his first weekly radio show of the season on Thursday, Ryan Day said the Buckeyes will be staying at a hotel downtown on Friday nights this season rather than staying at the Blackwell Inn on campus as they have traditionally. He also revealed that the Buckeyes will wear team-issued sweats to the stadium this year rather than wearing suits as they typically have in recent seasons.
According to an Ohio State spokesperson, Ohio State made the decision to stay downtown so that the team would have more space for pregame walkthroughs. With other public events taking place at the Blackwell before games, Ohio State felt it would be more conducive to the team’s preparation to stay elsewhere.
Ohio State players will still participate in the pregame Skull Session at St. John Arena before walking from St. John Arena to Ohio Stadium approximately two hours before game time.
As for the decision to wear sweatsuits rather than suits and ties, Day said that was a decision made by the team’s leadership with a desire for all players to dress the same before games.
“We wanted everybody to look the same,” Day said. “The leaders felt like that was a good decision, and we all agreed on that. I kind of felt strong about that. So excited about that part of it.”
Day also said that the Buckeyes will be holding both offensive and defensive meetings on Friday nights this season, which they hadn’t done previously.
Other than those changes, however, “everything else is going to be the same,” Day said. The Buckeyes will continue to hold a more relaxed “Best Fridays in Football” practice on Fridays before going over to the Ohio State Golf Club for a team dinner. Aside from the aforementioned meetings, players will have the opportunity to rest on Friday nights before waking up ready to take the field on Saturdays.
“We call it best Fridays because we want to be relaxed, but we also want to lock in when it's time to lock in,” Day said. “And so we go from meetings to being relaxed, and then we get our rest. But, yeah, we'll do it that way. We are going to have a little bit of a meeting the night before on offense and defense, which we hadn't had in the past. So a couple little tweaks, but overall, very similar.”
