Ryan Day believes Ohio State’s new pregame routine helped the Buckeyes minimize distractions before their season opener.
The news drew mixed reactions last week when Day announced on his weekly radio show that the team would stay at a hotel downtown rather than the Blackwell Inn, the on-campus hotel where the team previously stayed before games, on Friday nights before home games this season. Additionally, Ohio State decided that all players would wear team-issued sweatsuits for their arrival to the stadium this season rather than getting their own suits for gamedays.
One week into the new routine, however, Day believes the changes have been positive for his team.
“We talked about it as a staff and the Blackwell is great, it has been unbelievable for us, but not being right there on campus, it's just a little bit less of a distraction,” Day said of staying downtown during this week’s radio show. “It’s just a little bit more quiet, we're kind of by ourselves a little bit, and I think that helped us. Hopefully it will continue to move forward.
“And the whole deal with the sweatsuits and all that is just one less thing for our guys to worry about. I don't want them to have to worry about ties and what they're wearing and all these different things. (Equipment director) Kevin Ries will get you your sweatsuit, make sure everyone's zipped up and looking the same. We want to look exactly the same across the board and be a team. But it's also one less thing I don't need any of these guys to worry about. I want them to worry about playing really, really fast and violent on Saturday night.”
Because they stayed downtown, the team’s bus drove through campus on their way to St. John Arena to participate in the pregame Skull Session before walking over to the stadium. Day thought that drive provided a different perspective of Ohio State’s gameday atmosphere than that which the team has experienced staying at the Blackwell in past years.
“We actually went down towards all the Greeks (fraternity and sorority houses on campus), kind of going through in the morning, and kind of went through campus a little bit, which was neat,” Day said. “Our guys get a chance to see what game day is like as you're driving through campus and as people are getting ready for the game, so that was a unique experience that we hadn't experienced before – I hadn't experienced that before – because it’s always been right at the Blackwell. So to see it all, that was unique.”
Ohio State will look to build off of its new pregame routine with another decisive home win on Saturday night when the Buckeyes host Western Michigan (7:30 p.m., Big Ten Network) after defeating Akron 52-6 in their home opener at the Shoe last weekend.
The move to eliminate as many distractions as possible goes hand in hand with the focus Day wants his team to have in every game this season.
“Every area of our game has got to improve across the board, and that's the way we're looking at it right now,” Day said Wednesday. “We've got a long road ahead of us, and we've got to keep trying to find those inches.”
