Normally Ryan Day is roaming the sidelines on a college football Saturday, but this past weekend, he took the opportunity to kick back and be a fan.
It's probably not all that surprising that his approach to game-watching is the same as a lot of men around the country, although it's probably speaking from more authority than the typical armchair quarterback. He's putting himself in the on-screen coach's shoes and calling out what he would do.
"Every time it's the end of the half, every time it's a decision you made, every time it's the end of the game, you're putting yourself in that situation," Day said Tuesday. "And I'm actually saying it out loud sometimes. RJ and my wife, they'll be kind of talking to me about it because I just constantly say it and I'm just talking, 'OK, if this thing goes down to this down-and-distance, would we go for it right here?' Or, 'Is this a timeout situation? What exactly is going on here?'"
Even for Day and others that have been around football for decades, there are always little things to pick up and analyze.
"It gives you good perspective," Day said. "You get the chance to see some games, see some situational things to learn from, get to see some other teams out there. Just watching the game in your living room is a different experience. So I think our guys got a chance to get some of that. We visited (with the team) on Sunday, had a team meeting, went out there, had our typical Sunday routine. That was good. And now we'll get back here (to practice) on Tuesday."
Day's off-week gameday routine is a simple one. After spending some quality time with his family, he sits back in his seat of choice and hops back and forth game to game from afternoon until the night.
"You get up in the morning, have breakfast with the family and try to spend some time with the family the best you can," Day said. "I talk to our guys about balance is not an equal distribution of time and energy, It's building high ground for hard times. You do that through faith, family, and friends. So you've got to get around your family and get around your faith and get around your friends a little bit.
"But we don't have a whole bunch of time for that. So you get that done in the morning and then the games start at noon. We all just need to get off our feet and rest a little bit and kick our feet up."
It's not just himself he wants to learn from situations that arise on the television screen, Day wants his players to pay attention too. Even on non-bye weeks, Day said he'll sometimes have the team's video staff put together a few clips of situations that happened in games around the country for the staff and players to analyze.
"It's something that I think our guys had an opportunity to do and we brought up some of those situations on Sunday," Day said. "Learned from a few of the game situations in-game, end of game. And I think it's just healthy to do that when you have that opportunity."
Alongside monitoring what other teams are doing on third down or in the red zone, Day is also seeing how other athletes work following their training programs, the emotions expressed by teams on the sidelines and what types of players are at which positions among a litany of other things.
"You watch the coaches. You watch the players. You watch the demeanor. You watch the body types," Day said. "You watch the situations. You learn from it. It just gives you a great perspective, you don't find yourself in those situations very often, especially early in the season."
Day and the Buckeyes will go from watching to playing again in three days against Marshall. Kickoff is at noon on FOX.
