Ryan Day<\/b>\u00a0has delivered a lot of bad news to the Ohio State football team this year.<\/p>\n
Beginning in March, Day had to tell the Buckeyes that\u00a0spring practice was canceled\u00a0and the players had to go home and quarantine due to the quickly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-August, after the Scarlet and Gray were prepared to play, Day had to tell the team\u00a0there would be no season.<\/p>\n
Once the season was back, twice Day had to inform his players that a game was canceled, once from his home because\u00a0he tested positive for COVID-19\u00a0along with a number of players.<\/p>\n
All of these have been difficult updates to provide the team. But on Tuesday, Day delivered the toughest news of all when he informed the Buckeyes that\u00a0the annual rivalry game against Michigan would not be played\u00a0due to COVID-19 issues with the Wolverines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired of giving the team bad news,\u201d Day said on\u00a0his radio show\u00a0on 97.1 The Fan on Thursday. \u201cIt was another one of those days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any game canceled is an opportunity lost for Ohio State. The Buckeyes, already playing a shortened season, want to be on the field as much as possible, both to get better and to showcase the team in the hopes of being selected for the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n
But losing this game is different. It\u2019s the rivalry. It\u2019s The Game. It\u2019s the one that Ohio State spends not just the week of preparing for\u00a0but 365 days per year working toward.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t just get that kind of news and you move on,\u201d Day said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just had so much invested in that game. Throughout the entire year, we play that game all the time, every day we honor this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were very devastated that they weren\u2019t playing that game. We\u2019ve been really looking forward to playing these guys. All of us. I certainly have for a while and really wanted to play them in the worst way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, Saturday was expected to be senior day at Ohio Stadium, the last time for most of the 27 Buckeye seniors to walk out onto that field. This is typically a day where fans get to honor these players for their years in scarlet and gray and families get to celebrate their legacy. While this year would have been different due to no fans in the stadium, it still is a normal privilege that these Ohio State players no longer will receive.<\/p>\n
Frustration has been a theme of 2020 for the Scarlet and Gray. From learning the Big Ten wasn\u2019t going to have a season despite other conferences playing to having the game against Michigan canceled, there have been disappointments throughout the year.<\/p>\n
What this has done, however, is make this team used to dealing with the news that Day has to deliver and figure out a way to process and move on. That\u2019s exactly what the Buckeyes did in this instance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing you can do in this 2020 is just try to do the best you can and just try and maximize the day,\u201d Day said. \u201cEarly on, that was not easy for our team but I think we\u2019ve gotten a lot better at it. I think we\u2019ve transitioned. And it wasn\u2019t a bunch of guys with their heads down. They were frustrated, they were angry but they were able to quickly transition again. I thought that was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Day had some good news to deliver to his team not long after The Game was canceled. On Wednesday, the Big Ten announced it had\u00a0eliminated the six-game rule to be eligible for the Big Ten Championship Game. This meant the 5-0 Buckeyes were heading to Indianapolis to compete for their fourth straight Big Ten title.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was good to be able to give them some good news,\u201d Day said. \u201cThey were very, very excited about that. It was a deep sigh of relief knowing that we have an opportunity to play in the Big Ten Championship Game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Scarlet and Gray received more good news in the form of some players returning after missing the game prior due to positive COVID-19 tests or close contact.\u00a0Ohio State tweeted out pictures from practice\u00a0that included linebacker\u00a0Tuf Borland<\/b>\u00a0and safety\u00a0Josh Proctor<\/b>, both of who missed the previous game. Others will be available again in time for the conference championship game as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a pretty good place right now with that. But it\u2019s day-to-day,\u201d Day said. \u201cSo the good news is, the guys that were affected with it the last week or so are starting to get back into the rhythm, we\u2019re getting them back into practice and they should be ready to roll for the game. But at the same time, everyone else has gotta be really on top of their game and really being careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohio State was able to turn the page and the focus quickly shifted from the disappointment of losing the Michigan game to Northwestern, the Big Ten West winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Day\u00a0has delivered a lot of bad news to the Ohio State football team this year. Beginning in…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n