Ryan Day has obviously made a concerted effort all year to limit the number of plays in each game. He has addressed the issue directly, talking about how the 16 games the Buckeyes expect to play is effectively an "NFL schedule" and the season needs to be managed as such. He has taken the steps necessary to ensure that his team is ready for the long march ahead.
Some here might argue that, since 8 of the 11 games so far have been decided by more than 3 scores, that he could have increased the pace of play, beaten teams worse and played backups more, thus still limiting the number of hits on the starters. Fair enough, but Ryan was up front about the values that he managed the team by, so let's judge him on those expressly stated values. Here is a table of all of FBS and their total plays per game in 2024.
View attachment 54709View attachment 54710
Judged by his own standards, I'd say "mission accomplished".
Just one observation... Ohio State has played 1338 total plays on offense and defense this year. Tennessee has played 200 more (1538).
Between that and having played backups in the 4th quarter of more than half of their games, I would like where this team was at if the offensive line looked less like a civil war battlefield.