Offensively, the impact of the lack of plays on player snap counts was most noticeable at the running back position, where no Buckeye played more than 22 snaps or carried the ball more than nine times on Thursday. The Buckeyes decided to play four running backs against Minnesota – Miyan Williams (who led the Buckeyes in both snaps and carries), Master Teague, Marcus Crowley and TreVeyon Henderson – and the lack of offensive snaps limited all of their opportunities to rack up carries.
“That game was unique in that there was only, we probably only played half a game,” Day said. “Maybe the numbers would have been different if it was a longer game and we got to 70 plays, and we just didn’t.”
Still, Williams and Henderson stood out, as Williams ran for a 71-yard touchdown and Henderson turned a screen pass into a 70-yard touchdown. Evidence, albeit limited, suggests that they’re the Buckeyes’ two most dynamic runners. And Day said Ohio State will likely shorten the rotation and get its top running back more carries against Oregon.
“I think so, yeah,” Day said when asked if the running back rotation would be shorter this week. “I wish we had more plays that we could evaluate, but yeah, I think that moving into this game, that’s probably the goal.”
When asked specifically if that would mean more carries for Williams and Henderson, however, Day was noncommittal, once again citing the lack of offensive snaps played against Minnesota.
“They made some plays, they did a good job and did what they were supposed to do, but it’s hard over just a handful of plays to make some hard decisions,” Day said. “But we’re gonna do that and try to figure out what’s best for this game.”
Defensively, substitution was the name of the game against Minnesota as the Buckeyes played 24 different defensive players against the Gophers, all with the game on the line. At times, those substitutions appeared frantic as the Buckeyes rushed to get players on and off the field, and the results of those substitutions weren’t great, as Ohio State allowed Minnesota to score 31 points on 408 yards of offense.
Both Day and defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs acknowledged that it was challenging for their defense to rotate as heavily as it did against the Gophers, but they felt that was necessary in order to adequately match up with Minnesota’s offensive formations.
“They would go from 11 personnel to like 13 with an extra tackle in the game. And so to make that big of a jump from 11 to 12 to 13, we wanted to match personnel in that game, because we felt like based on their style of play, that was really important,” Day said. “And so kind of what you saw in that game, it looked like a New York sidewalk at times. Guys are coming in, guys are coming out. And I thought they could have given us a little bit more time to sub. It seemed a little rushed at times. But that was unique to that game.”
Coombs said he “would take full responsibility for any of those situations that were challenging for our players based on stuff that they had not been exposed to.”
