Craig Has The Scout Ohio State 2026
Coming Up
Who: Ohio State Buckeyes
When: Saturday, September 26, 2026, 11:00 AM CT
Where: Ohio Stadium (Columbus, OH)
How: FOX (Big Noon Saturday)
Prepare yourself for Gus Johnson (Play-by-play), Joel Klatt (Color Analyst), and Jenny Taft (Sideline Reporter).
Opponent Primer:
Head Coach: Ryan Day
Ryan Day carries himself like a man who owns a Ferrari he only drives on Saturdays and thinks going five over the limit makes him dangerous. His career path is the classic right place, right time climb. He learned offense from Chip Kelly at New Hampshire, then Oregon, then the NFL, like someone following a magician around waiting for the rabbit to explain the trick. He worked under Steve Addazio at Boston College, which is basically learning fine dining by watching someone grill a hot dog, but it got him into Urban Meyer’s orbit. Urban hired him to run the rebuilt Ohio State offense and eventually handed him the keys so he could check out the wares in Jacksonville. Day has since produced receivers who look lab‑grown and quarterbacks who calmly carve defenses.
The funny part is how nervous all that talent seems to make him. Day turtles at the exact moment his roster begs to be unleashed. He tries to out‑talent teams and most of the time that works. He builds game plans around that one big play. It works until he gets squeezed. Five‑stars stacked everywhere become a reason to call something safe and careful and frustrating for Buckeye fans, which is always entertaining for me. That is the Ryan Day paradox. He has a football Death Star and sometimes acts afraid the laser might scuff the paint.
Even with all that, the résumé is undeniable. He wins, he recruits, he keeps Ohio State humming at a level most programs would trade their stadium naming rights for. After the Texas loss, the question in Columbus is simple enough. Will he finally let the Ferrari rip down the highway or will he tuck back into the shell and drive it like a rental he is scared to scratch.
Offensive Style: Pro-style Gap rushing attack with an intermediate passing attack.
Arthur Smith arrives in Columbus as the latest former NFL coach trying to revitalize his career in the college game. His résumé reads like football’s strangest internship tour. He started as a defensive assistant at North Carolina. He moved on to Ole Miss and Washington. He worked under Butch Davis, Houston Nutt, and Steve Sarkisian respectively, which is an eclectic group to learn anything from. That path dropped him into the Tennessee Titans and the Ken Whisenhunt experience, which somehow got him promoted to OC. He built an offense powered by Derrick Henry doing medieval things to linebackers. Atlanta made him a head coach and he called plays like a man who might have been propped up by Derrick Henry the whole time. He spent two years in Pittsburgh setting offensive football back a decade. Now he is at Ohio State with five‑star toys everywhere and the faint hope that no one will ask him about Kyle Pitts again.
The throughline in Smith’s offenses is a physical run game built on multiple personnel groupings, pre‑snap motion, and play‑action. He loves wide zone and duo. He loves tight ends who block like they are auditioning for a lumberjack competition. He loves quarterbacks who can sell a fake so well the camera operator misses the play. Smith leans on under‑center formations and heavier two and three tight end sets instead of living in 10 or 11 personnel spread. The whole thing is built to look simple until it isn’t. When it works, Ohio State will mash people on the ground and hit explosives over the top. When it doesn’t, fans will stare at the screen wondering how an offense with this much talent can look like it is doing a crossword in crayon.
Defensive Style: Multiple, mainly 4-2-5 with a heavy Cover 3 zone shell.
Matt Patricia arrived in Columbus showing off the rare combination of aerospace‑engineer schooling and the vibe of an angry middle‑school gym teacher with a drawer full of tactical cargo shorts. His path is one of football’s great modern odysseys. He went from RPI to Bill Belichick’s laboratory in the decline, helping build defenses out of spare parts, matchup rules, and whatever wisdom Belichick muttered into his headset. Detroit handed him the big chair and he turned every press conference into a TED Talk about the pencil behind his ear. He bounced back to New England, then to Philadelphia, collecting job titles the way my dad collects receipts in his wallet. Now he is in his second season as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, working with a roster built with blue chip specials instead of whatever Belichick found under a couch cushion.
Patricia’s defense is built on post‑snap math and structural trickery. He leans on Penny and Diamond fronts to toggle between three and four man structures. He rotates safeties with the enthusiasm of someone spinning a prize wheel. Edges change roles, linebackers alternate between rushing and dropping, and the secondary rotates through coverage shells. The goal is simple enough. Compress space, distort reads, and make the offense wrong even when it thinks it is right. If it works, Ohio State will look like a defense that has the answers before the question is asked. If it doesn’t, Patricia will probably adjust the pencil behind his ear and call something even more structurally confusing.
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