Ohio State’s high-stakes season finally ready for kickoff

Though second-ranked Ohio State is a massive favorite over the Zips, who were 2-10 last season, the game offers a chance for the coaching staff to see what it really learned during the preseason and what might have been a mirage as the Buckeyes battled each other for a month.

“Ultimately, we want guys to play really, really hard in this game and get it on film, start to make the corrections,” Day said. “Because when you’re in preseason camp, there’s a lot of assumptions you make. Some that are right and some that are not right about players, about scheme and about overall personnel. So I’m excited to get that going this week and figure out what we got going.”

Here are five things to know about or watch when the Buckeyes and Zips kick off at 3:30 p.m. from the Horseshoe in Columbus:

1. The season’s slogan is, “Leave no doubt.”

Ohio State was a missed field goal from beating defending national champion Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinals two years ago, and the Buckeyes had a chance on their final drive to beat Michigan before turning the ball over. The Bulldogs and Wolverines both went on to win the CFP championship, leaving Ohio State like it was tantalizingly close.

Day doesn’t want the Buckeyes to have that feeling again.

“You can’t leave it to one drive. You can’t leave it to one play. You just can’t. You have to leave no doubt, and that’s it,” Day said, comparing the effort to a boxer looking to win by knockout rather than let a bout go to the judges’ scorecards.

“That’s been something that we’ve talked a lot about.”

2. Will Howard is psyched for his Ohio Stadium debut.

The new starting quarterback for the Buckeyes let slip this week he grew up rooting for Penn State in Downington, Pa.

While that is not surprising, it also means he’s familiar with the Horseshoe even if he doesn’t know yet what it is like to actually play a real game there.

“I can’t overstate how excited I am,” said Howard, a senior transfer from Kansas State. “I’m fired up, man. I grew up as a kid watching the Big Ten. I’ve played in a lot of places now at this point in my career, I’ve played in front of hundreds of thousands, but the ‘Shoe and the atmosphere here, it’s different, man.

“And the traditions, I’m really excited just to experience all of it.”

3. The offense could look a little different — starting with the quarterback.

Howard and backup Devin Brown are both big, strong athletes who can play a much larger role in the running game than Ohio State quarterbacks have for the last three years.

That change could be accentuated by the hiring of Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator, who likes to involve the quarterback in the running game and relies on him heavily to make sure the team is optimizing each play no matter who is getting the ball.

Before and after the snap, the quarterback is charged with making sure the Buckeyes are not running into a defense they can’t block, whether that means changing the direction of the play, the blocking scheme or switching to a pass.

“Obviously the coaches can only do so much, but we’re the ones that are out there actually calling the shots, and I’m the one that’s got the chalk last on a lot of that stuff,” Howard said. “So it’s cool. It gives me a little more sense of responsibility about the offense. And it makes you as a quarterback always be clued into something.”

He sees that helping the team and better preparing him for the challenges of running an NFL offense.

“I think it’s good overall for the team because when you have a run system where you can call a play and it can go three different ways and all of them have an answer for everything, that makes it easier on you as an offense. You don’t have to run plays and waste plays that are good versus something and not something else.”

4. What will the Jim Knowles defense version 3.0 look like?

Knowles is known for getting more out of his scheme the more experience players have in it, so hopes are high for a unit with four starters back in the secondary and four more up front.

How he chooses to utilize that talent will be something to watch against Akron and as the season wears on and the challenges grow.

“When you know what to do, it allows you to play faster,” Knowles said. “On-field adjustments they can make because they understand the defense, but you just want to see guys playing fast because they know what to do.”

“You have to prove yourself every week, and they understand that. They want the fans, the media and the rest of the team to know when they go on the field, they can be counted on no matter the score.”

5. Akron is looking to improve.

The Zips have posted consecutive 2-10 seasons under Joe Moorhead, an offensive-minded coach who had some success as head coach at Mississippi State and as offensive coordinator for Penn State earlier in his career but is taking on a major rebuilding job in northeast Ohio.

While they had one of the worst offenses in the country, the Zips played solid defense last season, and that appears it could be their profile again this fall.

“Our front seven is very deep and experienced relative to the Mid-American Conference,” Moorhead said this week. “Bryan McCoy, returning all-conference player, CJ Nunnally, Antavious Fish, good one-two combo there and a lot of competition on the back end as well.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Akron at Ohio State, 3:30 p.m., CBS, 1410-AM