COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said the biggest unknown in Saturday’s game at Texas is what Will Muschamp does as a play caller, because there is little current film of him doing it.
Muschamp returned to Austin this year as defensive coordinator for the Texas Longhorns, his second stint with the program. He spent the previous seasons on the Georgia staff.
Day said the staff is working through how the plan, the reaction, and the in-game adjustments fit together.
“You’re trying to figure out how it all comes together, how the game plan comes together, how the defense is going to react. There’s a lot of unknown here,” Day said. “Coach Muschamp’s a great coach, and we all have a lot of respect for him. But he really hasn’t called a game in a while. So there’s an unknown here on how it’s going to play out, what they’re going to do defensively. So we have to be able to respond to that in-game and figure that part of it out.”
Texas held Texas State to 7 points in a 59-7 win on Sept. 5, the only game of Muschamp’s current tenure on tape. Ohio State opened with a 56-3 win over Ball State the same day.
Saturday will be the third meeting between the programs in 20 months. Ohio State won the 2025 College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl 28-14, then won last season’s opener in Columbus 14-7.
Ryan Day On The Ohio State Plan For Jeremiah Smith
Day said Texas will arrive with a plan built around stopping Jeremiah Smith, and that Julian Sayin has to identify it from the pocket.
“But we know that there’ll be a plan to stop Jeremiah and try to identify what that is, and then have the contingency plans in place for what that looks like is important,” Day said. “And Julian is going to be a big part of that because he’s got to recognize what’s going on and then respond from there. So all those things are part of our conversation as we put our game plan together.”
Smith has 7 catches for 46 yards in two career games against Texas. In his other 28 college games, he has 164 catches for 2,663 yards and 29 touchdowns.
Ohio State hired Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator in the offseason. The Buckeyes averaged 18.9 yards per catch on Jeremiah Smith’s 8 receptions against Ball State, all of them in the first half.
Ryan Day On The Ohio State Offensive Line
Ohio State ran for 83 yards from Bo Jackson on 9 carries against Ball State and did not move the football on the ground the way Day wanted early.
Day’s read on the line after Week 1 is that the run game opened up after halftime and not before it.
“Some good, but some other things we had to improve on,” Day said. “I think early on, we didn’t run the ball the way we wanted to, and then it opened up better in the second half.”
Ohio State recorded 1 sack and 7 tackles for loss against Ball State and held the Cardinals to 120 yards passing.
Kickoff at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is 6:30 p.m. CT Saturday on ABC. Ohio State is No. 1 in the AP Top 25 and Texas is No. 4, and both teams are 1-0.
