Ohio State football: Coaches planning for what they see and what they don’t see

That could be the case again this week as No. 2 Ohio State prepares to face a No. 13 Penn State squad that likely is the most talented the Buckeyes have seen yet this season.

Ohio State coaches had two weeks to prepare for their last opponent, and for their trouble they got something different when the Buckeyes actually took the field against Iowa’s highly regarded defense.

Instead of keeping two safeties deep and playing predominantly what amounts to a “matchup zone” style, the Hawkeyes frequently had one safety in the middle of the field — or none.

That changed the picture for quarterback C.J. Stroud and complicated Ohio State’s blocking schemes, but head coach Ryan Day and his staff eventually worked out some answers and pulled away in the second half to improve to 7-0 with a 54-10 victory.

“They still did a lot of their their fundamental stuff that they do, but a few different looks, so we just tried to figure out where we could attack them and make those adjustments,” Day said.

Of course, the coaches knew they might be in for a Saturday surprise. Those are not uncommon, especially for an Ohio State team typically going into games as a big favorite (meaning their opponents conclude what they usually do won’t be enough to beat the Buckeyes).

Day said after the first half of a typical game week is devoted to determining the best way to attack an opponent the way it normally plays, the last two days before the game often devolve into him dreaming up all the other things that might happen.

“I have a lot of sheets of contingency plans in place for, ‘What if?’” Day said. “And we’d say sometimes you’re chasing ghosts, but I’ve been in games before where we didn’t chase those ghosts and we didn’t have answers and that’s not a good feeling. So it’s our job as coaches to have answers and put our players in the best position to be successful.”

Will Ohio State get the same thing Saturday it has seen on film from Penn State?

That remains to be seen, but Penn State head coach James Franklin said first-year Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Manny Diaz did not blow things up after the Michigan ripped their run defense to shreds on Oct. 15.

A week later, Penn State gave up 165 yards to a strong Minnesota running game, but the Golden Gophers only averaged 3.6 yards per carry.

“It’s as simple as we just consistently did our job tonight,” Franklin told reporters last Saturday night. “We consistently did our job and held our gaps.

“How we are built defensively is everybody’s responsible for a gap. You have got to own your gap. You can’t peek and try to fall into somebody else’s gap. On good teams, the ball finds the open gap. We were consistent in doing that tonight.

“The other thing is the game plan was the same. You can make the argument that one of our strengths on defense is our defensive backs. Let’s leave those guys on an island. Let’s load the box up. Let’s have the numbers in the run game. Hopefully, making contested catches in the pass game with man-to-man coverage. They got us on a few pick plays but for the most part, I thought we played well-rounded defense.”

As the Nittany Lions defense stayed the course, Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson used a golf analogy to explain there will be times a unit just has to do whatever it can to come out on the other side.

“Sometimes when you’re playing really good defenses — and this time of year with weather — you’ve just got to play through the muck, you know?” Wilson said. “You’ve got to be a golfer that’s a little bit off but you can still scratch around and kick it in the hole and make a couple ugly pars once a while.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Ohio State at Penn State, Noon, Fox, 1410