In ‘normal’ times, injuries that occur in practice or during games on Saturdays cause Ohio State head coach Ryan Day to shuffle the depth chart.

In today’s world, a positive antigen surveillance and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmation test will remove a player from competition for 21 days, with no warning.

“There’s no use putting a depth chart out right now,” Day said. “You just don’t know right now what’s going to happen in a week. We’ll just keep competing, giving guys reps and see where we’re at in a week or two.”

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Just about three weeks remain until the opening kickoff between Ohio State and Nebraska on Oct. 24. Despite acknowledging there may be chuckles when considering the quarterback position is all but Justin Fields’ to lose, Day said there is no set-in-stone starter at any one spot.

“All positions are up right now,” Day said. “We’re all competing. I’d like to see how this weekend goes, see what it looks like, see how it feels and take it one day at a time. I’m trying not to say ‘always’ and ‘never’ right now because things change so fast.”

Teams in the Big Ten will not play nonconference games this season, and Ohio State won't have the "luxury" to get a better feel of what to expect because of that, according to Day.

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Day said he is trying to create game-like environments in practice in order to project where players are in terms of development and being game-ready. For younger players, each rep in practice is more critical than before.

“They’re going to have to be ready to go," Day said. "This year, you have to have depth at every position. It’s something we make sure guys understand. They’re one, two plays away or at any point they could be starting or even backups.”

As a result of being noncommittal to who will start, Day has encouraged ongoing competition. The head coach said the benefit of veteran players is that he knows what to expect from them, so those with less experience are able to work more closely with coaches in the coming weeks.

"You try to do the best you can for those who maybe don’t have a body of work, try to get some experience over these next few weeks and figure out what you can expect when they go on the field,” Day said.

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Day emphasized the importance of depth on the roster and that each player has a much bigger role than that of face value.

“It’s more of an awareness and understanding that guys aren’t just scout-team players," Day said. "It’s going to take all of us to get this done. Guys need to be engaged, they need to be ready to go, people talk about the ‘next man up’ mentality.”

Despite the uncertainty day in and day out, Day and the Buckeyes know each team is facing similar obstacles.

“It’s the same challenge for everybody. We just have to handle it better than everybody else," Day said. "It’s like going to play a game in rainy weather. Both teams have to deal with it.

"The team that handles it the best is going to prevail.”