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Day outlines plans for spring ball 2021

Winter workouts begin at the start of February, and spring ball won't be long after.
Winter workouts begin at the start of February, and spring ball won't be long after. (USA Today Sports)

COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Ohio State made it through all of three spring practices last year before COVID-19 essentially shut down the sporting world at large, and even though the virus has only spread over the next 10 months, the likelihood of a safe spring period taking place appears high.

Just don’t expect it to look like it would in a pre-COVID world.

“We’re definitely gonna look at a different spring model on how we go about it,” head coach Ryan Day said on Friday. “I’m gonna try to do as many game-like situations as possible, for sure. And then also the way the season ended a little bit later here, we have no spring break, so it’s gonna be a little bit different. We’re still working through that on how we’re gonna organize it.”

Day said the program plans to finalize an outline for a spring practice structure in a week or so, but before then, the coaching staff and players are still catching up on some much-needed time to themselves, with their families or just away from the team in general.

It may have been a shortened season for the Buckeyes, but after a run all the way to the national championship game on Jan. 11, with strict adherence to virus protocol along the way, the last several months have been grueling for Ohio State.

“I think it’s really important for everyone to just take a deep breath and get away from each other,” Day said. “We missed our families, the players missed their families and we got tired of looking at each other everyday for the last however many months it’s been. So guys are still recharging.”

That break won’t last too long, though. Fourteen mid-year enrollees have already begun virtual classes at Ohio State, and they’re arriving on campus to undergo a week-long quarantine period, Day said.

RELATED: What comes next for Ohio State's early enrollees?

On Feb. 1, the Buckeyes start their offseason lifting program with strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti, and soon after that, spring ball will be right around the corner.

Even though Ohio State and most other major college athletic programs have found a way to operate smoothly amid the pandemic, Day is acutely aware that restrictions are not a thing of the past just yet.

“COVID hasn’t gone away, so it’s not like we all of a sudden can start getting back to normal, but the goal is, how quick can we get back to normal?” Day said.

Those protocols will also impact the 2020 Buckeyes that declared for the NFL Draft in the week-and-a-half since the end of the season, as the details surrounding how Pro Days will work have still not been fully ironed out.

Day said it will probably be another week until a date for Pro Days to take place will materialize.

“We’ve been in communication with the NFL, Coach Mick and all the people there and their personnel trying to figure that out and how that’s gonna work, whether it’s gonna be virtual or how that’s gonna play out,” Day said. “I think those discussions are being had right now, and figuring that out.”

Normalcy does seem in much closer proximity now than it did last March, but even if most of the typical spring traditions for Ohio State football are modified in some regard, it certainly beats not having them at all.

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