CHICAGO - In his first Big Ten Media Days address, Ohio State’s 24th head coach, Ryan Day, discussed his transition into his new role, the losses from last season and emphasized his focus on creating a brotherhood among his players.

Establishing his coaching staff was one of Day’s first responsibilities as head coach, and he made the decision to clean house on the defensive side of the ball as well as replacing his role in the offense with former Oklahoma State Offensive Coordinator Mike Yurcich.

With retaining Larry Johnson, as well as stealing a pair of coaches from Michigan in Greg Mattison and Al Washington and adding Matt Barnes and Jeff Hafley, Day will be looking to retool the Ohio State defense that struggled through the majority of the 2018 campaign.

“It started with, in the summer, with the staff and making some hard decisions right there,” Day said. “Then, go about motivating the staff, hiring guys that you trust to do their job.”

One of the immediate concerns of handing the head coaching position was how recruiting would be impacted by Meyer’s departure. While many expected recruiting to at least stay consistent with the Ohio State pedigree as well as the good will built up by position coaches, few expected the barrage of commits that has come in since Day took the reins.

This impressive recruiting cycle fits in with the culture Day wants to establish at Ohio State from the head coach to each position coach.

“Creating a vision there in terms of recruiting is our number one priority in the building. As the head coach, as a position coach, anybody else in the building, that’s the first thing we focus on every day,” Day said. “And then from there, it’s called ‘power of the unit,’ which is motivating their units, and then at the end it’s enhancing the scheme.”

While the X’s and O’s of this new Ohio State team will be important come August, right now, with the changes in position coaches on both sides of the ball, Day believes it is important for each coach and each player to establish a rapport with each other.

“As football coaches, a lot of the time we want to hit on scheme and talk about plays but it’s more about recruiting and about working with our guys to create that brotherhood amongst each other,” Day said. “Having that approach now where it’s more of a macro approach as opposed to just looking at the X’s and O’s and the football and everything like that. “

The defensive staff was overhauled during the offseason, but the offensive staff remained largely unchanged, so while Day will have more responsibilities on game days, he’ll be as involved as ever on offense for Ohio State.

“Still very much involved on offense, working with Kevin Wilson and Mike Yurcich on that side of the ball,” he said. “That’s the exciting thing about college football is that every year that offense is gonna adapt based on your personnel.”

Looking ahead to fall camp, Day will continue to work instilling his culture in the program and among the new staff and players. Positional battles on the o-line as well as depth evaluation on defense will help to determine the players that will step up with Ohio State’s losses going into this season.

“Losing as many guys as we lost on offense, it’s gonna look different this year,” he said, “and that’s an exciting journey as we move into August.”