COLUMBUS, Ohio - These times are anything but normal, but Ryan Day and the rest of the Ohio State football team are trying to return to some kind of routine as the 2020 season approaches all the same.

Spring practice and any organized team activities have been suspended outright, and most of the team has been sent back home due to the cancellation of in-person classes at Ohio State and the closure of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

This means that Ohio State's normal offseason program that consists of strength and conditioning, meetings with coaches and film study sessions are all being done remotely.

It's a challenge to provide the same quality of program to the players who are sprawled all throughout the country, but Day is trying to give some sense of normalcy to everyone as they deal with more questions than answers right now.

“I think in this generation especially they're just so used to such great feedback. And so we're trying to make sure we give them that feedback and trying to help them with all that stuff,” Day said. “Their lives are so structured when they're here, now we have to make sure we can do the best we can remotely to give them that structure as well.”

Day and his position coaches are going from seeing every play in the WHAC every day to hoping to find time to FaceTime or give them a call during the day with everybody separated.

While a select few remain in Columbus due to extenuating circumstances like rehab or off-campus housing, for an Ohio State program that recruits throughout the entire nation, they're now watching as those same players return to their respective corners of the country.

“We have guys who are in downtown New York City, Brooklyn. We have guys who are in Hawaii to California to Seattle, I mean all over the country,” Day said. “And so, really what we've been doing is just kind of on an individual basis by the position coaches.”

While some may be in a better position to continue their programs at home along with the help of the coaching staff, others aren't in as great of a position.

“There's not a lot of people who have full gyms at their house. So that's kind of out,” Day said. “But there are some people, maybe, that would have access to some dumbbells or something like that in their basement. But then there's other people who don't.“

For those that don't, this is where Mickey Marotti and the strength and conditioning staff try to bring back that sense of normalcy.

“That's where Mick and our strength and conditioning staff is doing an excellent job communicating with them,” Day said, “and sending them some bands and different things, some bodyweight stuff, sending them some videos to help them with just how they're gonna operate in their own home, and how they can keep their strength and their weight up.”

While online videos of workouts with equipment they might find laying around the house may not be the ideal way for players to operate, Ohio State, along with most other teams in the country, are in a holding pattern as they await an update on their next steps.

The team will almost certainly not be able to meet in Columbus before the academic semester ends in late April, so this leaves things up in the air as to how prepared they'll be for the 2020 season.

The NCAA may determine a plan for an earlier fall camp or a short summer camp for teams to get players back into shape before the fall, but it's unknown right now how that process may play out.

In the meantime, whether it's through Zoom, FaceTime or pre-recorded videos of Coach Mick working with resistance bands, Ohio State is doing its best to give players the best offseason program they can provide right now.