COLUMBUS, Ohio – It is hard to start a season better than Ohio State has, but even with the national perception of the Buckeyes shifting in a highly positive direction, Ryan Day is focused on continuing to teach and improve his team each day.

The Buckeyes have had an impressive three-game stretch to open the 2019 season. Silencing a lot of critics, Ohio State ranks in the top 10 in scoring defense and fourth in rush yards allowed a game.

The offense did not miss a beat after losing Dwayne Haskins, and in many respects, the offense is a more balanced attack that has allowed the Buckeyes to average 46 points a game.

As the outside world begins to take notice, Day will continue demanding more out of a team that he knew had the ingredients to be special.

“I've felt that for a little while now, yeah, and I've talked to the team about that,” Day said on the special nature of this team. “I think we can be great. We're nowhere near where we need to be, but we can be.”

Day began to take notice of this team’s potential in ways other than observing their performance between the lines. He noticed the work ethic in the day-to-day grind to improve.

The hard work in the weight room and classroom also gave the first-year coach the confidence that this group was ready for the challenge.

Above all, however, Day commended the character and type of men he has in the locker room.

“They're the kind of kids that you want your family to be around, you want your son to be around,” Day said. “There's great role models, and my son goes into that locker room and they're great kids to be around, and there's a lot to be said for that.”

The trust Day has in his team allows him to identify mistakes and push them to fix the errors in order to get better.

Day has the ability to dissect the film and focus on where the team can improve. Even after the blowout performance against Indiana, he found many things to correct.

“We played hard, they played tough, but we have so many things to clean up, and when you watch the film, it's actually really frustrating to watch,” Day said. “There's so many things we could be cleaning up there. The coaches are working at it. We started that on Sunday and making sure we started addressing some of those issues.”

With the teaching aspect of coaching comes a fine balance, however. A head coach is looking to get the most out of his players without making them resent him.

Day wants to make sure that he helps a player improve without extinguishing that player’s fire to compete.

“I think what's really important is a great coach can make corrections, show someone where they need to improve, but don't belittle them or make them feel like they're inferior because they made a mistake,” Day said. “If they're going really, really hard, here's how you become great, and that's really, really important.

Day is confident that the love runs both ways between the coaches and players, and this is a cause for confidence going forward.

As the Buckeyes continue to move through each day, the focus will be on pushing each other to get better. The people outside the facility may be locking the Buckeyes into a playoff spot already, but the team is taking it one day at a time.

“We do have some momentum going right now, but we've got to keep that going, and that's incumbent upon the coaches and the leaders to make sure that we stay focused and that we don't get distracted,” Day said.