COLUMBUS, Ohio – While the country is in a period of quarantine and social distancing, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes are focused on communication and accountability.

With the COVID-19 virus halting organized football activities and the furthering of player progression on campus, the coming months will be an important time to avoid the regression of the players. In order to try and make the most of the situation that the team, along with the rest of the sports world, now find itself in, Day is leaning on communication, his coaching staff and the leaders of the team to stay on top of working from afar.

“It's kind of hard to rally everybody together when you have 120 some odd players, and you're all in different parts of the country, whether it's time zone constrictions or whatever it might be,” Day said. “So we've been doing I think, a really good job of communicating to the position coaches, but I do the best we can through text message, video to communicate a unified message as many times as I can within the week.”

Day elaborated that he and his staff come together on two conference calls a week to discuss each player’s academics, training regiments and whatever is necessary to fully help the player progress during this period of social distancing.

While he leans on the position coaches to do a lot of the heavy lifting with player communication, Day also tries to use different avenues to get out a unified message to his team. Whether it is through text messages or video calls, Day has been looking to maintain a united front through a time that has demanded physical separation.

The leadership committee, which is made up of about two dozen players, is also called upon to be an extension of the coaching staff in a time like this. While a coach can call for continued work, which Day noted was difficult given some of the players’ situations, the leaders are the ones who can most effectively convey a message to their peers.

Time away from the athletic facilities also calls for players to be more accountable. Without the constant presence of coaches and teammates driving a player forward, there must be a personal drive that ensures an individual keeps up with what was built before the pandemic changed the normal routine.

“I think the accountability is at an all-time high in terms of making sure that these guys are doing what they need to do,” Day said. “The older guys know what they're supposed to do. The younger guys need a little bit more guidance.”

A year ago, the Buckeyes did not face a lot of adversity for much of the season. While blowout wins became commonplace, it wasn’t until the final four games of the season that the Buckeyes began to face resistance that tested the character of the team.

Now with a new kind of opponent throwing adversity at the Buckeyes, Day believes time will show what the 2020 Buckeyes are made of, as they strive to do the right things while they are separated from one another.

“Character is really shown when nobody is looking, and this is the ultimate test of that,” Day said.

While the importance of players continuing to work is paramount, Day will not be using any extreme measures to make sure the players are doing what is asked of them. For Day, he knows that he needs to trust his team to do the right things, because a great team is not fueled by the motivation of one person.

“If we have to check on you anyways or if you say you are doing something and you’re really not, then we’re not much of a team anyway,” Day said on monitoring players keeping up with their training regiments.

While the timing of a return to normal life is unknown, the Buckeyes will continue transition into and work through this new normal. Day, who is certainly focused on the now, did not want to project the issues that could arise from a prolonged period of no organized team activities.

Day’s ability to live in the moment is what allowed him to have success in his first year as Ohio State’s head coach, and it may be the reason the Buckeyes are able to navigate this unusual time.

“We’ll adjust the best we can and try to solve the problems as they come, but I think it’s hard to project what some of the major issues are going to be until we know how long we’re in this,” Day said.