COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day wouldn't have drawn it up this way. He'd rather the Buckeyes play a game this week after a dominant showing against Western Michigan.

Alas, the schedule gods have dealt this team an early off week. The goal is to maintain the sharpness displayed in Saturday night's shutout in Ohio Stadium.

"These guys are hungry," Day said. "They don’t want to rest right now. They feel like they have momentum coming out of this game. We’re not gonna practice Friday or Saturday, so they do get an opportunity to catch their breath. But we are gonna work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and they understand how important that is because they don’t want to lose their edge. When you have a group of veteran guys who understand that we’re only two games in and we have a long way to go, they get it."

Rather than calling it an off week, the Buckeyes are deeming this week "improvement week" with an eye on keeping the mindset that allowed them to put their best foot forward in the season's second game. The hope is to continue firing on all cylinders when Marshall comes to The Shoe in two weeks.

"We need to continue to improve," Day said. "Everybody else in the country, for the most part, is playing this week, so we have to as well. We’ve gotta get each other better. Each player is gonna be given things that they need to improve on from their position coach. We’re gonna work hard in practice and work on our fundamentals, but also look at things that we may need to project out in all three phases."

Below are three more key takeaways from Day's Tuesday press conference.

Overall, the offensive line operation was much better against Western Michigan than it was in the opener against Akron.

"I think it was cleaner," Day said. "There was effort. There were good plays."

The starting five had a faster start in Week 2, and things should be looking even better heading into the third game. Day mentioned multiple times on Tuesday that left guard Donovan Jackson is expected to be back for that game after missing the first two.

However, what stood out most to Day in the effort against Western Michigan was the play of the second-team offensive line later in the game.

"I did think that the guys who came in during the second half on the offensive line — was it perfect? No. But I did feel like coming out of this game was better than it’s been the last couple of years," Day said. We were finishing at the end of games. Guys were competing.

"If you don’t play 15 plays, you can’t grade out a champion, but if you grade out over 80 percent and played less than 15 plays, we call it honorable mention. There was a long list of honorable mention players coming out of this game, and a few of them were on the offensive line."

Reserve linemen Carson Hinzman, Luke Montgomery, Zen Michalski, and George Fitzpatrick all logged more than 20 snaps for the Buckeyes. The offense put a couple of drives together with the backups in the game in a way that felt more organized and efficient than in years past.

The staff was feeling good about the offensive line depth coming out of camp. The strength of that depth was put on display last Saturday.

Jayden Ballard let a ball bounce on a kick return that cost the Buckeyes 19 yards or field position, and later nearly fumbled a punt. Day said they're going to take a look at whether changes need to be made at kickoff return during this week off.

"We think that Jayden Ballard had a really good offseason," Day said. "He was recognized as a gold individual in the offseason, which is significant in our program. We’ve given him the opportunity to return kicks, and a couple punts. But the No. 1 thing is taking care of the football. That has to happen.

"We believe in who Jayden is, but at the end of the day, we’re gonna take care of the football. So we are gonna evaluate it this week and make sure we’re doing the right thing."

Brandon Inniss has been stellar on punt returns and could be an option to return kicks. Day has also mentioned Carnell Tate in the past as someone who could handle kick return duties.

With an increased emphasis on special teams this year, and Day being heavily involved in the operation, it feels unlikely that mistakes like the ones Ballard made on Saturday would be tolerated. So, we could see someone else handle kickoff return duties against Marshall.

With Chip Kelly calling offensive plays from the press box, Day has found himself with more bandwidth to be in tune with everything happening on the sideline and on the field on game day.

So far, he's enjoying the new dynamic.

"When you’re calling plays, it’s hard to be anything other than calm," Day said. "You have to get your thoughts together, you have to get your next series of plays ready, your next third-down calls. You have to get the offense together and make corrections while the defense is on the field. There’s a lot going on. When the offense is out there, you’re calling the plays, you’re getting ther personnel groupings right. To get involved with anything else is not that easy."

Now that he has that responsibility removed, Day said he feels more locked in with the team as a whole. He's still a major part of the offensive brain trust, but he doesn't have to have his head buried in a play sheet while roaming the sidelines or jotting down notes for the next series while the defense or special teams are on the field.

Kelly's track record as an accomplished coordinator and trusted confidant for Day allows the head coach to comfortably wear several hats on Saturdays.

"When you’re not doing that, now I can just be myself and chase everybody around," Day said. "I’ve enjoyed doing that. I’ve enjoyed being with the defense and special teams, barking at everybody. That’s typically how I am in practice. When you’re in a game, it’s more difficult to do that. I have enjoyed that part of it so far. It does allow me the opportunity to have my eyes up, be involved with everybody, and take part in more of the emotion."