COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ryan Day did not know what was going on with Ohio State senior linebacker K’Vaughan Pope.

While he may have seen what transpired on the sideline of the Buckeyes’ 59-7 win against Akron Saturday night, the Ohio State head coach did not know about the aftermath.

“Someone just told me I guess there was something with a tweet or something?” Day said. “I’m going to get the details on everything that happened before I say anything there.”

In the second quarter, Pope — a former four-star linebacker in the 2018 class — tried to get onto the field during a certain defensive package and was waved off the field. The senior then got into an altercation, throwing his gloves into the stands, according to a report by Letterman Row’s Austin Ward, and was escorted off the field and into the locker room by Director of Player Development C.J. Barnett.

As the second quarter continued, Pope released two messages on his personal Twitter account. The first: “good lucc (sic) to my teammates.” The second, since deleted: “f*** (sic) Ohio State.”

Day would not comment whether or not Pope was still a member of Ohio State’s football team.

“We were just playing ball,” redshirt senior defensive tackle Haskell Garrett said. “It is what it is. I really don’t want to get into that.”

The Ohio State linebacker room has undergone a lot of changes in the past week.

Senior linebacker Dallas Gant entered the transfer portal Wednesday after recording 10 combined snaps in Ohio State’s games against Oregon and Tulsa combined.

To Day, this is just where college football is now. It’s the player’s choice to transfer, having the ability to keep a season of eligibility and redshirt if that player plays in four games or less.

“I have a hard time with that because I think when you make a commitment to a team at the beginning of the year, you make a commitment to Ohio State, to the Buckeyes, that’s what you do,” Day said. “One of the harder things is that you have to play certain guys. You have to make some decisions on who is playing in those games. You really count on the guys to be great teammates if they are not getting on the field.

“A lot of guys, they just want to play. You can’t play everybody. Frustration kicks in. I don’t really want to comment too much on that particular situation, but I think it’s very isolated.”

Heading into Week 4’s game against Akron, Pope had played 31 snaps at linebacker this season, 24 of which came against Tulsa. Cody Simon, Tommy Eichenberg, Teradja Mitchell and Steele Chambers each had more than the senior’s.

Ohio State put together its best performance of the season allowing 229 yards of total offense and an average of 3.1 yards per play. But linebackers coach Al Washington’s room seemingly just got a bit smaller, pitting more responsibility on a smaller and younger group of players.

To Chambers, no matter the situation, this goal really doesn’t change much.

“As the season goes on, I’m always going to have to continue to grow and get better,” Chambers said. “We just have a really tight knit group. We’re really going to have to feed off each other. We’re just going to do what we set out to do at the beginning of the season.”