‘We got to see progress;’ Ohio State looks to rebound Saturday against winless Tulsa

COLUMBUS — Following last weekend’s disappointing loss to Oregon, Ohio State returns to Ohio Stadium Saturday afternoon, looking to rebound against Tulsa.

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The Golden Hurricane have had a rough start to the season, coming into Saturday’s matchup 0-2, including a loss to FCS level University of California Davis in the first week of the season.

But with the ninth-ranked Buckeyes entering the matchup as the favorite to win by four touchdowns, and plagued by some questions on both sides of the football, the big question is what should fans expect?

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“We got to see progress, we got to see guys building and growing and confidence being built and high level execution, that’s it,” OSU Head Coach Ryan Day said this week.

“You know it when you see it, you know when there’s confidence being built. Execution fuels emotion and then vice versa. That’s what we got to see. And it’s not going to all happen at once. You can’t just go out there in one or two plays and make things better.”

One of the areas Ohio State will look to improve is on defense, but that has become a bit tougher with standout safety Josh Proctor now out for the season with a leg injury.

“We need experience on defense right now, we don’t have a lot of guys with experience. When you lose a guy like that it hurts because he has played for us. When you look back there there’s a lot of guys who haven’t,” Day said.

On the offensive side of the ball, Day said he hopes to see first-year starting quarterback CJ Stroud use his legs more when plays begin to break down, similar to Stroud’s predecessor Justin Fields.

“I think he’s got himself out of trouble. I think in two games I think he’s had two sacks, I think they came at the end there so I think he’s got a pretty good feel in the pocket.”

“He is a threat with his feet, he is a threat with his legs. You saw last year the 80 yard touchdown run that he had. So he’s had some good scrambles and we’ll continue to build on that as time goes,” Day said.

Progress will be the name of the game for the Buckeyes Saturday when they take the field at 3:30 p.m. Progress in individual performances and progress to getting back in the College Football Playoff picture.

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