There's a newfound bluntness in Ryan Day's candor when he fields defensive questions in press conferences.
There's no more deferring to Jim Knowles, the man he hired to be the "head coach of the defense" in 2022. Day is no longer dialing up Ohio State's offense, and in his new CEO role, he's been devoting a lot of time to fixing the prevailing defensive issues that hurt Ohio State in its 32-31 loss at Oregon. It's not that he doesn't have faith in the men he hired, but there's more of a personal accountability for how things unfold in all phases of the game.