Before the Buckeyes practice on Thursday, Ryan Day joined The Ryan Day Radio Show with Paul Keels and Jim Lachey to discuss how his team performed this week and where it can improve.

After Day’s performance, Will Howard answered questions from Keels and Lachey.

Here’s all the news and notes from the third Ryan Day Radio Show of the 2024 season:

Ryan Day

About Ohio State’s “Improvement Week”

• “I think it’s been good.”

• “The last few workouts have been physical.”

• “We have a lot of boys coming to us.”

• “Every day we’re there, we have to make the most of it.”

On Ohio State’s win over Western Michigan, with a week off

• “I feel like we had a good rhythm. We want to keep that rhythm.”

• “This isn’t (a week off) where guys go home and fly around the country. This isn’t that. … Everybody in the country gets better because they play a game on Saturday.”

• Day said Ohio State’s assistant coaches have given their players a number of things to improve on this week. He and his staff will hold their players accountable for improvement in those areas even after Improvement Week ends.

About Ohio State’s “Champion” Numbers, the “Champions Dinner”

• “It’s awesome.”

• Day said Ohio State awards the championship to players who score over 80 percent in the game. “We said, ‘It’s about our standard. It’s not about the opponent.'”

• “If we win the situations, we win the game.”

• “If you fail a champion, that’s a huge deal.”

• “Coach Mick (Marotti) would say this is his favorite tradition, the Champions Dinner.”

On the performance of Ohio State’s depth

• “We were out there fighting. Everybody.”

• “That’s what you want.”

• “We have to approach it like this. If we want to count on these guys at the end of the season… we have to go out there and fight… I like the intensity there on Saturday.”

• Day praised Jermaine Mathews Jr. for being ready when Denzel Burke was chosen to target in the first quarter. “Who would have thought Denzel would be out in the first quarter? But there you go. There you go, Jermaine. … You send Jermaine in and nobody batted an eyelid.”

On Ohio State’s Fast Start Against Western Michigan

• “We wanted to be clean in the game. Part of being clean is starting fast.”

• “If you get started quickly, you’ll feel good.”

• “You wanted to do that. It was good to see. It was good to see.”

On how Ohio State’s offense differs from last year

• “As we go along, you’ll see more and more different things.”

• “Some really fresh ideas, different approaches to things.”

• “We need to define exactly who we are, get really, really good at it, and then move on.”

• According to Day, Chip Kelly does an excellent job of putting defensive coordinators and defensemen in conflict with option schemes.

About Will Howard

• “Trust is important to all of us.”

• “It was nice to see him get going early and build confidence.”

• “It was good to see Will get off to a fast start there. I think he was 10 out of 10 (fit). That builds confidence for (him and) everyone.”

About the Ohio State coaches recruiting this week

• “We had a few guests on Monday. We have a good group tomorrow.”

• Day said Ohio State will wrap up practice tonight and that some assistant coaches will go out afterward to check out new players and commitments.

• “It’s a good time to get out there, get around the guys, get around the commitments.”

About Ty Hamilton

• “This is a great example of someone who comes from Ohio and has put tremendous work into the program. … He has put blood, sweat and tears into it.”

• Day said Hamilton saw the path his older brother, DaVon Hamilton, took from Ohio State to the NFL and has followed a similar path.

• “He’s consistent. He’s durable. He’s someone we can count on.”

• “He worked hard every day. … Great team player.”

• “It’s great to see him play like that.”

About Ohio State’s run defense

• “It starts with training every day and then the boys run to the football.”

• “Laying down our pads, tackling people, getting off blocks.”

• “There are even greater challenges ahead of us.”

About Jeremiah Smith

• “It’s easy to recognize the physical attributes: the size, the speed, the explosiveness, the power, but for me as a coach, when someone is that talented… he came with a certain level of discipline.”

• Day said it’s “hard to find” someone with as much talent and discipline as Smith.

• “He still has a long way to go, don’t get me wrong, but for a young player he is impressive.”

• Day said teams “need to know where he is,” which will open up the rest of Ohio State’s offense. “He’s definitely going to draw a lot of attention.”

About Mylan Graham

• “For someone who came in the summer, I’m very impressed with Mylan Graham. … He’s really sent some good signals.”

• Day believes Graham can get playing time after impressing the coaching staff in pre-season training and three weeks of in-season training.

• “We’ll try to get him involved in special teams. Whether he comes back or not, we’ll see.”

• “He needs to keep gaining weight. He needs to get stronger.”

About Ohio State’s kick return game

• “We have to be aggressive and tackle everything.”

• “We want to get rid of everything that is thrown onto the playing field.”

About Donovan Jackson

• “He was available. He could have played in the game. … We also didn’t think it was right to give him a pitch count.”

• “I look forward to having him back next week.”

• Day said he was proud of how Austin Siereveld performed in place of Jackson. “I thought he played even better in this game than he did in the first game.”

Will Howard

About the Improvement Week

• “It’s definitely the earliest week off I’ve had in my college career. It’s a little weird, but hey, it’s good.”

• “We are trying to continue on the path we have taken.”

• Howard said Ohio State can’t “misstep” this week because there are college football teams all over the country that have games and will perform better this week.

On how he’s adjusted to his time at Ohio State

• Howard, who is originally from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, said his family was able to drive to Ohio State’s first two games. When he was at Kansas State, Howard said his family had to plan a full trip to see him play.

• “We love it here. The transition couldn’t have been smoother for me. It couldn’t have been a better place.”

• “I am blown away by the quality of the people on this program.”

On Ohio State’s locker room culture

• Howard said that “the best players are the best people” on Ohio State’s roster. He mentioned phone conversations he had with Emeka Egbuka and TreVeyon Henderson before joining the Buckeyes, in which he was amazed at how caring and kind those players were.

• “It was awesome. These guys are just really solid guys.”

• “The people here are pretty special.”

On the chemistry he’s building with Ohio State’s wide receiver room

• “It was great.”

• “It’s a blessing.”

• “I have a wealth of riches out there.”