Ohio State doesn’t need another lecture about playing cleaner football. The Buckeyes need to stop making the same mistakes, and with Oregon coming to Columbus, Ryan Day is taking a rather unusual approach to getting that message across. He’s bringing in more referees.

Ohio State insider Dillon Davis shared Ryan Day’s explanation on X after the coach was asked how the program plans to address its persistent penalty problem.

“We hired even more refs to be out there,” he said. “We have refs in practice every day, and we ask more to show up and to be more technical and call everything that they see.”

He also outlined what happens after those practice sessions. The coaching staff reviews the calls, studies the film, identifies what the players are missing and works through the problems before the next practice. The fact that Ryan Day feels the need to bring in additional officials tells you how seriously this has become a problem. 

Saturday’s loss to USC only made the move more understandable. Ohio State left Los Angeles with a 30-18 defeat, 11 penalties for 75 yards. That’s not a minor inconvenience, particularly when you’re trying to win on the road with a freshman QB making his first start.

Luke Fahey had enough to deal with without watching his offense repeatedly move backward. Ohio State reached the red zone five times but struggled to turn those opportunities into touchdowns. Penalties only made an already difficult night worse.

While it’s easy to blame a freshman quarterback’s inexperience for miscommunications, the flags aren’t just on him. The penalty problem is spread across the entire roster: from pre-snap false starts on the offensive line to unforced defensive flags and even 12 men on the field. The coaching staff sees this not as a young QB learning curve, but as a total collapse in day-one basics across all units.

The frustration wasn’t limited to one unit, either. Ohio State found ways to get flagged on offense, defense, and special teams. 

By the third quarter against USC, Ohio State had nine flags for 65 yards. The last time the Buckeyes looked this undisciplined was against Maryland back in 2022. During that game, pre-snap mistakes and line errors constantly backed up the offense, forcing Day to publicly call out team focus.

While Day cleaned things up back then through strict film reviews, seeing those same basic mistakes pop up years later shows this penalty issue has been a recurring headache throughout his time in Columbus.

The problem has followed Ohio State throughout the season. The Buckeyes opened their campaign with nine penalties for 81 yards against Ball State. False starts became an issue against Iowa, while defensive penalties on a single Maryland scoring drive drew public frustration from Ryan Day. Now, the mistakes have followed them into one of the most damaging defeats of the season.

Ohio State has also reached an unusual point in the Ryan Day era. With two losses already, the Buckeyes have matched their highest single-season loss total under their head coach. Two regular-season defeats before November 1 are even rarer in the program’s recent history. It has happened only once since 2011. So there isn’t much room left for another careless afternoon.

Ryan Day puts the responsibility back on his coaching staff

After the USC defeat, Ryan Day is looking at the entire operation, including the people responsible for preparing the players. When asked about possible staff changes, he said he wasn’t in that frame of mind. However, he made it clear that nothing was being ignored during the evaluation process.

“There’s always things we can do better — certainly recognize that — but to me, we have to coach it better,” he said.

He went further, making sure the message reached every level of the coaching staff.

“We got to coach it better, and that starts right here, but then it goes to the coordinators, and then it goes to position coaches,” he added. 

The players, meanwhile, aren’t getting a free pass. Ryan Day expects them to execute at a high level, and he wants accountability from everyone involved. That’s why the additional officials at practice matter. RB Isaiah West offered perhaps the bluntest assessment of what happened against USC.

“Truth be told, we shot ourselves in the foot,” he said. 

He pointed to Ohio State’s five red-zone opportunities and the failure to turn those chances into touchdowns. Now comes Oregon at Ohio Stadium with the Buckeyes needing a response, not another explanation. 

Ohio State still has a path to the Big Ten Championship Game, but their margin for error in the CFP race has become painfully thin. Ryan Day’s extra referees might help clean things up. But eventually, the whistles have to stop during games.