Ohio State coach Ryan Day’s simple fix to modernize college football offenses

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football will attempt to lead the nation in yards per play for the third consecutive season this fall. Just like a quarterback-turned offensive coordinator, though, that production is not enough for Buckeyes coach Ryan Day. He has an idea to remove one antiquated piece of college football and bring a more modern offensive flow to the sport. Fox’s Joel Klatt thought he was keying up for a rant against the targeting rule when, during a discussion on the Big Noon Conversation podcast, he asked what one on-field rule Day would change. While Day certainly wants to reform some aspects of that targeting rule, he instead responded with two words that caught Klatt by surprise. “Hash marks.” “I’d go to the NFL model,” said Day, who served as quarterbacks coach for the Eagles and 49ers prior to joining OSU’s staff in 2017. “Those hash marks were built for football a long time ago. The NBA has made their adjustments and college (basketball) has made their adjustments — they moved the 3-point line. “They made their adjustments. We haven’t.” In college football, the hash marks are set 40 feet apart. In the NFL, they are only 18 feet, six inches apart. This is most noticeable on field goal attempts, where NFL kickers are kicking in line with the goal posts and college kickers must angle their kicks. Day, though, isn’t talking about field goals. He wants to open up the field more to further avoid settling for 3 points. NFL teams offenses work with 70 feet, 9 inches of space to the short side (“the boundary”) and 89 feet, 3 inches to the long side (“the field”). NCAA teams operate with 100 feet to the field, but only 60 to the boundary. One could argue college offenses already have an upper hand thanks to the hash marks. That overly wide side forces defenses to overcorrect to that side. Blitzes and coverages are more difficult to disguise, making defenses easier to diagnose at the line of scrimmage. Also, what programs are best suited to take advantage of tough throws to the long side of the field? Maybe the ones that consistently recruit and produce NFL quarterback talent? Day, though, has experienced both styles. College football’s last hash adjustment came in 1993, when they were moved six feet, eight inches toward the middle of the field. He thinks an adjustment is overdue. “Today with the type of athletes we have — they’re bigger, they’re faster, they’re more powerful,” Day said. “Putting the ball on a hash mark is just putting everybody in a smaller area of the field, and we’re not playing outside the numbers to the field. “Putting the ball in the middle of the field, more like in the NFL, opens up the entire game.”