Ohio State's Ryan Day Confident Buckeyes Will Play on Jan. 11

The Ohio State coach says his team will have enough players available to take the field on Monday night against Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After reports surfaced that the 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship Game between Alabama and Ohio State could be postponed due to COVID-19 protocols, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day seemed optimistic that his team will be ready to go on Jan. 11. 

"Correct," Day said on Thursday afternoon when asked if his program was still on track to play Monday night inside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

The No. 3 Buckeyes (7-0) have dealt with a slew of COVID-19 issues this season, including missing star wide receiver Chris Olave in the Big Ten Conference Championship Game against Northwestern.

"No real update," Day said of his quarterback Justin Fields and his rib injury. "Don't really give out injury updates."

Day also missed the Michigan State game when he contracted the coronavirus himself. It also had three of its regular season games canceled with Maryland, Michigan, and Illinois.

"Well, any time you deal with that and you lose people, it is a gut punch," Day said. "But it's not something that we're not used to. We've played games with the majority of our offensive line out. We played the Big Ten Championship game without our top receivers, or some of our top receivers. We've had starters all over the place down at different times, and we've found ways to work through it. It's just been the way it is."

The Buckeyes leader also stated the team will have plenty of players available to face the Crimson Tide. 

"And you can feel sorry for yourself or you can just continue to work on and push through it," Day added. "The hard thing is at the end of the day most people don't really care. They just watch the game and the result is the result. But for us, that's why the story about this season is just so amazing to me, is that we just continued to push through despite all those difficult challenges along the way.

"And no different this week. We've got a new set of challenges this week. We're going to have to figure it out, go down to Miami and play."