The No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes will be getting their first true test of the 2023 college football season this coming Saturday. Ryan Day and Ohio State football will be visiting South Bend next for a showdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish of Marcus Freeman, who also showed Day some love ahead of the clash of the two football giants.

“I've told him every time I've talked to him that he's done a tremendous job of leading that program,” Freeman said of Day, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.

Ohio State football is undefeated through its first three games of the 2023 season. The Buckeyes are coming off a 63-10 demolition of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at home last Saturday. Prior to that, the Buckeyes took down the Indiana Hoosiers in Week 1 (23-3) and the Youngstown State Penguins in Week 2 (35-7).

The Buckeyes have consistently been one of the best teams in college football during the course of Day's time as head coach of the program. He took over the head coaching job in Columbus following the departure of Urban Meyer in 2018.  The Buckeyes have not lost more than two games in a season so far in Day's tenure with the team as head coach.

Freeman knows a thing or two about Ohio State. After all, he played for the Buckeyes from 2004 to 2008 as a linebacker. He also served as a graduate assistant of the team in 2010.

Freeman has the Fighting Irish undefeated through four games this season, most recently beating the Central Michigan Chippewas at home last Saturday, 41-17.