Before we get to one of the more delicate questions of the season, let's get up to speed on No. 3 Ohio State.

Certainly, the expectations are at their usual outsized level in Columbus, Ohio. Coach Ryan Day's wife Christina made news last week when she relayed to her husband, "Tough first quarter." The Buckeyes had scored 4 minutes into the Northwestern game but led only 7-3 after one in an eventual 52-3 win.

"The standard's pretty high around here," Ohio State's first-year coach said.

This question was actually asked of a coach who has led Ohio State for exactly 10 games (including three as interim coach last season): "Inevitably, I assume, unless you're the greatest of all time, you'll eventually lose a game somewhere. Will you be able to handle that better than as an assistant coach?"

"No," Day said. "I'll feel it more."

Day's excellence is so new to the scene that he was left off a recent watch list for the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. Five Big Ten coaches were on the list, including Jim Harbaugh. No Day. It turns out the Dodd Award doesn't consider first-year head coaches.  Shame on them.

There's your usual indicator that pretty much everything at Ohio State is way over the top with No. 13 Wisconsin headed to town. Let's add to the hype and ask that delicate question.

LSU has better wins, Alabama is overwhelmingly ranked No. 1, but there may be no better looking team at the moment than Ohio State.

Given all that, here goes: Are the Buckeyes actually better without Urban Meyer?

"Ryan Day has begun to take that thing to another level," said Bobby Carpenter, a linebacker on Jim Tressel's 2002 national championship OSU team.

"They're playing with a higher level of confidence than they were last year," Buckeyes hall of famer Chris Spielman said.

Neither comment is a flat-out "yes." But considering where the program came from last year, the overall feel of Ohio State at the moment is one of tranquility -- with an edge. No scandal, no suspensions, no distractions, just the meat and potatoes Bucknuts love to gobble. In Week 9, that entrée is labeled "7-0" on the menu.

"From the information we have now -- the Iowa game from two years ago, the Purdue game last year -- I don't they're capable of [losing such games on the road]," Spielman said.   

The Buckeyes have already passed a series of "tests" created by previous failings, namely struggling to beat outmanned Big Ten opponents on the road. Losses at Iowa in 2017 and at Purdue in 2018 kept Ohio State -- and basically the Big Ten -- out of the College Football Playoff those years.

This season, trips to Indiana, Nebraska and Northwestern have resulted in wins by a combined 131 points.

Wisconsin knows the feeling. It didn't survive at Illinois last week, taking away a bit of luster from Saturday's game. But the Badgers remain the Buckeyes' stiffest test to date.

Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields has more than eased the transition from Dwayne Haskins. The offensive line has turned out to be the best in recent memory.

The combined margin of victory -- 293 points (41.8 per game) -- is more than 123 teams have scored this season. That is bordering on amazing for a program that's had four coaches since 2010. (A list that includes Tressel's inglorious departure, Luke Fickell's interim year (6-7 in 2011) and Meyer's reign.) 

"If you miss on a [head-coaching] hire and miss on a second hire, you might spend a decade wondering in the college football wilderness," Carpenter said.

Ohio State hasn't missed, it has endured, reshaped, been remade. Day came to the Buckeyes two years ago as quarterbacks coach highly recommended by Chip Kelly, his boss in the NFL.

There was no hesitation who was going to take over the program last August when Meyer was suspended.

Spielman now estimates there are 40-50 players on the current roster who will get into NFL camps. That's Miami-level type stuff from those 2001-02 powerhouse Hurricane teams.

Miami's Larry Coker in 2001 remains the last first-year FBS coach to win a national championship. (Tressel won in 2002, his second year at the helm of Ohio State, and Gene Chizik is the last to do so in Year 2 at Auburn in 2010.)

That Day could be the next is a salute to the plug-and-play aspect of Ohio State football. Sure, this is still largely Meyer's team. Go ahead and say that Day, 40, is winning with Meyer's players.

While true, that always sounds like a slight. The opposite of not winning with the previous coach's players is losing. Day has managed to not only not screw up the job but enhance it. And in his third year on the staff, Day's had a big hand in recruiting a lot of the Buckeyes.

"Especially on the offensive side of the ball," Carpenter said. "A lot of them came to play his offense. You could argue, since the era of the recruiting rankings, Justin Fields is one of the highest-recruited guys. You can argue that's the biggest coup Ryan Day has had is pulling him away from Georgia."

Fields transferred, won an appeal to be eligible immediately and could make it back-to-back Heisman Trophy finalists for Ohio State. Almost quietly, Fields is ahead of Dwayne Haskins' 2018 pace when Haskins accounted for 54 touchdowns (50 passing).

Co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley told The Athletic he credits Day with allowing him to have players tackle to the ground in practice. Sounds simple, but full-padded tackle-to-the-ground practices are becoming a rarity in this age of player safety.

"He lets you coach," Hafley told reporters this week. "He really lets you coach. He doesn't often tell you what to do. He guides you. He gives you suggestions. He lets you do your job. To any assistant, that's probably the most important thing.

"He respects our family and our time so much. In this business, that's very rare. What do I mean by that? You guys could see my daughters running up and down  the halls anytime you want. My wife could come in here and feel comfortable anytime she wants. That makes this job so much more better."

The pair coached together in 2016 with the San Francisco 49ers. Day was the quarterbacks coach. Hafley was the secondary coach.

"Being we were on the West Coast, we would leave two days before [for road trips]," Hafley said this week. "We would spend a lot of time in the hotel just picking each other's brain.  I think there was a mutual respect. I think we just kind of clicked.  I believed we would coach together again. I didn't know it would be here."

The transition from Meyer has been so smooth basically because Day hasn't screwed up a good thing. His legacy will emerge. For now, Day gets credit for keeping the core of Meyer's staff, one of the best in the country.

Strength coach Mickey Marotti, Meyer's right-hand man, remains one of the best in the business. Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson has been the guiding hand behind Haskins and Fields.

For Day, there were no second thoughts about bringing in veteran Michigan (!) assistant Greg Mattison to share defensive duties with Hafley.

"No. 1, probably the best thing that Urban does outside of recruiting and everything else is ability to identify elite coaches," Carpenter said. "The staff has stayed largely in place. … Those pieces in place, that's the stuff that's hard for a first-time head coach."

With a lot of coaches in place, that begs the assertion that Ohio State football is almost bigger than whoever is coaching Ohio State football. Day is the first first-time head coach for the Buckeyes since 1945.

You can't even tell.