Eric Boggs
Following Ohio State’s 42-3 win over Minnesota, head coach Ryan Day addressed the media about the team’s performance, praising his players’ growth, execution, and mindset. The Buckeyes improved to 5-0, and Day used the postgame press conference to emphasize development, depth, and discipline.
Asked first about defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr., who left the game in the first quarter, Day said, “Yeah, it was good to see Kenyatta up and moving around and you know, cheering on his, supporting his teammates during the game. So we’ll take a look at it, but you know, have an update hopefully soon.” He also praised young defensive linemen who stepped in: “To see Zion (Grady) make a play, Jarquez (Carter) was in the backfield. I saw Logan (George) make some plays. Every time you’re on the field, it’s an opportunity and we’re all looking to build trust and when we put you in the game, the players need to build trust in each other’s, but you’re also building trust in the coaches. And so, whatever you do with the opportunity, you got to take advantage of it.”
Day also commended the backup offense for executing late. “I thought the second offense went out there and went down the field. That was a great opportunity to go out there and Lincoln, after I won’t get into the details of the first run, you know, we gave him another opportunity to redeem himself, like in Dumb and Dumber, totally redeemed himself. So that was good to see.”
When discussing quarterback Julian Sayin, Day said, “I think you’re seeing his confidence improve every week. And, you know, how we do it is everything’s thought out. Not everything always goes to plan, but we’re very deliberate about how we try to bring along our quarterbacks.” He credited Ohio State’s defense for allowing Sayin to grow within the system: “Sometimes we have to put them in situations that they’re maybe not ready for, but when you have a defense like we do right now that’s playing the way we do, you can bring them along in a certain way.”
Day expanded on Sayin’s development: “We wanted to put more on his plate this week. We felt like he had a good week of practice. And I can’t say enough about, Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith, Brandon Innis, and Max Klare. All of these guys are very prideful. All of them want the ball. All of them have expectations. And to see the unselfishness each week of a bunch of guys that just want to win, like that’s winning football in this day and age, there’s a lot that’s going on.”
When asked specifically about Jeremiah Smith, Day was direct: “I don’t think it’s even close that Jeremiah Smith is the best offensive player in college football. If it’s close, I’d like to know who it is.” He also praised Tate’s example: “Carnell’s seen Jeremiah do a lot of different things. And now you’re seeing Carnell take the next step. But he does that every day in practice. He does a lot of the dirty work. He does a lot of the blocking. And now you’re seeing him show up.”
Day said of his receivers’ maturity, “When you have someone like Carnell and Max and our running backs who when we get the running game going, then you have to figure out how you want to make these adjustments. And then it opens things back up for Jeremiah. So when you have mature guys who understand that, then that gives you a chance as well.”
On special teams, Day discussed the lateral play from Brandon Inniss to Lorenzo Styles Jr. that set up a score. “Yeah, Brandon is a captain. He is a competitor. He’s a baller. And nobody was sicker than him about that fumble. If we didn’t see the type of play and the attention to detail and the discipline every day in practice, then we maybe would have thought about it. But that was never into consideration.” He continued, “You know, he’s a guy who played quarterback because out of necessity in high school. And we saw something that we liked. And Lorenzo, you know, played wide receiver at Notre Dame, as you know. And so we thought that maybe if we had the right look and the right situation and the right hash that we could set something up. Doesn’t always work the way you draw it up, but it was good to see the guys execute it and put it on the field.”
When asked whether such plays should be saved for bigger games, Day replied, “You save it and it never gets run. So it’s like, you know, I feel like let’s go up with something new for the next time. You know, let’s have a couple of these different things that we can go to based on situations. Because you just never know when these things are going to arise. And we can’t worry about the score or the opponent. It’s about us.”
Day reiterated that Ohio State’s success comes from focusing on its own preparation rather than its opponents. “The first thing is it has nothing to do with our opponents. You’ve heard me say that before and I guess it sounds cliche and boring, but it’s true,” Day said. “It’s about our training. And we believe that if we train harder than anybody else in the country and prepare harder than anybody else in the country, that it shouldn’t matter who we play.”
Day continued: “The only people we believe that stopped us is us. And that’s the way we look at it. Easier said than done. You have to have a bunch of guys that buy into that and believe in it. And you got to credit the players for showing up, regardless of the opponent, week in and week out.”
He emphasized the need to stay “hungry and desperate” every week. “Because when you watch teams that are that way, you see what you get. And so that, to me, is important to figure out how do you have that mentality, yet when you keep winning, it’s easy to take the problems and the issues and just say, you know, it’s not a problem.”
Day cited specific plays as teaching moments. “Bo Jackson reaches the ball out on second down, that’s a problem. We should not be reaching the ball out. That’s going to be a fumble down the road. I’m just going to call it out for what it is. Like, that’s an issue.” He added, “The third and two, Lincoln should have been in the A-gap. He bounced it. Like, that’s going to lose us a game if we don’t recognize how important those things are.”
Day concluded that “when you’re chasing greatness, you have to be all over [those things], and you’ve got to take them serious. And it can’t be after a loss when all of a sudden everybody starts sitting up straight in meetings, or you’re going to get burnt. So like they say in the Navy SEALs, when you think you got it, you’re about to get it, and we’re far from where we need to be. So we have to stay hungry every day.”
When informed that his win over Minnesota had pushed his career winning percentage to 88.2%, surpassing Knute Rockne’s 88.1%, Day smiled and joked, “I’m glad you brought that up because this is the last game I’ll ever be coaching at Ohio State. I’m going to hang it up, and that’s it. I’m going to do a walk-off right now. I appreciate being the coach here.”
Then he turned serious. “No, a long way to go. It has everything to do with the players, the coaches in this place, but when you recognize how long some of those coaches coached, and you recognize what they went through and the seasons and the different changes, you just can appreciate how long they coached. Some of these seasons here are like dog years at Ohio State, but I’m just fortunate to be here, and I know what the obligation is. I know what the expectation is, and so do these players and coaches, so we’ll just keep swinging away.”
