Ohio State football coach Ryan Day talked with the media Monday for his weekly news conference. Here are highlights from what we had to say as the team prepares to face Northwestern on Friday night.
On takeaways from the first six games
“Nothing, just like you said, that just are glaringly evident. It’s just a lot of little things here and there on both sides of the ball, and when you play six games, you start to create some tendencies, you do different things, and so you just want to look to see first off personnel guys if you’re doing things the right way, and then secondly, schematically what are our tells, what are some things we need to clean up. And then as individuals, what are some things they need to get better at. So we gave all of our guys three different things they need to improve at so that we can say get better but get better at what, and there were some more targeted ideas on what we need to get better at.”
On the challenge of coaching a team when every mistake doesn’t hurt
“Well, we just have to be critical, and I think the players have to understand that as coaches we’re not being over-critical, it’s just that we understand as talent equates and we start getting into these games like we do this week, it’s going to be — those issues are still there. They’re still on the film, and we have to address them, and again, as we start to get tighter, tighter competition, they’re going to show up more and more, and that’s the challenge I think for the staff and for this team to understand, the maturity to understand that the urgency to get better, even though maybe sometimes those mistakes haven’t cost us a game yet.”
On players being ready to play as true freshmen
“I actually brought that up. We talked about it this morning, talked about it with Mark Pantoni. I do think guys are more and more ready to come play. I think maybe physically they’re more ready, more exposure to different things, but I do think now more than ever, guys are more ready to play. And with the new four-game rule, it’s kind of forcing guys in there to play a little bit. They have this opportunity to get out there and prove themselves, and then they can kind of grow from there and build from there, and I guess it’s giving them an opportunity to prove that they can play right away and that they do deserve reps. I think it’s a combination of those two things.”
On sophomore cornerback Cameron Brown
“A tremendous amount of growth. I think Jeff Hafley and our guys, and it’s not just Jeff, it’s everybody in the program. It’s Mick and the strength and conditioning, it’s Ryan Stamper, it’s everybody involved as you’re bringing guys along, and I think Cam would tell you that maybe six or seven months ago, he wasn’t ready for this. But he’s matured into a really good young man who’s taking care of all of his business off the field, in the classroom, and now on the field. That’s typically what happens is that when you really start to take care of what’s going on in the classroom, you’re doing a good job off the field, you start to make plays and you start to become reliable and play with discipline, as well. Really impressed with how far he’s come, and the good news with him, he’s got a high ceiling, and he’s got a long way to go.”
On the H-back position outside of K.J. Hill
“You’re looking for best available, and then it’s your job as a coach to figure out what they do best. I think K.J. Hill is a very different player than Parris Campbell, and Parris is different than Curtis Samuel, and they’re all different than the last guy. You try to look for somebody who has a real high-end skill set, whatever that is, working in short areas, and then you kind of go from there. And one of the things going into the season for us was that we felt like our 12 package was stronger this year, and so that H position has been supplemented a little bit with a second tight end, and I think that’s been good for us. So again, it’s — you try to recruit the best available, the best players possible, and then you try to go adapt the offense based on that.”
On keeping the team focused on Northwestern and not on Wisconsin
“Yeah, the same thing that we’ve been talking about all along, which is all you’re worried about is this game right here, and we all know what happens if you start losing focus, and we cannot do that. So this week we’ve talked about having a white belt mentality, which is a mentality that you’re starting right from scratch and that you don’t take anything for granted, you don’t make any assumptions, and if we do that, then we’ll be fine. If we start to look ahead or start to let our egos get in the way, then we’re in trouble.”
On the ideal quarterback room with the emergence of the transfer portal
“The ideal quarterback room is four quarterbacks and young guys that you’re developing who want to get on the field and understand how much they love Ohio State and the program and want to be here forever and work through it. And even if they’re not the starter, they still want to be here and love their teammates and all those things. Unfortunately, that’s hard right now. And so I’ve come to grips with that. As much as we’d like to have four, we’re going to keep working on getting four and keep recruiting four and work as hard as we can to make sure we have those guys in here. But also knowing that in today’s day and age, especially the way that we quarterback here, a lot of guys are going to feel like they can go somewhere else and play, and I get that. But when we recruit guys, we tell them you’re going to be recruited here and you’re going to be coached at the highest level in all of football in terms of the style that we’re going to be running on offense, different protections, the different coverage structures, the whole style. And so I think they love that. I think that’s why guys want to come here.”
On what stands out about Northwestern
“They do a tremendous job on defense. Really that whole defense is back from last year, Big Ten Championship game. Pat is as good a coach as there is in the country. That’s documented. It’s hard to find a yard against them. I think they’re a top 30 defense in the country. I believe they held Wisconsin under 300 total yards. I mean, they’re good. They know exactly how you’re trying to attack them. They make adjustments. It’s a defense that’s been around for a long time, and they know exactly what you’re doing. They’re sound in what they do they can. Paddy Fisher is the guy in the middle, kind of keeps everything going. And across the board, there are guys who have played a lot of football in that group. But it goes back to Pat. I mean, he is one of the more thorough coaches. He obviously played there and understands what he wants to get done, and they play that way. They’re sound and they don’t give you anything.”
On the defense not giving up big plays
“I think we’ve done a good job of teaching where everybody fits into the defense, and I think that that was some of the feedback that we’ve got is that guys understand where everybody is on the field. And so if you know where everybody is, when you go to track the ball, I think that’s important. You can play with a little bit more confidence knowing maybe you’re not on an island, you have guys that are coming with you, swarming to the ball, and I think that’s helped.
On learning from Georgia’s loss to South Carolina
“Any time you see something like that it gets your attention and reminds you of how fragile this is. All it takes is one game where we’re not following the plan to win. We turn the ball over, we don’t tackle, we don’t show up to play, and there you go. We know all about that. Do we spend a lot of time talking about it? No, but it’s always out there as a reminder.”
First Published October 14, 2019, 9:44 p.m.
