Ryan Day postgame interview | Ohio State-Penn State
Are you tired of me asking about you winning with defense? I knew that was the first question you were gonna ask. Yes, I’m ok with it. Where does, where does maybe this defensive performance rank for you? I, I know that’s, it’s already, it just happened. But from start to finish, that was about as good as maybe we’ve seen it in your tenure here and they shouldn’t have been out there at the end of the end of the game, you know, that that was not their fault. I thought first off the crowd was tremendous. You know,
Gene brought it up. I brought it up when, when the shoes rocking like that, it’s, it’s difference maker. I thought our players fed off of it. You could tangibly see it on the field. They just fed off the crowd and we got that sack on JT on that fourth down. That, that was as loud as I’ve, I’ve heard in a long time and I just felt the toughness, the physicality on defense, we started off with, you know, really stopping the run and then forcing to throw the ball. And, um, you know, there’s a lot of
people who did a lot of great things on defense, but I gotta give Jim Knowles a lot of credit in his staff for, you know, the adjustments they’ve made. Um,
way over to the left, Bill Rabinowitz, Columbus, Dispatch and then Cameron Teague Robinson. Yeah, since Austin asked the obvious question, I’ll ask you about the flip side of it. Obviously, you’re without Treon and, and Ameca, how would you kind of assess the offense? Uh seemed like I was stuck in the mud a lot of the day. Yeah. Uh number one defense in the country statistically coming in. So we knew it was gonna be a little bit that way. Um I thought there were times we actually moved the ball, ok, didn’t run the ball well enough,
it didn’t get enough explosive plays. Um We certainly, you know, could, could use, you know, Trey and, and, uh, and the Mecca back, but, you know, we had enough to, to win and, you know, we don’t score there. We, we, we had a couple of really nice plays designed for Devin and he, he rolled the ankle there and, um, you know, and so it was out for the game so that, that kind of threw us off, but, you know, we still can’t get in on those two, you know, 3rd and 4th down plays. That would
have been a huge difference maker. But, um, you know, overall just, you know, not good enough, but, uh, I gotta give Marvin Harrison so much credit, you know, to, to go for 11 catches for 1 62 and a touchdown when, you know, I would think most teams, the first thing they look at is how do I take away Marvin Harrison? And we targeted him 16 times. I think he was open on most 16 of those plays. Um, and so, you know, he, he showed up in a, in a big spot today again and, you know,
I would, I would argue to say, and I haven’t seen everybody play across the country that, you know, it’s hard for me to find somebody who’s better in the country, you know. So, you know, I don’t know, you know how he gets on these lists or doesn’t get on these lists. But to me he’s one of the most special players in the country put on fourth and two there. Ethical line. I just, you know, when you’re on the two yard line like that, I mean, I just feel like we got to punch it in and,
and the way our defense was playing, if we were gonna get stopped, I felt like that was 98 yards for them to go. Um, if you’re playing the numbers on it, plus we, we got to get on the two yard line, there’s, there’s no excuse for that and that’s our expectation. 11th downs for Marvin Harrison too. Over to the right here. Dylan Davis does is that it was the same last year. Um Kyle is now one on the road at Notre Dame and he gets another top 10 win here at home over here. You’re right,
you’re right, gets another top 10 win at home. Um Here I guess how are you just seeing him grow up in front of your eyes in moments like this where obviously, you know, wins or wins but moments like these kind of, you know, have added significance, you know, I he took care of the ball, you know, there was the one sack fumble that was returned for a touchdown. So, you know, if, if it wasn’t a hold there, you know, that that would have been a whole different game. So we, we gotta, we gotta get rid
of that stuff. Uh It was a hold. I think that’s why I double clutched it, but still, uh there was some really good things he kept battling in there and, you know, did enough for us to win. Uh But I know we’re gonna watch this film and, and there’s still gonna be things that we need to grow on and then things that we did well that we got to enhance and, um, you know, we’ll watch the film and, and on Tuesday, I’ll have a better assessment of that if I could figure out if he granted
out a champion or not. But, um, you know, I, I just, I know we left a lot of plays on the field today on offense and we didn’t execute well enough in certain areas. Um, now again, number one defense in the country, so you have to, it’s all relative. So we’ll look at it and it was good enough to win. But certainly our defense put us in a great situation on offense to win. Far left Cameron Teague Robinson, the athletic and then Max Olsen Ryan come, coming into this game. We, you talked about Penn State’s
ability, just hold the ball, time possession. That meal moved on the field. They’re one and 61 for 16 on third down today. What does that say about this defense that they, they don’t give up big plays and they get off the field on third down. Yeah, we did. I mean, one for 16 is just tremendous and then, uh, one for three on third down. So I guess it’s two of what, 19 for 3rd and 4th downs, uh unbelievable job, you know, I think that was the combination of the rush and the coverage. I thought Jermaine
Matthews played a big time game for a freshman, having to step up without having Denzel in there. That was big. Um, I’ll forget some guys because there was just a lot of great play on defense. But, you know, if we can, if we can play like this, then this is, that’s championship level defense and, and if we can keep growing as a team, then, you know, you know, we’ll be tough to beat here down the road over to the right clay Hall, Wsyx. I know it’s, uh, one and no, every Saturday is a goal and
it’s a huge win. But in this era where you’re always trying to angle for later on it, it’s a huge leg up in a lot of ways in the east and Penn State had a win over Iowa. I mean, maybe that’s not your thought today, but it could be down the road, uh, again, you know, I’m sure there’s a couple of teams out there, maybe not that have two top 10 victories right now, uh, on their resume. And, um, I, I think the most encouraging thing, although it’s like this back and forth is, you know,
I, we come out of this game thinking that, you know, we probably should have won the game by a few touchdowns at least. Um, so I’m gonna wait for that tomorrow. I’m gonna enjoy this because it is, you know, you have to find these moments to enjoy because this is a top 10 win and if you said, you know, you’re gonna beat Penn State today 20 to 12, you know, where do I sign up? Um, you know, this is a good team coming in here. Well, coached James does a great job, man. He does a
great job on defense, you know, Mike, as we know, does a great job on offense and, um, you know, they have good players, you know, NFL players all over the field. So, um, you know, like you said, the goal is to be one and, oh, it doesn’t always look pretty at times in these games. You know, I think about the last few games that we’ve been in against or not few mo since I’ve been here, the games that we’ve been in against Penn State, it’s like it’s kind of ugly early on and then everything kind
of happens in the fourth quarter. I know Jerry, you mentioned that last year, like it was 16, 14 and the final ended up 41 to 33 or whatever it was, you know, so we, we knew we had to get this game into the fourth quarter, Tom and I, Tommy Ekeberg mentioned something in the locker room about how we have to be second half warriors. And if, you know, we want to take the next step as a team, you know, we gotta finish this thing off the right way. Um Really good leadership there. I thought Kate
Stover’s leadership was tremendous. Xavier Johnson had to step up with a Mecca out again. Yeah, I thought he did that. Leadership is important in big games like this now. Uh Marvin Harrison instead, he’s the first player in Ohio State history to have five games of 100 and 60 plus receiving yards. David Boston had four over to the left Max Olson. The athletic, yeah, Ryan over here, um, when, when you talk about Marvin being the best in the country, I, I’m curious in, in big games, big weeks like this. What’s his preparation? Like? What’s his demeanor
like, uh, today? I mean, you, you can interview him and talk to him about his exact routine. But, um, you know, people ask me, you know, a couple of guys in this room when, when they’re in there in the woody during, um, a Tuesday, Wednesday or whenever they’re in there, say who’s gonna leave first? You or Marvin? I said, I don’t know, but I always look before I leave to see. Um, I mean, he’s in there early in the morning, he’s out there late at night. Um, practice, we’ll practice, you know, however long we practice
and practice gets done, you know, I’ll go up and eat and he’ll still be out there on the jugs going through the routine, you know, he goes through every play at, you know, just going through it in his head. He’ll go out there and throw with Kyle, then he’ll get on the, the machine that he has, which you should see this machine. He can actually feed it and then he presses the button and he, and he shoots it to himself. Coach Mick made a rule that he has to bring somebody with him now though, he
can’t just go on his own. Um But, but guys have embraced that and that’s something that’s a legacy that he’ll leave behind is his work ethic over to the right. Nathan. Uh, Steven means Cleveland dot com and then Spencer Ryan, I think it was about 50 seconds left and you had three time outs at the end of the first half. Well, I just need it and said, maybe be more. Just felt like we were coming, we were coming out with the ball in the second half. Um I, I just felt at that time we, we’ll
just regroup at halftime. I didn’t want anything crazy to happen, you know, um, the fumble return for a touchdown was in the back of my mind. I just didn’t want, I thought the defense was playing well. Um I just didn’t want to take any chances, you know, it was conservative on my end. I, I agree, but the number one goal is we talk about us, we wanna know, you know, this is, this is a top 10 game and at that moment, I felt like the right thing to do is, take it, he was on the
18 yard line. If it was on the, you know, 30 something maybe, uh, I probably probably could have run it there and just see if you pop a run. Yeah, I mean, if, if I did it again, maybe you consider that, but at that time I felt like it was, let’s get it at half time. Let’s figure out what’s going on. We got the ball in the second half and let’s go from there, uh, over to the left, Nathan Baird Cleveland dot com. First off. Do you have any sense yet? How long Denzel might be
out? Yeah, it was close this week. So, uh, we’re hopeful to get him back for practice next week and if he has a full week of practice, he’ll be ready to go, I guess at the risk of being uncouth, is this kind of why you guys, uh, went out and threw a bunch of money at Jim Knowles to bring him here to, to coordinate this defense to win championship level games in this way. Well, you know, the expectation that Ohio State is to be the best in the country and, you know, um, our, our defense
I think has a chance to do that and when Jim got here, I know that that was what he wanted to do. And, um, he’s done a great job of installing his defenses, you know, and, and, you know, especially in the first year, but now, you know, he’s really got a feel for the conference. I think he’s taking the next step with our personnel and, you know, the guys are playing with confidence and I think he does a tremendous job of giving them enough information that they need, but not overloading them and allowing to play
fast and confident. Um I just, I, that was, that was the most confident and energetic group that I’ve been around probably since 19 out there on the field today. You know, when, when the crowd was into it, I mean, you just, the whole group was just, you know, they had that look in their eye and they were getting the crowd involved and a couple of times, I’m like, guys, they’re about to snap the ball, let’s go get going. But I, I love that, you know, that’s the confidence that is building week in and week out.
Got time for just a few more over here to the right Spencer Holbrook letter Monroe Ryan, I guess in that same vein, uh How much does this defense allow you to change the calculus in the way you, you’re calling offense? I know that in past years, maybe I don’t want to speak for you, but you might have gone for a touchdown at the end of the first half. You might have kicked a field goal to extend it to seven. What has changed about you with this defense being as good as it is right now. I
just think in, in a game like this, in particular, I, um, you have to do whatever you can to win the game. And if you feel like your defense can flat out win you a game, then, you know, you, you have to make sure that you’re doing your part. You know, you can’t be selfish in that moment as much as you, you’d love to just, you know, push the pedal the metal, the goal is to win the game. You know, sometimes we forget about that. Now, you know, there’s other times where you wanna find out
where your offense is and, you know, challenge yourself and grow and build and put them in situations to, to grow. Um, I, I just felt like today watching the game that, you know, our defense was in control of the game and, you know, if we could get a couple of drives together and punch it in and control the clock, you know, it certainly had a lot to do with the defense, but we did have the ball for th almost 35 minutes in the game and, and that was well done. Um, I just think that, you
know, we could have been a little bit more explosive and certainly not finishing that drive, you know, hurt us. Um, and, and, you know, made it a, a closer game than it should have been. But, um, you know, you know, in, in whatever the game is, the goal is to win the game and the more confidence we have in, in, in our defense that allows us to play a couple of different ways. Third row left Pat Murphy 24 7 sports Ryan Cade had a few big catches today. Um He, uh he’s done that in the
last few weeks for you guys. I know Marvin gets a lot of the, the talk offensively, but what does he give you guys when he’s out there making plays like that? Probably one of the most valuable guys on our offense, you know, I mean, certainly Marvin is Marvin, but after that, I, you know, Cade’s right there and we, we’ve got a couple of guys in there that, you know, Cade does so much of the dirty work. He’s such a great leader, he’s such a tough player and he’s become a really good receiver, you know, four
catches for 70 yards, um, some big time plays. Um And so we, we gotta keep finding ways to get him the ball. We gotta keep finding ways to be creative to do that for him. He deserves that. Um, probably could have done a better job as a staff doing that for him today. Um And, and we gotta keep finding ways to be explosive in the run game. We gotta do that, you know, if we want to take the next step as a team, we have to be able to figure that part of it out. Um
You know, had had a couple of ideas with Devin, you know, losing him, hurt us because I thought maybe in the fourth quarter, if we need to doing a four minute drill, we could utilize some of those things. We didn’t have it. We looked a little out of sync so we gotta make sure that we have a plan for that as well. So um gotta figure that out and hopefully get these guys healthy. But, but yeah, Cade’s a big part of all of that right here in the front row. Tim May uh on three and
then Adam Rittenberg, there you go. Uh Ryan, I was gonna ask you what they say about the toughness of your team, but I didn’t want to get you going again. Uh Jt Tuy Moow in Penn State and then of course, Josh Proctor today also, I mean, would you see all of those guys? And we’ve asked you this before about what, what comes on with JT Tuy Mohi when games are in the, you know, in the balance, so to speak and speak to him, I guess. Well, I think the first thing you notice when you talk
about those guys and just in general, I thought we played physical today, you know, there was a point where we were running the ball too, on offense where we were being physical. We, we were knocking them back, you know, Matt was, was, you know, did some good things, not, not enough at the end but early on, but the defense in particular JT and, and Josh, uh, I thought they were physical, there was more than just them. I mean, just overall played fast, strong, violent, but JT, uh, you know, I feel like for him when he
gets into those moments where, ok, you know, it’s a passing situation and he bumps out a little bit more and, and, you know, his, his buckets a little bit higher. Like here we go because now, you know, he knows what’s coming and, you know, he can, he can get himself, you know, those special players can do that. You know, they, they turn themselves up just a little bit more in those big clutch spots. He did again today, uh over to the left Dan Hope 11 Warriors. That’ll be the last one from that side. Ryan, what
went into the decision not to use down at all today? And could Treon have played if you had needed him? Uh Treon? No, he, he was, he ended up being unavailable. Um, you know, it was, it was, you know, as close as we could to the game to decide, uh, whether he could go or not. You know, we’re, we’re again hopeful to get him back next week. Um You know, I feel like he is close. Um, but, uh, you know, you know, to check with Tony and you know, going into the game said, you know,
if Trey’s not available, you know, where do you think we’ll go? And, you know, we felt like if, if Dan was available, you know, that we would consider using him, you know, Tony felt like those were the two best guys to go with at the time, you know, and I trust him, he’s, you know, he’s a running backs coach. We’ll re evaluate it this week and see if that was the right thing to do. And final question, Adam Rittenberg ESPN. Right, right here. Seven games and you have some evidence of who you guys are. I
mean, what is the personality and maybe how is it different from other teams you’ve coached here at Ohio State? You’re right. Um I think the first thing is just an experienced group of guys that has been through the fire before. Um We’ve always been talented but sometimes we’ve been young and inexperienced. You think about, you know, 1920 21 I mean, really talented players, I mean, NFL players, guys who, you know, are first rounders but young and sometimes playing against guys who are 21 22 23 years old in the COVID year. Sometimes more than that. And
this year’s team is not only more veteran, but the third year guys, those guys have played a lot of football, you think about JT and Jack and Ty Lek and, you know, uh Mecca and and, and Marvin, those are all three, third year guys, but they’ve played a lot of football here. So the combination of experience and I think, um, you know, age and maturity is probably the biggest thing, style of game, style of play. I would say, you know, our defense is, is really strong right now. You know, we have a big time playmaker
in, in Marvin. We have a, we have a super dynamic tight end who’s, you know, doing a lot for us in both ways, you know, a quarterback who’s growing, I think the biggest part of that is, you know, hopefully getting, um you know, some of these guys healthy and continue to build the, the passing game a little bit more in the running game to be more explosive if we can take that next step, you know, we have a chance to be really good and reach our goals. All right, coach, thank you very much for your
time.
