The Buckeyes face their toughest test so far this weekend as Wisconsin heads to Columbus and Ryan Day is here to give his final updates of the week.
Ohio State's back to its regular routine after the Friday game with Day making his final media appearances on Thursday once again. Day joined 97.1 The Fan for his weekly radio show immediately followed by his typical brief afternoon media availability in the team room.
You can read updates from Day's radio show appearance below, followed by his meeting with the local media. Day was also joined by co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison during his radio appearance.
97.1 The Fan
Ryan Day
On executing on third-and-long
- "Early in the game, sometimes it's hard to crack the rock."
- "Early in the game, when you get off schedule, you have to do a great job on third and long."
- Ryan Day praised everyone's ability to recognize what they were doing on third down.
On forcing a punt and getting points before the half
- "If we got it inside the five-yard line, we were going to be aggressive and use our time outs."
- Day said they went after the block, but didn't get it.
- Day praised the protection on Blake Haubeil's 55 yarder, noting that all 11 defenders rushed to block it, which is rare.
What's the longest you would consider attempting?
- 55 yards is probably around the limit.
- Day said he would take the wind and playing surface into account.
- "You would have thought we won the super bowl right there," Ryan Day said of the celebration for the field goal.
On Zach Harrison's early playing time
- He didn't play a ton of defensive end week in and week out in high school
- "From the moment he stepped in the building, he was serious at his job."
- "He wants to get better."
On Dawand Jones
- "He's got a really bright future ahead of him.
- "You can see how he loves to play."
- Day said it was great to see how excited he was on that play, running down the field pumping his fist.
On Nicholas Petit-Frere's first start and Thayer Munford playing through injuries
- "I thought Thayer was gritty when we needed him to get in there."
- Day said Munford is "doing great now" and is having a great week of practice.
- "It wasn't perfect, but that's okay, it never is," Day said of Petit-Frere's first start.
- "As long as he keeps competing, he's going to have a great future here."
On JK Dobbins
- "It was great to see him out of the backfield catching that pass."
- Day said Dobbins has been working on his route running.
- "It was good to see JK catch and run on that one."
On Master Teague
- "He's a good change of pace."
- Day said the biggest difference in Teague now is his vision.
- "He's seeing it now."
- "He's a home run hitter."
- "He's got track speed" Day said, referencing his big, long and powerful strides.
On Wisconsin's offense
- "They're a ball control team."
- "I think Taylor is one of the best running backs in the country with their o-line."
- Day called Quintez Cephus one of the best receivers in the conference.
- "It's one of the better offenses in the league and in the country."
- "At the end of the day, it's going to come down to one-on-one battles."
- "This is the best offensive line in the league, and probably in the country."
- "They're going to have to play their best game of the year."
On the Wisconsin defense
- Day said Wisconsin combines scheme and skill.
- Day said they do a good job of holding runs to 1, 0 or -1 yards.
- "We've got to do a good job staying on schedule."
On the rainy weather forecast
- "Well, nothing we can control."
- Day notes they have to play in the same game.
- "Who's going to handle it better?"
On taking it one game at a time
- "We feel like we have something special going and it's really fragile."
- "At any point, someone can take that away from you."
- "You have to understand how fragile that is."
- "We have to make sure our routine stays the same and we don't change anything."
On Saturday being a home game
- "Any time we get in the 'Shoe it's special."
- "This Saturday is going to be huge for us."
- "We have to protect our house."
Greg Mattison
On the defensive tackling
- I'm so proud of how hard they've played.
- "Everybody talks about missed tackles, but in today's football to tackle one of the great athletes in space is a very hard job."
- Mattison said team tackling is the key.
On Wisconsin's offensive line
- "They'll take all of these so-called three-star players."
- Mattison said a lot of the players they recruit on the offensive line aren't totally developed when they're being recruited.
- Mattison said there are players he knew could be good in recruiting but he couldn't take them at Michigan.
- Their development comes later.
On defensive adjustments in-game
- Mattison praised Jeff Hafley's ability to diagnose what's happening in the booth.
- Mattison said he's been places where the coach in the booth didn't know what happened or what went wrong.
- Knowing immediately what happened helps them make adjustments on the fly.
Press Conference With The Local Media
- Day says Brian Hartline had a nice NFL career, but "he wants a career going forward." Says he's throwing his "heart and soul" into coaching.
- "We prepare every week to play 60 minutes, but we know it'll be like that this week."
- Day says Mickey Marotti said the other day that any time you go into a game, you have a one-on-one battle you have to win. "This is by far the biggest challenge we've had on both sides of the ball."
- He says whenever you can run on third down, it calms everything down. However, "it's a calculated risk."
- On the need to win at the line of scrimmage: "Any game, but certainly this week."
- Day says Ohio State has been "spotty" of avoiding third-and-long situations.
- He thinks you learn more about managing people, creating a vision and setting a standard as a head coach. He says it's less "X's and O's" as a head coach.
- Day says the team doesn't change anything about its game plan for a game in the rain. That would change, of course, if it was a full-on downpour.
- This is the second year in a row with a new quarterback and center, Day said, and he thinks they've done a good job working together.
- Defending play-action passes will be key, Day said. "Coach Chryst does a good job mixing it up."
- Day says Chase Young is versatile in that he can beat opponents in various ways. On whether teams have varied their blocking schemes against him: "Everybody has a little bit of an idea, but they don't want to go overboard either."
