Ohio State should be preparing to play Maryland this week, but after Saturday's game against the Terrapins was canceled, the Buckeyes had to change things up a bit.
Despite the schedule change, Ryan Day still made his final weekly media appearances on Thursday afternoon, joining his weekly radio show on 97.1 The Fan and briefly meeting with the media via Zoom.
Day was also joined by wide receivers coach Brian Hartline on the last segment of his radio appearance.
Ryan Day Radio Show
Ryan Day
On the disappointment of the canceled game
- "It's very, very disappointing. It's a hard thing."
- "When you do everything right, make all these sacrifices and you're still not able to play, it's hard."
- Day notes they lost four games at the beginning of the season, and now they lose another.
- "It's not fun, but there's nothing you can do about it."
- Day said they aren't going to focus on things they can't control.
- "They were disappointed. No two ways around it. They wanted to play this week."
- Day said the message is to "control what you can control."
On the schedule this weekend
- Day said they'll keep the same schedule as if it was a game week.
- "We'll try to keep at as routine as we possibly can."
- Day said they'll practice on Saturday.
- "Now, it's like a bye week. We have to approach it this way and use it that way."
On the defensive backs
- "It's going to be a good challenge."
- Day complements Indiana's passing game, saying it's a big
- "It will definitely be a challenge for our secondary."
On the young secondary
- "There's a lot of guys who have to step up."
- "We have to continue to find more depth back there."
- "There's a bunch of guys back there who have a great opportunity."
- "We believe in them, otherwise we wouldn't put them in the game."
On the defensive line depth
- "Playing depth is really powerful. It keeps our guys fresh."
- "It's one thing to play depth, it's another thing to put in guys that you feel are playing at a championship level."
On all the trick plays
- "We knew that they were going to try to come back to us in a lot of different ways."
- Day said he thought they did well against the trick plays, outside of the throwback on the punt.
- "I thought the effort on the first throwback was excellent."
- "The fake was because we knew they were going to be aggressive to try to block the punt."
- "It was certainly a lot of things to teach off of, a lot of moments."
- "All it takes is one play to ruin the game."
On the offensive line
- "I thought we came out early and hit some good runs."
- "We scored 35 in the first half – that was really well done."
- Day notes that that first touchdown pass from Justin Fields was a long developing play, but they were able to hit it because of the protection from the offensive line.
On Kevin Wilson's familiarity with Indiana
- "He knows everything that's going on in terms of keeping in touch with it all."
- Day says most of the guys he recruited at Indiana are gone now.
- "I know he keeps a close eye on it and he's very proud of what he got done there."
The difference between Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson
- "I think Chris has tremendous long speed, and he's got strong hands."
- "Garrett's a little thicker and stronger. He's got great change of direction inside."
- "Both have great ball skills."
On the tight ends
- "Those guys have done a lot of things, and the more things they can do the more stress it puts on a defense."
- "Jake (Hausmann) will be in the mix, for sure." Day said he will miss the next couple of weeks.
On Jake Seibert in the kicking game
- "We'll see, once he starts getting into some first field goal opportunities."
- "He responded about how we expected."
- Day notes he's a good athlete and played multiple positions in high school.
On Justin Fields' impressive accuracy
- "It's all those drills you do!" Day said with a laugh, jokingly taking credit for his success.
- "He's playing at a high level. It's everybody – the whole group."
- "Some of those throws are really, really good. Really, really accurate."
- "Some of those throws – really impressive. He just has some great natural talent."
- Day praises Fields' ability to scramble, but stay in the pocket and make the throw.
Brian Hartline
On Jameson Williams' touchdown
- "I was happy for him to get going."
- "I think right now the name of the game is how much better we can get, how fast."
- "The mindset is, we need to be nine-weeks ready even though we've only played four or five."
On the jet sweep
- "We also have to find a way to get the ball on the perimeter."
- "I'd always prefer a little shovel pass in the backfield instead of a handoff," Hartline joked.
- "We've done a good job."
- Hartline said it's a way to stretch the offense horizontally as well as vertically.
On the young receivers blocking
- "If you're only on the field to do one certain thing because you're only good at one thing, it's really hard to get you on the field."
- Hartline said it has been hard to replicate that in practice with the lack of padded practices this year.
- Hartline said they keep getting better each week.
On the young receivers on special teams
- "They're doing a great job."
- "The mindset is that you just can't play on offense and defense until you play on special teams."
- Hartline said there aren't as many opportunities to play on special teams as you might think, because the best players play and there's a competition to play on special teams, as well.
On the receivers going against Ohio State's secondary
- "We always enjoy going against elite competition, but we've kind of gotten to the point where we wish it was against somebody else."
- Day said they want to play a team wearing a different color jersey.
- But he still acknowledges that Ohio State's secondary does present a good challenge.
Ryan Day’s Thursday Press Conference
- He says the hardest thing is looking the team in the eye and saying they can’t play. “I feel awful for this team. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
- He left Gene Smith and Kristina Johnson to do most of the discussions with Maryland. “There’s not enough hours in the day right now.”
- “We have to keep our routine.” He says they’ll have a typical Thursday practice preparing for Indiana and a Best Fridays In Football practice on Friday.
- On if reaching Thanksgiving and students will be beneficial: “It’ll be one less thing to worry about. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.” He says it just takes one player testing positive.
- Day says there hasn’t been much conversation about the Big Ten title game eligibility. If they continue and can’t play “X number of games,” then there might need to be a conversation, he said.
- On the rule change to allow a same-day PCR test to negate a rapid-response COVID-19 test that is suspected to be a false positive: “That’s the sign of good leadership.”
- Asked if he’s worried about players staying safe this weekend without a game: “Yes. I would be worried even if we were going to Maryland. But now we have more free time on our hands.” He says they “hammered it home” on Wednesday.
- He says there are so many what-if scenarios, so he doesn’t want to concern himself with that and just want to focus on what’s happening now.
- Day says he was surprised at how quickly the cancellation happened. Says that’s maybe his fault.
- On shifting focus to Indiana: “That was like fast and furious. It was 2:15 and we had a 2:30 team meeting. Found out we weren’t going to play Maryland.” He says he told the coaches they weren’t going to focus on the Terrapins anymore.
