Ryan Day made his weekly radio show appearance on Thursday with the same message he’s delivered since the final whistle in Ann Arbor: The Buckeyes have already turned the page.
With Ohio State now just two days away from the first-ever No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in Big Ten Championship Game history, Day emphasized focus, urgency and respect for an undefeated Indiana team that has looked like one of the best programs in college football all season.
“Everybody wants to talk about last week, but we’re on to Indiana,” Day said. “This is the No. 2 team in the country right now. They’re undefeated. I think they’re playing as good as anybody in the country. They have a really good team, and we got to be ready to go.”
Day said his team has carried its momentum from The Game into practice, calling it a “locked-in, focused” week as Ohio State closes in on one of its season-long goals: win the Big Ten title. He pointed to the importance of finishing the regular season strong, protecting their postseason positioning and matching the urgency of a Hoosiers team that has upgraded across the board and enters Saturday playing as well as anyone in the country.
“We see this as part of the regular season, and we want to finish this the right way for a lot of reasons,” Day said. “I think the first thing is we have momentum. I think anytime you have momentum, you want to keep it. The second thing is this is one of the goals is to win the Big Ten championship — get to Indy and then win it. The last reason is we want to be the No. 1 seed going in. There are significant advantages to being the No. 1 seed, and when you’re trying to chase a championship, everything matters.”
Following Day’s appearance, defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. joined Paul Keels and Jim Lachey on the broadcast.
Ryan Day
On the Big Ten Championship Game
- “We see this as part of the regular season, and we want to finish this the right way for a lot of reasons. I think the first thing is we have momentum. I think anytime you have momentum, you want to keep it. The second thing is this is one of the goals is to win the Big Ten championship — get to Indy and then win it. The last reason is we want to be the No. 1 seed going in. There are significant advantages to being the No. 1 seed, and when you’re trying to chase a championship, everything matters.”
- “The guys have been locked in.”
- “Good, focused week.”
On Ohio State’s win over Michigan
- “I felt like we were able to have a balanced attack on offense.”
- Day said Ohio State was able to throw the ball downfield and run the ball when it needed to.
- Day said Ohio State’s defense continues to give the offense confidence.
- “You got to give it to our guys. The physicality they played with, the look in their eye, the way that they attacked from the minute the foot hit the ball, they were not gonna get denied.”
- “It didn’t start the way we wanted to, that’s for dang sure,” Day said, referring to Julian Sayin’s interception. “Didn’t think it was gonna go like that, but it was great to see the defense step up.” He added, “No panic from anybody on the sidelines.”
On Ohio State moving on to Indiana
- “Everybody wants to talk about last week, but we’re on to Indiana.”
- “This is the No. 2 team in the country right now. They’re undefeated. I think they’re playing as good as anybody in the country. They have a really good team, and we got to be ready to go.”
- “That game’s behind us.”
- “We know what we’re capable of. The goal again is to grade out a champion.”
- “We got to stay focused on doing our job.”
- Day said Ohio State’s players are “locked in” on Indiana and have been since Sunday.
On Ohio State’s running backs vs. Michigan
- Day said Bo Jackson impressed him on Saturday. “Made some guys miss, finished some runs, was physical.”
- Day said CJ Donaldson was “running through contact.”
- “It’s good to have depth, especially this time of year.”
On Ohio State’s defense being fresh after the Michigan game
- Day noted that Ohio State’s defense was on the field for fewer plays than the offense against Michigan. That could be an advantage for the Buckeyes as they prepare to face an efficient, talented Indiana offense.
- Day said Ohio State always wants to control the tempo of the game, but with the defense playing as well as it is, the number of plays means that much more.
On Indiana’s ball security, forced turnovers
- Day noted that Indiana limits turnovers on offense and forces a lot of turnovers on defense. “This is the No. 1 team in the country in turnover margin, so we’ve got be on our stuff.”
- “Everyone’s got to do their job.”
- Day said Ohio State must be disciplined and have good technique against Indiana.
On Indiana in 2024 vs. Indiana in 2025
- “This is a different team.”
- “They’ve upgraded in a lot of areas.”
- “The quarterback’s really playing at a high level.”
- “We have a lot of respect for this opponent, and we know this is gonna be a battle.”
On Indiana’s defense
- “They see things, they’re fast and they’re quick.”
- Day called Indiana’s defense “explosive,” efficient and disciplined.
- Day said Ohio State’s scout team has done a good job replicating what the Buckeyes will see from Indiana’s defense on Saturday.
On Indiana’s offense
- “They stay on schedule.”
- “They don’t take a lot of negative plays.”
- “(Fernando) Mendoza’s in the middle of it all. He does a nice job of getting the ball out. He’s athletic, in my opinion. The receivers are doing a great job. … You can tell they understand their scheme at a high level. He’s the guy in charge, making good decisions.”
On Fernando Mendoza
- “He just keeps coming at you.”
- “You can tell he’s tough.”
- “He’s the leader of this team.”
On Lorenzo Styles Jr.
- “He’s been around this team for a while, been around football for a while. He knows what it looks like.”
- Day said Styles is “very serious” about his approach.
- “He’ll be a big part of this game.”
On C.J. Hicks and Malik Hartford being eligible to play
- Day said Ohio State will look for ways to work Hicks and Hartford back into the mix, but he said the Buckeyes have “a pretty good rhythm right now” that he doesn’t want to hinder.
- “If the guys have been doing their job at a high level, we want to continue to build off of that.”
- “C.J. is a really good special teams player, so we’ll make sure he has the opportunity to help the team.”
On Julian Sayin’s performance in The Game
- Day said Sayin impressed him on Saturday because of how he handled adversity in The Game.
- “He was in the moment.”
- “He was locked in.”
- “He obviously had a big part in leading us (to a win).”
On Ohio State’s contingency plans in The Game
- Day said Ohio State was fully prepared for contingency plans in The Game. That included scenarios where a player goes down, headset communications go down and more.
- Day compared Ohio State’s contingency plans to those of the U.S. military, which always has plans for any event.
- If a team is prepared, Day said, there is no panic when things go sideways.
On how Ohio State handled the Brian Hartline news
- “I think a lot of them expected him to have an opportunity.”
- “I think it sort of caught everybody a little bit off guard, how quickly it happened, it was on signing day. That’s not what Brian had in his mind when he thought about this, but this is just sort of college football right now. We can all complain about it and talk about how it’s sideways in terms of all that, but I’m not gonna do that. I’m happy for him. This is a great opportunity for him. We’ll do a good job on focusing on winning this game this week. He’s gonna be a huge part of that this week. He said he’s gonna give us all his all this week to make sure we go win the Big Ten championship and then finish out the season the right way.”
- Day said Ohio State will then “figure out” what happens after Hartline leaves, but said “it’s an exciting time to be at Ohio State.” He added: “We’ll have a lot of people, I think, who apply for the job. We’ll make sure we’re thorough in our evaluation and get the feedback of some of the players.” Day said the Buckeyes followed a similar process when they hired Carlos Locklyn, keying in TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins on the potential hires.
On his favorite moment in The Game
- “When the clock hit zero.”
- Day said Urban Meyer came up to him and hugged him with three minutes left on the clock.
- Day joked that Meyer would have thrown him off the sideline if he did that before The Game was over while he was coaching under Meyer.
On the Big Ten title game
- Day said he expects a great environment in the Big Ten Championship Game.
- “Indiana is gonna travel well, we’re gonna travel well.”
- “The minute you walk in you can feel the electricity of that stadium.”
- Day said he hasn’t paid much mind to it, but he has thought about the possibility of Ohio State playing Indiana twice this season. He compared it to the NFL when teams could face each other more than once.
On playing at Lucas Oil Stadium this weekend
- Day said he looks forward to seeing Ohio State’s players perform in a dome at Lucas Oil Stadium.
- “It’s gonna be great for our guys.”
- “A fast, clean track is exciting for a lot of our guys.”
On whether he would want to coach for 28 years like Kirk Ferentz
- “I’m just trying to literally get through today.”
- “So much respect for him.”
- “One year is like dog years in college football, and every year — as we’re all seeing — they’re becoming longer and longer.”
- Day said the job Ferentz has done at Iowa is “really, really impressive.”
- Day said he admires how Ferentz treats people and how he’s maintained his staff.
Kenyatta Jackson Jr.
On how it felt to beat Michigan
- “It felt great.”
- “Special moment between the guys and myself.”
- “Years past, we fell short a couple of times, and you know, just to get over that hump finally, man, it was special.”
On Ohio State’s defensive line
- “We just don’t play selfish football. We play as one unit.”
- Jackson said Larry Johnson encourages his defensive line to play as one, which leads to success.
- Jackson said he and his teammates have a mindset of meeting each other at the quarterback.
On preparing to face Fernando Mendoza
- Jackson said Ohio State has played athletic quarterbacks all season. He said the Buckeyes have a mindset to “cage the quarterback.”
- Jackson said Mendoza can scramble and make plays with his feet, which Ohio State must be ready for.
- Jackson said Ohio State has prepared well to face Mendoza. He said Wednesday that Tavien St. Clair has done a good job replicating Mendoza on scout team.
On Ohio State’s mindset entering the Big Ten title game
- Jackson said Ohio State’s mindset quickly changed to beating Indiana after beating Michigan.
- Jackson said Ohio State has a desperate and hungry mindset entering the Big Ten title game.
- “This team don’t have no hardware. I mean, we have hardware from last game and that was goal No. 1, but this is goal No. 2. We have a huge chance to get some more hardware and do thing that other teams haven’t done.”
