Avoiding finger-pointing after a loss is critical for the health of a locker room.
Ohio State fell for the first time this season in the Big Ten Championship Game, losing 13-10 to Indiana. In his Sunday press conference, after finding out that the No. 2 Buckeyes would play their College Football Playoff quarterfinal game at the Cotton Bowl, Day said that his team will "respond like men" and avoid finger-pointing and self-pity.
Day also said that Brian Hartline will remain Ohio State's play caller for the CFP and reviewed the shortcomings he saw from his offense in situational football, the run game and pass protection.
- Day said that Brian Hartline will remain in his current role through the CFP. "Met on it today, and he's gonna continue with the same plan. I do think having three, four weeks to plan for the game will be beneficial."
- Day credited Indiana for how well it played, but thought Ohio State had too many self-inflicted wounds. "It's clear that we were not at our best, coaches and players. ... I didn't sleep much. I have a sick feeling in my stomach about the game."
- Losing situational battles was key to the loss for Ohio State, Day felt, as was an inability to establish the ground game. "Didn't get the run game going ... third down and red zone was certainly not good."
- On the approach to preparation for the Cotton Bowl: "The goal is to be at maximum speed, effort, violence, really peaking at the end of the month here."
- On what he learned from the red zone sequences on film: "The game plan going in you was some two and three-tight end sets. ... It was a combination of not getting enough movement in the run game, and then not executing, not game planning well enough, not scheming it up well enough in the pass game. ... It's all of the above, and that's what hurts on days like today."
- On how the Buckeyes will respond after the loss: "We're gonna respond like men. ... You can't just feel sorry for yourself or point fingers. You have to get the issues fixed. ... Defense, there was a lot of good football there ... (but) there were opportunities to win in all three phases."
- Day said that the team has confidence in any player it puts out there, but Jayden Fielding needs to review his issues and fix them after missing a game-tying field goal in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. "There's a reason why we put him in there. ... Just like everybody else, he's gotta take a hard look at it and make it right."
- On the decision not to push the pace on Ohio State's final drive before halftime: "What you're trying to do is win the middle-eight, so we wanted to get the clock two minutes and we had three timeouts. ... The No. 1 goal was to end with the ball or points. ... But we gotta convert (on third down)."
- Day said that Ohio State wanted to rotate to keep Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith fresh as they continued working their way back to full health.
- Day said there were times Ohio State's run game were blocked up well but didn't get explosive runs thanks to the final unblocked man, then other times there were lapses "I think it was a mixture of things."
- Day confirmed that Hartline will remain the play-caller. "Brian was calling it, but we're all involved. ... But Brian calls the plays and will continue to call the plays, but we're going to have everybody in on it and it's a group effort."
- On the benefits of an angry team: "It can be a little bit of a cleanse. ... Some of the assumptions that you make that you think are the right things ... all those warts show up. Front and center. ... There were some of those that showed up last night."
- Day didn't care where Ohio State was seeded really, but appreciated that the CFP selection committee recognized what the team had accomplished this season. "I think the committee recognized the body of the work that we had this year and fighting it out in the fourth quarter against a really good team last night. ... It doesn't matter, really, if you're the 1, 2, 3 or 4, you've gotta win from here on out."
