COLUMBUS — Following Ohio State’s blustery 77-31 victory over Oregon State on Saturday, the Buckeyes’ acting head coach Ryan Day spoke with the media, as did co-defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. Several players also spoke, including quarterback Dwayne Haskins, running back Mike Weber, receivers Parris Campbell and Terry McLaurin, and linebacker Pete Werner.
Here is some of what was said from a few of the participants listed above.
Ryan Day
+ Despite the points allowed, Day liked the speed on defense. The lull at halftime hurt them and they were worried that it would.
+ “Really proud of the way Mike [Weber] has practiced.” He’s had a really good camp and spring.
+ After the game, they brought three players forward in the locker room to acknowledge their play: Weber, Malcolm Pridgeon, and Terry McLaurin.
+ There were a lot of “firsts” for Day, but he tried to do the best he could.
+ Day liked the tempo in the first half. They dialed it back in the second half for obvious reasons.
+ The split between J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber was good, but you never know how it will actually turn out because of the tempo they are playing at and sometimes someone — like Weber did today — will get the hot hand.
+ Dwayne Haskins can run, but they were successful in short yardage doing other things.
+ Day said he thought Tate Martell fumbled when he actually pitched it. “He’s a playmaker.”
+ This was a good first start for Dwayne Haskins.
+ Day knows Haskins knows he’s going to “be all over him” for his interception, but this went about as well as a first start can go for a quarterback.
Alex Grinch
+ It’s tough to make an immediate interpretation of the defense. There are plays you want to have back, but they all count. You think there are some easy fixes, but the problems still happened. They’ll figure out the why and get those things corrected.
+ This was a huge learning experience for a number of guys on defense. That’s the benefit of the offense putting up 70 points.
+ There were some missed opportunities, including a missed tackle on a big gain. “That doesn’t make it okay.” They need to swarm to the football better. “We had some extreme ones today that good defenses don’t have.”
+ Isaiah Pryor spent quite a bit of time practicing at free safety this week in preparation for the possibility that Jordan Fuller’s hamstring wouldn’t allow him to go.
+ Grinch expects Fuller back this week. “He’s very, very close” and was a game-time decision.
Mike Weber
+ This was the kind of distribution that he expected. It’s good for both backs and allows them to stay fresh later in games and later in the season.
+ “To see it pay off finally, it feels good on the personal side.”
+ He has gotten faster since his true freshman season.
+ On his long run, he saw Rashod Berry with a great block on the edge, and he placed Binjimen Victor between himself and the defender.
+ This game felt good because he knows his own expectations. He is just going to keep doing what he is doing and stay humble and help the team win games.
+ Dwayne Haskins was poised and quiet and calm before the game. “He did everything that J.T. taught him to do.”
Tuf Borland
+ It was in the game plan before the game to play a bit. “It was good to get out there.”
+ It was difficult to be on the sideline and watch the defense. He tried to help out in other ways and let his teammates know what they see.
+ On the struggles defensively: “We’ll get it cleaned up.”
+ “Obviously, there were a couple of mistakes made in the second half.”
Chase Young
+ It was exciting to see Nick Bosa score.
+ “Pete Werner is a freak.” People are going to see a lot more of him. He’s a faster James Laurinaitis.
+ The freshmen defensive ends played well. He saw himself as a freshman watching them. They made some mistakes, but watch them next week and see how they get better.
+ They can’t blame struggles on injuries. The next man is up and he has to produce. That’s what they focus on.
+ On screen plays, Greg Schiano leaves it up to Larry Johnson and Johnson wants them to just keep going after the quarterback.
Dwayne Haskins
+ Haskins wasn’t nervous for the start. Was more nervous earlier in the week just thinking about it.
+ “It’s been an 11-year dream” to be the starting quarterback at Ohio State.
+ The offense is dynamic and they can do a lot of things this year.
+ Ryan Day did a great job over the last month winning the locker room over and leading the team.
+ There were a couple of plays that were read option runs, but he read it to give the ball to the running back.
+ He attributes his calm demeanor to the amount of work he has put in to get to this point.
J.K. Dobbins
+ On the performance of the running backs: “I love it.” This is exactly what he and Weber want. Allows them both to produce.
+ On Weber: “I always want to see him do great. I’m not a type of guy that’s selfish.”
+ The distribution will be similar for the rest of the year, as long as that’s what the coaches want.”
+ “Dwayne’s like my best friend, so I had all of the confidence in him.” He’s only getting started.
+ Today’s offensive performance shows that the Ohio State offense is going to be dangerous “in every way.”
Pete Werner was a freak for about 15 minutes of actual playing time. The rest of the time he looked as lost and confused as Baron Browning and Malik Harrison. Their play was pathetic, but so too was the defensive backfield. The defensive line looked really good at times, and really abysmal at times. There was no middle ground with them and that was really disappointing. Tackling was lousy. I have no idea whose idea it was to run split man zone but Urban Meyer needs to hold their head under water for about a month.
The offense played very good football. The 2 units I tried to watch as close as possible was the offensive line and linebackers. The offensive line passed with flying colors, but the linebackers were a dumpster fire. Out of position constantly, nobody played gap discipline, and they stink up college football in middle zone responsibilities. BUT, that’s to be expected when your position coach is Bill Davis. There was absolutely NOTHING for that unit to build on coming out of this game. Looks like 2 straight years of awful with some of the best linebackers America produced in their respective classes.
Defensive Line C-
Linebackers F- (I’d pay the moving costs to get Bill Davis out of Columbus)
Cornerbacks F
Safeties F
There IS no excuse blaming the weather delay for the defenses upchuck coming out of it. Oregon State’s offense faced the same delay and made them look stupid. A frigging crap program.
Runninbacks A
Quarterback A+
Wideouts A
TE’s A
Offensive Line A
Thanks coach. I look forward to reading more of your articles.
No thanks “coach” (?!?!?). I don’t look forward to over the top (silly to me) analysis(???). Save your F’s for losses. Every unit had busts. First game is always sloppy. Fs ROFL!! Buck fans are SO over the top sometimes LOL!
Waaaaaaaaaah, waaaaaaaaaaaaah James Mills is mean. Spare me your drooling cries. No one beyond a single cell blob of pondscum could possibly think that defense was anything better than an F. Stop giving society, especially Buckeye society a pathetic excuse to be less than mediocre.
You are all or nothing in your critique. The DL was better than C-
Overall I would say our O is not really as good as they looked yesterday and our D is better than they looked. I truly believe with the talent and depth we have across the board the valuable playing time will be huge. I am most worried about our LB’s but they will improve.