COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with the media following the Buckeyes’ convincing 34-10 win over No. 25 Michigan State. He answered plenty of questions about his team’s performance and what it means heading into a bye week. Sophomore starting quarterback Justin Fields also spoke with reporters to answer questions about his performance and the overall execution of this offense. Here are all of the highlights.
Ryan Day
+ The crowd was electric and loud, especially on third downs. They were awesome all night.
+ The change from the first quarter to the second quarter was that they got back on schedule. They hit a bit third down in the second quarter and finally got in a rhythm. They didn’t want to play too fast in this game, but they were able to wear them down at times.
+ It was hard early, but they knew it would happen. The first quarter was not a good quarter of football, but they responded.
+ “I feel like we just beat a top 25 team at home in a great atmosphere against a really good coached team.” Can’t wait to get to the film and improve.
+ JK Dobbins changed the game with his 67-yarder. Turned it into almost a 300-yard quarter. It’s one thing to go 20 yards, but then to come out the back end, it’s huge.
+ Day told Fields it was Day’s fault about the interception. It wasn’t the look they wanted. Day has told him that sometimes he’s not always going to be right and Fields has to make Day right sometimes.
+ Guys were grinding and yelling and finally got together and got it worked out in this game.
+ The chemistry of the team is very good. The leadership is strong. They are playing tough. They can learn a ton from this game. This is the perfect opportunity to sit back and look at these six games.
+ Michigan State exposed some things that they can now work on in the off week.
+ Damon Arnette was pulled by the medical staff. He’ll be fine but they will evaluate him tonight.
+ The coaches have to take ownership of these struggles too and figure them out. “It was great to see the guys respond.”
+ Michigan State’s defensive line is as good as anybody in the nation. It was a fight. It was tough. That was the first time they had to go and win the game in the second half. Both sides of the ball for the Buckeyes got fatigued but fought through it.
+ There is a constant debate on how much to run Justin Fields, but they needed him. “The impact that he can have is huge.”
Justin Fields
+ The offense started off rough and knew they were killing themselves. The second quarter they did what they were supposed to do.
+ He’s feeling those shots he took. They knew it was going to be tough this week, so the physicality wasn’t surprising. OSU played tough and that was the difference.
+ There weren’t many adjustments in the second quarter, they were just doing what they were supposed to do.
+ He had mixed emotions about his first interception. He wasn’t frustrated. “I think you all jinxed me a little bit talking about it last week,” he laughed.
+ They worked on that pass play to Victor in practice.
+ This was the most physical game he’s been in.
+ He didn’t come into this game planning to run the ball more, but he did whatever was necessary to win the game.
+ The offense showed flashes of what they could do in this game, but they stopped themselves a couple of times. When it’s all clicking this can be one of the best offenses in the nation.
+ The interception was on Fields because he threw into a zone and was expecting man.