COLUMBUS – Ohio State head coach Ryan Day joined the Buckeye Roundtable show on 97.1 The Fan and Ohio State IMG Sports Network on Monday evening to recap Indiana and preview the Buckeyes’ game against Illinois this Saturday.
Here’s a summary of what was said.
Ryan Day
+ He thought the start they had was excellent against Indiana, the energy was good. They knew they would have to bring their own juice and they did early on.
+ They have to do a better job of closing out games. But to be 4-0 is a big accomplishment.
+ The guys that end up having great careers here do everything they can on special teams. Ezekiel Elliott, Terry McLaurin, and on and on. “That’s how you get going here.”
+ Both Josh Proctor and Julian Fleming have bright futures at Ohio State.
+ Pete Werner plays really well he diagnoses plays and does a good job of getting guys lined up. He wa sa big part of why they couldn’t run the ball on Saturday. The linebackers are playing at a high level.
+ On the targeting on Justin Fields that wasn’t called and the fumbles that were not called, Day said they sent those in and had a long conversation about those. It’s hard. “They have a tough job but when you see that targeting, that was a bad hit to his head and it was hard to see that, it was pretty bad.” On the fumbles, he said he wishes they did a better job with review there but it’s part of the game. “Some of those are just hard to swallow. We have to do a good job of moving on.”
+ “We gave up plays and turned the ball over and if we clean those up we can be a great team.” But he gives Indiana credit for doing a really good job.
+ Indiana blitzed every snap, with that comes some big plays and some bad plays. They focused on not making those bad plays worse, at times they did and at times they didn’t. They have to learn from that and stay ahead of it.
+ Justin Fields was disappointed about the interceptions but it was a great experience for him to learn from. One of the first few times people really got after him.
+ On Illinois, Day said they on a winning streak and they have done a nice job of playing complimentary football. On defense they cause fumbles and are good fundamentally. They’ve had some upsets over the years and they run the ball well on offense. “If you’re not on point on offense they can get you off schedule and cause turnovers.”