COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day discussed the season-opening win over Indiana immediately following the 23-3 victory in Bloomington, Indiana.
Here are the highlights of what was said post-game.
Ryan Day
+ “I would’ve liked to have seen Devin [Brown] play a bit more.” But Day was worried that they wouldn’t be able to get into a rhythm and risk putting themselves in a bad spot after they were already clunky at times on offense. Going in, he wanted to play Brown more, but they had to do what was right for the team. They didn’t want to get into a dog fight and have neither quarterback in a rhythm, that was his fear.
+ “Mixed bag.” They have to play better on third down, in short yardage situations, and in the red zone. At times they were running by committee but had decent balance on offense with pass and run. “We know what we need to do.”
+ “It’s ok for me to be excited about great defense.” Day said he was really excited with the defense all around.
+ On Brian Hartline calling the plays, Day said they had a lot of time to talk on the sidelines and they were having constant communication. “It was a team effort but it was a good start.” Hartline is doing a great job but he would like to have more than 23 points so they have to identify after week one what is going on. The most important thing was getting the win.
+ McCord had a good third quarter and got into rhythm. The throw to Cade Stover over the middle was big and scoring again on the drive when the touchdown to Marvin Harrison Jr. was called back was big. There were plays they want back, it was a mixed bag, but they are going to look at the film.
+ Getting off schedule affected third down conversions but they expect to convert on those 3rd-and-3 over 80 percent of the time and not getting those put them out of whack today. “That can’t happen moving forward.”
+ Tony Alford rotated the running backs today due to the heat, length of the season, and the length of the drives in this game. “All of those guys are deserving.”
+ They needed to get the first win and then identify and learn from it. “You don’t need to be playing your best football in the first game of the week, but you need to grow from it.” They probably could have been a bit more aggressive in this game but the goal was to win.
+ “I love the defense. If we play defense like this, we’re going to have a chance.” Day said he wants to sit in the press conference and smile about the defense.
+ One of his goals was to score 50 points and they didn’t do that, but they got the win and it was a start.
Somehow WKY has become an interesting game. It will be fun watching the defense against their talented QB. Does anybody think OSU will beat the 28.5 point spread? Will the Hilltoppers take an early lead? They’re the type of team that would upset UM. So far OSU has avoided that embarrassment with lower tier teams.
They’ve got a lot to work on. Wasn’t expecting too much but even so, was less than impressed with the offense. Hard to tell with the defense as it was Indiana. Hopefully they will gel into a team over the next two cake walks.
Won’t waste time watching Youngstown State, which shouldn’t be on the schedule. That bit of corruption about throwing money to a former coach’s irrelevant little sisters of the poor charity fund isn’t what OSU football is supposed to be about. Shameful and a rip-off to ticket holders. Good way to pad the stats, right?
I agree with you completely regarding the Youngstown State comment, however, I guess I will look at the silver lining of it and say it’s an opportunity to work on all that we’ve mentioned. They certainly need the work!
Either let your Offensive Coordinator do his job or don’t have one! I don’t care how young or inexperienced certain position groups were. Every team has had to go break in a new QB. I’m fine with that and expect either QB to take a step back early on. What I can’t still seem to grasp is the BS play-calling. Either the O-Line is incompetent or Ryan Day is way too stubborn to change the play call when the defense loads the box. Every. single, time on short yardage situations he ran the same, predictable running play up the middle and got stuffed! I don’t care how young and inexperienced you are, that should not happen consistently. It happened way too much on Saturday