COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day spoke with reporters briefly on Thursday to answer questions about his team. He spoke a bit about the Florida Atlantic game, then looked ahead to the game against Cincinnati. Day also spoke about where things stand with a number of players this week. Here are the highlights.
+ The backup running back is still in flux. Master Teague ran hard, but he hasn’t practiced much. Demario McCall did some good things on special teams. They need to continue building that up.
+ Jonah Jackson came from an offense that uses the same terminology as this offense, which helped. But more importantly, his approach is what makes the difference. He’s a man’s man. It’s not easy to walk into Ohio State.
+ Not having CJ Saunders on Saturday impacted the team. He was the backup in camp. Jaelen Gill is in the mix. He is providing some depth. The more he plays, the better it will be for him.
+ He’s not worried about the extra time that Cincinnati has had. They played Thursday at night and OSU played Saturday at noon. It’s not an issue.
+ He wants to see a cleaner offensive line this week. They need to handle the movement of the defensive line better this week.
+ Josh Proctor and Isaiah Pryor are right there to help Jordan Fuller if he needs it. If either of those guys get to the level of being a starter, they’ll roll him in there. Proctor is inching closer.
+ On Joe Burrow: “I could talk about him for an hour.” Ed Orgeron told Ryan Day that Burrow took over the team when he arrived. He righted a ship that was drifting.
+ Thayer Munford has done well. Had a good preseason. They will continue to play Josh Alabi. He deserves to play. Josh didn’t play well on every snap, and he wants those snaps back. They will continue to play him, but he has to play at a championship level when he’s in there.
+ The offensive line is deeper than he thought it could be and that’s a tribute to Greg Studrawa. Jonah Jackson was part of that and signing a couple of guys down the stretch. Getting Branden Bowen back was huge too. Gavin Cupp has been huge for the program. He provides depth and is always practicing when other guys are missing.
+ The 2018 class has been solid, but they have to start becoming veterans. Some of them have, but these are the types of games where they need to start to establish themselves. “We’ve got to take a bit step in the class.” They need to become the future of this program. That story is yet to be written.
I’m glad that the OL is deeper, they just need to get deeper penetration in the run game. It seemed like they played a rather poor 2nd and 3rd quarter.
Appears that McCall needs to be our return guy, he not only gives us 15-30 yards of better LOS, but give him a few more chances and he looks like he’s ready to hit the big one.
Master Teague needs some more carries, especially in short yardage downs, he should be 2nd string behind Dobbins with McCall used more in slants and sweeps. He’s a guy that can energize our OL that can be a bit lethargic.
OSU’s D looked solid, however, they will need to mix their DB coverage if not, we’ll see Cinncy on long marches with more points and the upset see Cinncy begin long marches and nails bite with the chance of upset growing larger.