Ohio State Spring Game: Ryan Day Happy With Defense, Questions Remain On Offense

Following Ohio State’s annual spring game on Saturday, Buckeye head coach Ryan Day met with reporters to discuss the conclusion of spring camp, what he learned from his squad, where issues still remains, the latest on the quarterbacks, and some overall bright spots over the past five weeks. The highlights of everything he had to say can be found below.

Will Howard’s pocket presence has been wit him early on in the spring. “It does help when you’re north of 6-4.” He stands in there. The timing has gotten better throughout spring.
Wind was blowing hard today, caused a couple of underthrown balls.
No declarations right now on the quarterbacks.
What do you feel the best about right now? The experience. A bunch of guys who have played a whole bunch of football. There is a long run coming this season, so they’re just trying to keep guys healthy. “We had to get those guys out of there.”
Guys wanted to play more and show off in this game, but the job of the coaches is to hold them back a bit in days like this.
“I thought all of the running backs did well today.” Today was the only day of tackling.
The swing passes are long handoffs to help stretch the field horizontally. They weren’t able to throw it vertically as much because of the wind.
The QBs were more involved in the running game, which is part of the plan this year. “It’s going to be a weapon for us this year.”
Where are they are right guard? Do they have a projection on that just yet? “No. No. I don’t think we’re there right now.” They’ll evaluate the entire spring and no more. Josh Fryar is one of the best five. They know he can play tackle.
The QB run game featured some open-side reading of the defensive end.
Calvin Simpson-Hunt is a good player. “He’s growing every day.” This is his first full spring. The guys who came in last summer are still in their first full year on campus. Simpson-Hunt is more comfortable with the calls now.
Lorenzo Styles, Jr. had a good spring but he recently had “a little procedure done” which kept him out of the last couple of practices.
Could this be the best group of cornerbacks he’s had at Ohio State? Yes.
Do you have the receiver depth that you need? “I think it’s a legitimate question.” You have Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith, Jayden Ballard, Bryson Rodgers, and Brandon Inniss as your top six. They’ll need more than that to build the depth. They’ll add freshmen Mylan Graham and Damarion Witten this summer. Witten will play a little bit of receiver and tight end.
Jayden Ballard has really stepped up this last week or two. He’s made some big plays when he needed to over the last week. He can really stretch the defense with his speed.
Where has Chip Kelly helped the most? “I think he brings one voice to the offense.” He has an unbelievable history of running the football. The quarterback runs that he’s added. Most of those runs aren’t designed to just have them run it, they have a read aspect to it.
They will give the quarterbacks feedback “for sure.” After you go through 15 practices you want feedback and they will get it.