Ryan Day, Jack Sawyer, Lincoln Kienholz Discuss Disappointing Cotton Bowl Loss

ARLINGTON, Texas — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with reporters following the Buckeyes’ 14-3 loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl Friday night. Also joining Day were defensive end Jack Sawyer and true freshman quarterback Lincoln Kienholz. Sawyer had three sacks on the night and Kienholz was thrust into action when starting quarterback Devin Brown went down with an ankle injury. The highlights of everything they had to say can be found below.

Ryan Day

• Where do you go with quarterback after this game? “I feel like Lincoln got put in a tough spot there, to say the least.” “We didn’t help him up front.” “We didn’t run the ball well enough.” Hard to get an evaluation of the quarterback when you can’t get any balance. They could have helped him in certain areas and they didn’t.
• On the offensive line: There was some aggressive pass rushing, but when you have a young QB you have to be able to run the ball and they didn’t. The defense played well enough to win but they ran out of gas. “They played great.”
• Where does this team need to go? This was a very different game than the Michigan game. They wanted to finish well and it didn’t happen.
• The guys who are deciding whether or not they’re coming back need to rally together and finish some unfinished business.
• Devin Brown had a high-ankle sprain.
• Do you look to the portal for a quarterback? “Just fresh off the game so it’s hard to process all of it right now.” “Everything will be looked at.”
• “We shouldn’t [fair] catch the ball at the 4-yard line.”
• Assess the QBs in your room: This game was very unique. Not gonna go through and evaluate Kyle McCord or the guys in this game right now. The coaches could have done a better job of helping Lincoln and Devin Brown.
• They thought Devin Brown would be a little nervous early on so they figured he would be able to fight through it and they had plans for his style of play but the injury was too much.
• Brown fought to get back in the game. It wasn’t fair to him to put him back out there.
• “This is not something we were expecting to come out of this game.”
• Why did you start Matt Jones at center? “I don’t want to get too much into it…” but Carson Hinzman was having a tough time in practice the last couple of weeks. It’s not that Hinzman will never play here again.
• Why Lincoln Kienholz over Tristan Gebbia? Kienholz had been the backup quarterback in practice and had the reps. Plus they have similar styles of games and they could keep the game plan similar.
• Day hopes there will be a change to the transfer portal window to keep players from leaving before the season is over.
• How do you evaluate your offensive staff and are you thinking of making changes. You look at everything. Nobody cares that there’s a freshman quarterback playing. If it helps Ohio State win these games and reach the main goals, he’ll do it.

Jack Sawyer

• Not thinking about the NFL draft. “I’m just upset about the game.” Wanted to send the seniors out the right way.
• Lincoln Kienholz fought his ass off for the team.
• “I think a lot of us are on the same page that we don’t want to end our careers on two straight losses.” They love it here and they love Coach Day. That will be a big factor in their decisions to leave or come back.

Lincoln Kienholz

• Missouri tried to speed him up with the blitzing. He had to trust his mechanics and it eventually slowed down and became like any other game.
• How much will this game help you down the road? It was an awesome experience being out there. It was hard at first but the experience of playing more it helped build his platform for the next four or five years.

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