Ryan Day Talks Offensive Explosion, Shutout Defense Following Buckeyes’ 56-0 Win Over Western Michigan

COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with reporters immediately following the Buckeyes’ 56-0 win over Western Michigan Saturday night. It was Ohio State’s first shutout since 2019. Day discussed his team’s overall performance, including the first career 100-yard games in a Buckeye uniform for both Jeremiah Smith and Quinshon Judkins. The highlights of everything he had to say can be found below.

• Wanted to start fast in this game and build on the energy of the crowd. Wanted to make sure they put on a good show for everybody who came to the game.
• “You can see it” regarding Quinshon Judkins. Home-run hitting ability. TreVeyon Henderson ran it well too. Good mix from Chip Kelly in the playcalling between run and pass.
• Had a good Tuesday and Wednesday in practice. Felt coming into the game that they were going to dominate. The depth was on display and they need that moving forward.
• There was good energy all week at practice. The attention to detail was good. They weren’t perfect but the energy was very good.
• Very important to help build depth with a game like this. Denzel Burke being ejected is an example of needing to have the next guy ready.
• Donovan Jackson could have played if this was a bigger game.
• How do you approach the off week? “Next week is an improvement week.” They’ll get back at it with a normal week but not Friday or Saturday practice/game. It’s about going really, really hard and going with great passion and energy.
• They want to continue to apply pressure on special teams but WMU did a good job of countering them.
• “If there was a mistake made, it was full speed.”
• On going for it on fourth down with Julian Sayin: “We were just trying to get more guys more plays.” It’s not always an easy situation when you’re up by that kind of score, “but we also need to get these guys plays.” Guys have to be able to learn and make mistakes. The only way to figure it out is to get them in the game. Western Michigan played well the week before and they had OSU’s attention, which was a part of the way this game went.l

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