Ryan Day Postgame Updates From Buckeyes' 45-0 Shutout Win Over Purdue

COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day took to the podium following the Buckeyes’ 45-0 win over Purdue. He discussed the shutout from the defense, his Buckeye offense, and much more. The highlights of everything that was said can be found below.

Thoughts on the completeness of the performance? There was a challenge set up on special teams. They changed some personnel. They put Caden and Mitchell Melton on the edge. They executed.
The defense: JT and Jack were both very disruptive. It starts up front. “Tyleik was available. Could have played.” Plan on him being full-go next week. Good to see a bunch of guys get an opportunity.
What’s been the major change on defense? It’s not like they’ve redone the whole thing, but they started from scratch to make sure they had the right guys in the right place. Over time, that can make a big difference. Players are getting lined up faster as well and getting set.
On Eddrick Houston’s performance: Have to watch the film. He’s really flashed for them in practice with the position move. “He has a lot of ability and he’s active.” He has to continue to learn but also grow up quickly. “I think he could really be a dynamic three-technique for us.”
When they huddle, they don’t get as many plays in a game. “There’s just not as many plays as they’re used to be.” Part of this season is players realizing and understanding that touches will be down because of it. But the big games are coming and they’ll need everybody ready for when their time is called. Have to be unselfish on offense because there’s only one football and they have to do everything they can to win the game. Certainly Emeka Egbuka wants more touches but he’s never going to make this about him. He’s one of the best OSU WRs of all time and the fans know it.
Will Howard’s performance is kind of what you’d like to see from week to week. He had a sack that should’ve been a throwaway.
On the offense: It wasn’t all clean today but everybody played hard.
The young players used the snaps in the fourth quarter to get noticed.
Good to see OSU respond coming off of an emotional win last week.
They liked the matchup on the punt block with Caden Curry and Mitchell Melton against smaller body types shielding them. They had been working on it for a couple of weeks. “We put a lot of work into it. I mean a lot of work.” So they want to see some results. They are moving pieces around. You saw TreVeyon Henderson out on kickoff return as well.
With Tyleik Williams unavailable they wanted to try some different packages and things that Jim Knowles has done in the past. “We’ll keep looking for it and see if it fits.” “It could be a real weapon for us.” It’s not easy to experiment with the Jack, but Mitchell Melton and CJ Hicks have done it a little bit previously so there was some recall that they could draw on.
There was a lot of focus before the game on how they would respond following an emotional win at Penn State. So it was good to have a response that they did.
On special teams, it was great to have a positive impact from that group because that has been a rarity.
Jeremiah Smith is getting stronger and more experienced. Good to see him break the record for most touchdown catches for an Ohio State freshman receiver.