College Football Playoff National Championship: Ryan Day Makes Opening Remarks

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day took part in his first press conference in the lead-up to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Notre Dame on January 20. Day answered questions about his team, their opponent, and much more. The highlights of everything he had to say can be found below.

It’s an honor for the team to represent Ohio State in the national championship game this year. Excited to be headed back down to Atlanta. Great venue, great opponent. The players are excited about the preparation.
The slate has been wiped clean. Now it’s time for a great week of preparation. They have already had some great meetings.
On the uncharacteristic penalties against Texas: Disappointed that there were four drives killed by penalties. And a fifth with a turnover. “We feel like we need to play our best game in this game.” Win or lose, there are issues that need to be corrected. They have the right and ability to persevere through those mistakes but that doesn’t make it easy. They have to be much more efficient in this game. On TreVeyon Henderson’s penalty: He responded very well after that penalty. Austin Siereveld’s penalty was a hustle penalty, playing to the whistle.
How grateful are you for an expanded playoff and did you change anything in mindset this year because of the expanded playoff: Everybody in the program is very grateful. The new format has allowed the team to grow and build throughout the season. As much as losses hurt, it allows the coaches and players to take a hard look at the issues and get them addressed and fixed. That’s the biggest thing he’s learned about this format. It’s great for the players and the game. They knew this season was going to be a battle of attrition. That impacted roster management but also how they practice and played.
Texas taking away Jeremiah Smith: It was more about execution than anything else. Texas did what some other teams did against him. They had opportunities but just didn’t execute. He’s a huge part of the offense and they’ll be putting together the game plan this week understanding that Notre Dame will do what they can to take him away. The story of the Texas game was self-inflicted wounds on offense.
“This is going to be a complete battle.”
On Denzel Burke not playing in the second half: He’ll be available for the next game. He was dealing with an upper extremity issue. Jermaine Mathews was playing well at the time.
On Jermaine Mathews: Everybody feels comfortable with him in the game based on the way he has practiced and played. When you get to this point, you’ve got a lot of film that everybody knows about. He’s done a good job of being a trusted teammate. He graded out a champion. He’s a very competitive player. He loves his teammates and he’s a gritty guy.
What’s the balance of using Jeremiah Smith’s gravity with also wanting to get him the ball more: The ultimate goal is to score points and move the ball. There’s a lot of things that come into play with that. They want balance across the board. You saw Carnell Tate get targeted more. Same thing with Emeka Egbuka, Gee Scott, TreVeyon Henderson, etc. It’s OSU’s job to understand what defenses are taking away and what they’re giving up.
On the interception: It was cover three, and the play-action wasn’t very good. They didn’t sell it well. They gave up some leakage at tight end as well.
On evaluating Riley Leonard last year in the portal: Leonard made his decision quickly. Great athlete. Competes. Great mindset. He’s a tough leader. The offense and the team feeds off of him.
Did you pull a hammy chasing Jack Sawyer? Your mind changes from “we have to go down and score on offense” to “the game just ended.” “That’s as happy as I’ve been in a long time.” But that’s behind them now.
On Caleb Downs’ play: Making a stand down at the goal line, they ran to the ball fast. That’s preparation and work that gets done during the week. Anticipating instead of reacting.
What did the last ND game do for you? Tremendous amount of respect for Notre Dame and what Marcus Freeman has done. They last two years has been a battle playing against them. Every year is a different group of guys, but this will be a battle as well.
On the play of the defensive line: When you play as much football as they’ve played, the game slows down. You understand time, situation, etc. When you’re young, you’re just playing. As you get older, you become more aware of everything. Larry Johnson has also done a great job of keeping the players fresh. They have played well down the stretch.
Ohio State will need its best game to beat Notre Dame.