Ryan Day Carrying On ‘Unfinished Business’ Message, Embracing Expectations

INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day answered questions from assorted media for 45 minutes on Tuesday during day one of the three-day Big Ten Media Days event. Day provided updates on his football team, talked quarterback battle, offensive line concerns, the future of college football, the expectations this team has, and much more. The highlights of everything that was said can be found below.

+ How do you view the expectations this season? “We’re all excited about the opportunity.” They see what could be but that’s wasted energy. But at the same time you get excited about this team. This is the reason so many guys said no to the NFL.

+ Has this team done everything from the end of spring to now that you wanted? They have done that and some. There’s a great energy around this team. They know what they want. There’s an energy and a purpose. You can see it. “It’s real.”

+ Did not name a starting quarterback yet. How close is the competition? Lincoln and Devin were the only ones who knew the offense in the spring. The first two weeks of preseason they’ll have a better idea, but some guys have really stepped up in the summer.

+ Will Howard’s experience as a starter “is there for sure.” He’s played a lot of football. “Experience does matter.”

+ How do you balance the expectations around Jeremiah Smith? Trying not to go down the road too long with him in terms of superlatives but you can see how good he is. He’s really good at the no-talent things. Day will hold off on saying more until after the first game. He’s right up there with the other talented freshmen they’ve had.

+ Every year at Ohio State you have the opportunity to win every game. That’s what the expectations are. After ever year you don’t win it all, you look at the reasons why. It may come down to one play or two but they want to leave no doubt. “Leave no doubt.”

+ How quickly do you pare down the QB race? The first four practices will see two fields going but then it will stop after that. Then they’ll get more deliberate about how many QBs get how many reps.

+ The best offenses are the ones that do what they do and force teams to stop them. Do what you do well, whatever it is with whatever personnel you have.

+ With the QB run: Similar to what CJ Stroud did against Georgia. Extend plays. And when you have a room of five quarterbacks you can be more aggressive doing that.

+ On the expanded playoffs: “I think it’s exciting for college football.” It’s going to be great to see more teams alive in December and more teams will have an opportunity to stay alive in November. It’s going to be very different because you won’t have as much time to prepare. Depth and fundamentals will be important. But it’s still going to come down to playing winning football.

+ There’s a lot that goes into play calling and it’s exciting when it all goes well. He will miss that portion of it.

+ On Caleb Downs at running back: at the time that was more of a statement about Caleb Downs’ ability. He’s good enough. They don’t want to put it all on his plate right away but Downs is interested. Since they lost TC Caffey for the year, it’s something that they can go to if they need to. It’s not an emergency situation right now though.

+ Julian Sayin’s ability to process quickly? He’s very, very twitchy from the waist up. Dwayne Haskins was that way. His mind works that way and it’s a good trait for a quarterback.

+ On playing at Wrigley, the guys who played baseball in high school or the Chicagoans are maybe more excited about it because they understand the venue more. But the coaches know and are excited about it. They will explain that to the players at the time.

+ It is tricky figuring out NIL benchmarks at other schools. He’d never call out another school for their operations or something like was seen from Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban a few years back.

+ The value of being an Ohio State Buckeye in Columbus goes way beyond the collectives. He’s not sure how other programs can pretend to say how much Ohio State players are making or can earn because he doesn’t even know.

+ Players who decided to return kept talking about “unfinished business.” That’s what they kept saying to him. Guys jumped in and returned and were united and it’s something he hasn’t seen before at Ohio State.

+ Seth McLaughlin gives the offensive line veteran experience that is calming to his teammates. He’s gaining his voice every day, and they need him to because he’s playing center. Carson Hinzman will play some center and guard. They’ll figure it out.

+ Did they miss having a veteran center last year? It was a tough ask at times for Carson Hinzman last year. He was probably in there half a season too early. But for where he was at in his career, he battled. He’s going to have a great career at Ohio State. Having that year under his belt is really going to pay off for him. He’s changed his body. His attitude is great.

+ Emeka Egbuka as a leader? He’s always been a leader and had that approach. He is finding that leadership voice. He’s called some guys out and will need to do that more.

+ On the running back rotation? That will be up to Coach Lock. Both guys are going to play a lot.

+ Carlos Locklyn has been great in a short period of time. Watching his passion for the game has been great. He’s a tough guy who demands respect and demands his players play hard. The guys like him.

+ He still sits in on offensive meetings. Sometimes he’s quiet sometimes he’s not. It’s his job to identify where they’re going and where they need to be.

+ Have not seen any bad snaps from Seth McLaughlin in practice.

+ Will probably see more huddling now with the player/coach communication.

+ Expectations for year three with Jim Knowles? You can’t look at statistics only. They want to win more than they want to have the No. 1 defense. They’ve already had a top three offense and top three defense. They want to win and that means stopping the run.

+ Will Ohio State ever see anything like this kind of personnel retention again? “I hope so.”

+ If the No. 1 thing for a recruit is NIL then Ohio State is probably not the right place for them.

+ The rise of the NIL has created a need for Ohio State to look at more developmental guys whose NIL value isn’t as high and they can develop over time. You can’t just sign a bunch of five-star guys as much as you used to because more programs can recruit better now.

+ Emeka Egbuka is a warrior who can do so many things for the Buckeyes. He’s the answer to so many questions when they need somebody to do something. He can return punts, kicks, take hand-offs, run any route. He’s just a great athlete. Strong in so many different ways.

+ On the proposed 105 roster limit: They’ve always operated at 120 so that would be something they’d have to adjust to. They are still talking about how to operate with a smaller number and what they can do to have extra players available.

+ There is an effort grade every day for every group in the weight room and the coaches see it. The players are being held accountable. “Mick and his staff have been excellent.”

+ Which freshmen will play? The two running backs will have to play. Myland Graham and Damarion Witten have some ground to cover because they just got there. Offensive linemen take time. Eddrick Houston has flashed the most but they’re deep at defensive end. Jaylen McClain will play. Aaron Scott flashed more and more in the spring. He has had a good summer. Bryce West was injured.

+ The punt battle will go into the third week probably. Nick McLarty has a big leg but he’s young.

+ Josh Fryar “is our right tackle.”

+ On revenue sharing: He’s had some great conversations with Ross Bjork and Tony Petitti about this and Title IX. “It’s fair to expect uniformity with Title IX.”

+ Anybody else helping out at RB possibly? Maybe Brandon Inniss if they get that far down the road.

+ Need to see consistency from CJ Hicks but they saw flashes of it in the spring. He was showing up to the football. The level of discipline needs to be there. It’s slowing down for CJ.

+ TC Caffey is the only Buckeye right now out for a significant time.

+ Still talking it over on which coaches will be up in the box or on the field. That will be Chip Kelly’s call.

+ Collectives will continue to be important even when revenue sharing begins. It will take a third part to enforce the rules for collectives.

+ He said two years ago here that we may wake up and not recognize college football and he doesn’t think he’s been far off.

+ Has your perception of conference championship games changed with the expanded  playoffs? Talking with Tony Petitti, this has been brought up about what the game now means. “I just think we all know how important it is to win the conference.” This is still college football after all. But when you look at it practically, he can see the argument on both sides. Until then, he’d like to play for the Big Ten Championship and win it.

+ He hasn’t played the CFB video game but he coaches his son RJ and tells him what to do. Coaches are not in the game. “I’d like to be in it.”

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