Ryan Day Talks Sluggish, Dominating Buckeyes Win Over Iowa

COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with reporters following the Buckeyes’ 54-10 win over Iowa. He discussed Ohio State’s sluggish offense, dominating defense, and more. The highlights of everything Day had to say can be found below.

Ryan Day

• This was an interesting game. They started off with so many possessions in plus territory. Iowa takes away so many things up front and forces you to throw the ball. They knew it would take a while to crack them. “When somebody’s going to stop one thing, you’ve got to be able to do the other.”
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba was on a pitch count. Once he got to a certain number, they decided to shut him down.
• The OSU defense was a big part of their 54 points today.
• Give Noah Ruggles credit. He kept putting points on the board. They knew the defense was playing well, so field goals were acceptable. Would have liked more touchdowns though obviously.
• Zach Harrison played with great energy. This is some of his best ball right now.
• Day was frustrated with himself in the red zone. It’s hard against Iowa in the red zone. You try to get exactly the right call based on the hash and where the ball is. First-half timeouts are worth using because you can’t carry them into the second half.
• They had to get into a rhythm on offense and then once they did in the second half, you saw CJ Stroud take off. The field was compressed early on because of the outstanding field position. Can’t continue to let those issues happen. Have to get control of them.
• The OSU defense was aggressive from the outset. Jim Knowles called a great game. They didn’t let up the entire game.
• Zach Harrison has made him very proud. It started back in recruiting. He was one of Day’s first recruits as the head coach. He wasn’t sure how it was gonna go. He wasn’t confident. Harrison has his own journey and grown into this position and his role. You’re seeing the best version of him right now.
• Jordan Hancock had a good week of practice and made some plays today. He does a good job of playing the ball.
• Gotta have touchdowns in the red zone moving forward. “I wish we had calls back. I wish we had plays back.”
• They’ll see what they need to improve on in the running game. The numbers don’t look great. “We want to be balanced.” Not concerned though about the running game. But they need to be better.
• Now is a good time to get the turnover momentum rolling defensively. “We need everything.”

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