Ohio State head coach Ryan Day’s comments about playing Clemson in the Sugar Bowl
MODERATOR: Coach Day, thank you very much for joining us. If you could start off with a brief opening statement, we’ll go ahead to the questions.
COACH DAY: Yeah, thank you, John. Certainly excited. Everyone here is very, very excited about the opportunity to play in the Sugar Bowl. It’s been a unique season in so many different ways. To get an opportunity to get back into the playoff and play against Clemson is very, very exciting. Certainly have an unbelievable amount of respect for Dabo [Swinney] and his program and what they’ve done, but how they do it. He and his wife, Kathleen, have been really good to Christine and I. Looking forward to the opportunity to play. It will be a quick turnaround. We only have 12 days here to really get ready for this thing and Christmas is in between. So unique challenge. But looking forward to it.
Q. Hi, Coach. Congratulations on making the playoff. Wanted to ask you just point blank: Do you think it should be a requirement that a team wins its conference championship in order to be included in the playoff?
COACH DAY: I think it’s a two-part question, because the way it is right now, I don’t think that that makes any sense. The only way that would work is if you expanded the playoff system. I do think that’s the fairest way to get that accomplished, is you win your conference, and then you go play for
the whole thing. But the way it is set up right now, that obviously doesn’t matter. But I do think winning your conference is very significant.
Q. Hi, Coach. Congratulations. I don’t know how much you’ve been able to see of Clemson this year, but obviously the thriller that you made against them in the Semifinal last year, how much of it do you think of that team applies to their team this year? And I remember Coach [Jeff] Hafley saying after that game that he was surprised at how athletic Trevor Lawrence was in the running game. Did that surprise you as well? And how well do you think he’s running the ball right now compared to last year?
COACH DAY: I think he and [Travis] Etienne are two of the most dynamic players in college football, and probably in the history of college football. Do I think that experience matters? Absolutely. I think the fact that a lot of those guys played in that game and having the experience of playing in that game is critical. I think that’s why these Clemson teams have won so many games, because they’ve played in this environment before, which hopefully also plays in our favor, is that we were there last year. We didn’t come home with a win, but we gained some experience there and hopefully that pays off dividends. In terms of [Trevor] Lawrence’s ability to run, he’s very athletic. When they need him to run, they’re smart about how they do it. And, no, it didn’t really surprise me all that much. I know that he had a great day against us and opened up and ran away from some of our guys. That was very impressive as well. Very, very dynamic offense.
Q. Hi, Ryan. First of all, any update on Justin [Fields] since yesterday? And then also, how do you, in general, balance things like rest and rehab with such a short turnaround, especially considering all of the other absences you have right now?
COACH DAY: Good thing for us is we’ve — we haven’t played in that many games, so we’ve been fairly healthy in terms of the physicality of it all. What we’ve had a hard time is with people testing positive. That’s what’s made things difficult for us. Hopefully, we can get some of those guys back.
And Justin will be fine.
Q. Ryan, I know Mick [Marotti] was talking in January about putting up the score from last year’s game in the Fiesta Bowl, get through workouts and motivation. How much did that continue and how much did you guys — how much were you hoping that this matchup would
work out?
COACH DAY: Fresh off of that game, it was right on our minds, and something that when we got back to work and winter workouts, January, February, it was right there for us. Coming off of that game, we just didn’t get over it in one day. It took time. As we got into spring ball, we started to move forward, and then the quarantine happened. The goal was to get back into the situation. So we were in the same situation a year ago. And we wanted — once that game was over, we wanted to get back here. How we got back here is just amazing. The journey we’ve gone on as a program to get back right
here, to have another chance to play Clemson in this game is like — you couldn’t even make it up. Some of the best storytellers of all time couldn’t have come up with this story. But here we are. All of that being said, here we are. So really just excited to get about preparing and doing a great job over the next, I guess it’s 11 or 12 days to go play our best game of the season, which we’re going to need. We’ll have to play our best game to beat these guys.
Q. Hi, Ryan. Normally, six games into a season, you would be in mid-October. You would only now be getting a real sense of what your team is. Now you’ve got to play a team that’s played twice that many games, knows who they are. How much of a concern is that for you right now?
COACH DAY: I mean, it’s a great question. I don’t know, because it’s never really been done before. So what does it really mean? I don’t really know. I think at the end of the day, it’s who executes better and plays tougher in the end. When you play in big games, you have to execute at a high level. That’s really what it comes down to. Both teams are going to play hard. Everything is on the line. It is who executes better is going to pull it out. We have to do that. Whether we played six, eight, ten, or they played 12, I don’t really know. I don’t know what that really means. So we’ll try not to focus on that. We’ll try to execute the best game we could possibly — do the best job we can on Saturday.
Q. Hey, Ryan. We all heard about the Big Ten making adjustments today to the COVID protocol. When did you find that out and point-blank, will Chris Olave be back for this game? Does the time frame work?
COACH DAY: I think we have guys, based on when exactly that number is decided and put public, I don’t know exactly where that is in terms of being announced. I know it is something that the Big Ten, it is a protocol that is across all sports. I know that it is something for the entire Big Ten, not just for us. So we’ll just wait to hear when that goes public. I don’t know if it has yet or not. But I know that they’ve made a decision to move it. We have some guys that are really close. Guys like Chris [Olave] and Baron [Browning] and some guys, we’ll find out once we get the final word on it.
Q. Ryan, so much is talked about Ohio State being at an advantage of only playing six games. What about it has been a disadvantage? Would you rather have more games obviously under your belt?
COACH DAY: Everyone is on a different journey this year. That’s what makes this season so unique. I just think it has been — as a football coach and someone who loves college football, to see all of these different teams and all of these different young men who have overcome so much adversity — and everyone has a different story. Our story, to me, is just simply amazing. We weren’t even playing the season for a month, and then here we are right now. I think we have an opportunity to write one of the greatest stories in the history of college football. I don’t know what it all means. We certainly don’t have the game reps, especially for the younger guys, to find out what they can do. And we haven’t had our best game yet this year. Played some good
games, but we haven’t played our best game this year, and we’re going to have to play our best game again to beat Clemson.
Q. Thank you very much. Ryan. You dealt with COVID-19 yourself. Josh Myers was talking yesterday after the game about just almost the agony of sitting there for ten days not being able to do anything, work out, et cetera.
What was the challenge of bringing those, for example, offensive linemen, back from that? And what will be the challenge facing these guys, if indeed you do get them back, like Chris [Olave] and Baron [Browning], of getting back into what you call “game shape” in these ensuing days?
COACH DAY: Well, yeah, Josh [Myers], Nick [Petit-Frere] and Thayer [Munford], the three of them going into the game yesterday had really played one game, I think, in about a month. The challenge is, they just hadn’t played a lot of games during that time. But then they played excellent. They graded out really high. Played well. It will be the same for those guys, Chris and Baron and a few of the other guys that are on that list. We were down over 20 guys yesterday and two coaches. Again, I think back on how our guys will overcome this. It will just be another example of that. We have to clear cardiac testing and make sure they clear all of those protocols. We have a pretty good system in place for the skill guys, for the linemen. It’s very different. The skill guys, after that quarantine, they have to really make sure that their soft tissue injuries are minimized, and all of those types of things. Where with the big guys, it is a little bit more pushing and pulling and different things. The specialists have their own set of stuff. We put together a pretty good system that Shaun Barnhouse and Dr. [James] Borchers and Mick Marotti have all done an excellent job of keeping an eye on, so that you limit it. We have a percentage that once they get back to work, they’re allowed to do for that day, then we shut them down until they build back in to 100%.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Coach, for your time here today. We’ll be seeing you in about 12 days. Good luck with your preparation and hope everyone stays healthy.
COACH DAY: Thanks so much.
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