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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2019

Ryan Day

Columbus, Ohio

Ohio State - 76, Miami (Ohio) - 5

COACH DAY: Just want to start off again by thanking the fans, first off. Another great crowd. Felt them early in the game. It was great running out of the tunnel seeing a packed house again.

To see the student section and a lot of people still there at the end was really neat for our guys. It was kind of a long game there with the rain and everything, and to see the student body still there on both sides was awesome for our guys. So that was really great. Just want to thank everybody for that.

First five, six minutes of the game, not great. So a lot of things to clean up off of film there. Hit us on some things and also we give up the safety. But then from then on I thought it was pretty dominant overall just in terms of defense. I think it was maybe 10 straight drives we stopped them, three and out or close to that.

And then on offense we got in a pretty good rhythm. But anytime you can create turnovers like we did -- we had two strip-sack fumbles by Chase. We had the blocked punt and the interception by Jeff, and you're playing with a short field, makes all the difference in the world.

We were opportunistic in those situations. I thought going into the game we had opportunities to get turnovers -- in other games that we weren't quite there, we got them today so that was good.

But if we're going to go into Lincoln, a lot of things to clean up if we're going to go beat those guys next week. Already on to those guys and focused on preparing for them next week.

Q. The second quarter, you mentioned the rhythm that you all found. That was a historically different quarter here. What was the rhythm that you found? What do you think you got going?
COACH DAY: I think anytime your defense can do what they did, which is shut them down, create turnovers like that and then flip a short field, they were blitzing and so they were leaving a little bit of room out there, throwing the ball down the field. And I think we hit some of those which kind of opened up the game.

And again we get another sack fumble. We get the turnover in short field, and we're able to turn in the points. Anytime you can do that, especially with the tempo -- they were actually playing a little bit of an up-tempo early, and we were playing really fast early. Anytime that happens you can turn the momentum, it can flip fast. I think that's what happened.

Q. Was there anything you saw from your team leading up to kickoff that you thought they may be a little flat? And did you prepare for the option this week?
COACH DAY: For sure. That's actually not an option play. It's another type of play that we'll have to work on. They hit us, I think, three different times on that. No, I thought we had a good week of practice. I thought the coaches did a great job preparing them, and I'm really proud the way the guys came out and played.

To come out like that after three weeks and a week of a lot of people telling us how great we were, to come out and dominate like that is pretty impressive. So, a job well done, but it's what have you done for me lately, and we need to go to Lincoln get a big win next week.

Q. We know Garrett Wilson has made plays in practice and Jameson Williams, you've seen him do it in practice. What's it like when you see those two freshmen (indiscernible)?
COACH DAY: Really two weeks, both of them have been practicing. And that doesn't guarantee anything. You can practice well, but it doesn't guarantee you anything. But if you don't practice well you don't have a chance.

Both of those guys have practiced harder. I thought their approach to the game has been better and their attitude has been better. And lo and behold, here we go. Now we start to see some things happening.

It's good to see the growth of those guys. And it was good to see -- the older guys like, K.J., Austin, Bin and those guys show them the way. That takes a lot of unselfishness on their part.

It's the same legacy that Terry and Parris and those guys left behind, and they're going to keep that going. It's a good start to see those guys make some plays.

Q. Four games now you have not really been tested at all. Do you really have a sense of just how good you guys are? Are you still waiting to find out how good you really are?
COACH DAY: Yeah, I think maybe midway through the season we'll have a better idea. I do think that we're playing with a lot of passion and playing hard and tough; it's clear to see. But again, like you said, we go on the road next week that's a big test. I think I'll have a better idea next week.

Q. No disrespect. (Lost audio) are over how much better is (lost audio) than anything you've played?
COACH DAY: Hard to tell. I haven't watched them a bunch on film. Trying to stick to the mantra of winning this game and focusing on this game. But Scott does a really good job and their defensive staff is really good. They have a really good quarterback.

And that's a hard place to play. It's a real place to go on the road and try to win. So that's a big challenge for us.

So we'll start talking about that tomorrow morning -- actually kind of talked about it just a little bit in the locker room, and they were all ears. So a big challenge and that starts even tonight.

Q. (Indiscernible).
COACH DAY: Just that this is already going -- usually what we do is we have our meetings tomorrow. We'll still have our Champions meetings tomorrow to make sure that we don't just go buy this, and reward the guys who play like champions in this game because it's hard to win a college football. And we're going to do that. But at the same time we'll quickly move on to Nebraska and get going on film.

Q. We're seeing things with this offense that haven't been seen in a while around here. It's as simple as a quarterback sneak. Are you happy with the fingerprints that you're starting to leave on this program and on this offense?
COACH DAY: Well, I think that the whole goal is to figure out what plays fit the personnel that you have, and that's what we're trying to do on a weekly basis. And talking through the preseason about the journey that this team was going to go on -- on both sides of the ball and special teams, but then also on offense -- you know, what was it going to look like?

And that's the fun part about college football is that based on your personnel, what gives you the best chance to win? It's not a cookie-cutter; it's not the same thing year in, year out. You can't just say, here's the playbook; let's go run these plays. It doesn't work that way.

I think that's the key to really good college coaching is the ability to adapt to your personnel and have the ability to go in and out of personnel groupings, spread or under center, two tight ends or three tight ends. And I think Kevin, Mike, Stud, Tony, Brian Hartline, everybody's doing a really good job of making sure we have some variety in our game. But we've got to keep going on that.

Q. Is this the defense you anticipate seeing when you start to put things together?
COACH DAY: Yeah, again we're only four games in. But, yeah, that was the vision. And I think that we have a long ways to go still. I know it's hard sometimes, you look at these games, what are you going to do? There's going to be some things on film that we can really look at and figure out how other teams are going to be attacking us and make sure we have the ammo to come at them with.

Q. What did you see happen on the play that led to the safety? And is there anything about Justin's windup that maybe makes him more susceptible to that from time to time?
COACH DAY: It was a double move. It was a post-corner that takes a little time to develop. And looking back it was kind of a risky thing coming out, but I wanted to be aggressive in the game. We ran the ball for one or two yards. Let's take a shot.

And (indiscernible) actually ran a really good route post and (indiscernible) takes a little bit of time. It was a Sam rifle, where with the guy (indiscernible) off the edge, and J.K. just got beat a little bit off the edge, and then (indiscernible).

Probably not a great play call coming out, probably should have just got his hand quicker, run it out. But J.K. has to do a better job in protection. That's not one that Justin can see; it's coming off his backside. That's hard. I don't think that one is on him.

Q. Coming into the game you heard the (indiscernible) comments from the opposing coach. They're pulling their quarterback out in the first half. What can you truly gain in opening (indiscernible), but how do you prepare for this game? You hear the comments, you're aware of what's going on, you know (indiscernible) -- what's the goal here besides winning, because --
COACH DAY: I think there's two things. One is we talked all week about -- we have momentum; we have to keep momentum. And how do you do that? You have a standard. We play and the ball's on the ground, we have a standard of how we play. That doesn't matter who we're playing. And continually build on that. A game is a game and we wanted to do that.

The second thing, when you look at a game like this, it allows you to create that depth and keep building that depth and some strength. You can really go back on that late in the season.

You never know what's going to happen injury-wise or you get in a game where someone is playing with a lot of tempo and you've got to play depth in the game. You never know. Today was a great opportunity to have a lot of guys play.

I even thought Chugs came in and threw the ball pretty good. That it was good for him to go back on. Garrett Wilson makes some plays. Guys on defense running around and making tackles. Those are things guys can come back upon later in the year hopefully as experience.

Q. You mentioned Chug. You're in a position right now you have a starter and you're still trying to identify a backup. How important is it as this team is on a quest to identify a true backup quarterback?
COACH DAY: (Lost audio) situation, he had to play a whole half. And Gunnar came in and did a good job as well, moved the team down the field for a couple drives. And we challenged those guys -- move the ball down the field. We're not here just to run out the game. Let's play football and find out where we're going to go from it.

And, so, I think for those guys there's a lot of film to grow upon. So, we'll make sure we watch that film with those guys for sure tomorrow and see if we can build on those guys.

Q. What was your vantage point on the Garrett Wilson touchdown? How would you describe it?
COACH DAY: It was a one-on-one go ball that Chris kind of underthrew a little bit, but he gave him a chance by putting a lot of air on it. And then it was just unbelievable talent, going over the top, making -- getting his hands on it over the top of the corner, but also somehow making some sort of circus catch. That was things we've seen in practice, but that one was pretty unreal.

Q. You've been pretty successful with the up-tempo stuff. Are you doing it as much as you thought you would coming into the year? And how do you think Justin and the offensive linemen have handled that?
COACH DAY: It was funny, early in the game we couldn't really get into the rhythm of the tempo. It was just kind of funny the way it worked. But I thought we did play fast at times I think in the first half. We were snapping the ball pretty quick. We were getting lined up.

I'd have to look at it, but I think we were snapping it at times before 30 seconds, so 40 and then about 10 seconds in there, we were getting it snapped. That's only good if you get the first first down. You can't get yourself in three-and-outs.

So we love tempo. It's a big part of our game. It's not going to be used every week the same amount. We'll make decisions on that before the game, but also in game. Sometimes it gets you in a rhythm a little bit and we like playing that way. But we'll kind of take it week in, week out.

Q. Seems like maybe you took more deep shots today. Was there something in the way they were playing coverage, or is that part of the offense that you guys wanted to maybe flex that muscle a little bit and see how you could do there?
COACH DAY: It's always part of our game. We have something in our game plan called Shots. They came up and were bringing a bunch of guys; they were loading the box up, which most people do against our run game. We kind of expected that after last week, the way we ran the ball. And anytime you can get one-on-one matchups on the outside with our guys, we think we've got a good shot.

Q. The pass to Binjimen Victor, the catch at the back of the end zone, what does that do for him from a confidence standpoint moving forward? Are you seeing him progressing like you thought he would this year? And number two, Chase Young with two strip sacks, go ahead.
COACH DAY: No, to see Chase come off the edge like that was unbelievable. It's one thing to be veteran. It's one thing to be really good. It's another thing to play that way and produce. And to see him do that changed the game just like that.

Not only that, it changes the momentum of the game. It kind of -- if you're on the other side of the ball and you see that a couple times that can take your heart away. And I think it did.

And so he's playing at a high level right now. We've got to keep him going at that level. He's got to keep producing because when he does our defense is really good.

And for Bin, I thought that was great. Bin's a guy who, if he makes big plays, we go. And that's really Bin in our first four games. And he's made some big plays this year, and that's kind of got our offense going. He has big-play ability. That was a big time throw and catch.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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