It’s a longstanding college football tradition for head coaches across the country to meet with the media early each week, reflecting on the previous game while also looking ahead to their next challenge. These press conferences often provide valuable insight into a team’s mindset, key storylines, and how coaches are preparing for the road ahead. While fans are usually familiar with the comments coming out of their own program’s headquarters, they don’t always get a chance to hear what opposing coaches are saying about their team.
With Indiana set to play Ohio State this Saturday, let’s take a look at some of the comments the Buckeyes’ head coach Ryan Day made during his Tuesday press conference when discussing the Hoosiers and the matchup ahead.
Q: Reflecting on last year’s matchup with Indiana and what it means this year with a more stable offensive coaching staff…
“I think any coach would tell you going into a game that nothing that happens before matters when going into this game. But, when you go 4-for-13 on 3rd down and four times in the red zone with only ten points, you’re not going to win many games doing that. I think the thing that is significant is, it’s just a good reminder of how important those situations are. I think Indiana does a good a job as anybody in the country at winning situations. Turnover battle, third downs, redzone. We’ve gotta be good this week. And we’ve got to win those areas. That’s something we emphasize every week.”
Q: How much can you lean on last year’s game or is this just two new teams?
“Well, it’s definitely two new teams. You look at everything, for sure. But, coaches will look at everything. What they’ve done this year, what they did last year, all the different games to try to figure out what is the best for us to put our guys in a situation to be successful. But no, I don’t think anything that happened last year has anything to do with what is going on this year. This is a new team and all that matters is what happens on Saturday.”
Q: Navigating offensive line issues and injuries…
“It is going to be a huge challenge. They do an excellent job up front on defense. Their defensive line is one of the biggest challenges we’ll have all season. So, we’ve got to have a great week of preparation…
The good news is, some of these guys have played against Indiana before so they know how good these guys are and what comes with it. They’re going to have all our attention for sure.”
Q: Josh Hoover seems to have quit turnovers cold turkey, what have you seen from him?
“Yeah, what is it 17 touchdowns and 0 interceptions? He’s playing really efficient and they’re doing a really good job of putting him in a system that takes care of the ball. That’s one of the reasons they’ve won so many games and been so successful, because they do take care of the ball. Gotta give them a lot of credit for their scheme.”
Q: What challenge do Marsh and Becker present you?
“Those guys in particular are clean route runners, play very strong in contact, have really good body control. Have good run after the catch ability. Very confident playing against man-to-man coverage. They do an excellent job with their slants, their fades, and back-shoulder fades. You can tell that’s clearly taught at a very high level there. Certainly Becker has made some big time plays in big time moments, and Marsh is playing as good as anybody right now. So, this is a huge challenge for our secondary. And again, we talk about winning our one on ones, we’ve got to win our one on ones, whether that’s up front or on the back end, whether you’re in man or zone, it doesn’t matter. You combine those two guys with the backs they have, they’ve got a real good group of guys that are very dangerous on offense.”
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