Ohio State head coach Ryan Day on the win over Oregon: “We believe that when we’re executing at a high level that we can play with anybody in the country. We have a lot of respect for Oregon. We have a lot of respect for (Oregon head coach Dan) Lanning and his staff and his players. I think they’re a very, very good team and well-coached. We knew we had to be at our best today.”
Lanning on the difference he saw in Ohio State’s offense in the Rose Bowl and in the first game the two teams played each other: “They were able to find some shot opportunities that caught us in a couple of coverages that gave them the chance to have success. You can try to pressure, and that’s going to leave some one-on-ones. They got us into some situational checks, some stuff that was successful, and they have great players. They have some guys that made plays. You have to give those guys credit.”
Day on the game that Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly called: “I thought Chip called a great game. The whole offensive staff worked hard to put the plan together, but ultimately it comes down to the players putting it on the field. Sometimes in this game, coaches get too much attention. This is about the players. There were a lot of good players out there. They have to make it work. I thought they really put it on the field and came out aggressive. Chip called an aggressive game, and he certainly had a big smile on his face after.”
Day on the struggles he has faced as a head coach and how it felt to beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl after those: “In this game there are ups and downs along the way and when things are going good you have to hug the guys you love the most, and when things aren’t you have to hug them even harder. You just hang in there and you keep swinging. I talked to the players about it a couple of weeks ago – that’s life. This team is resilient, and when you surround yourself with great people with great character, you find yourself working through difficult times. At the end of the day, we wanted to win a national championship, and the way that we got here wasn’t the way that we expected, it wasn’t what we planned for. Nonetheless, we had an opportunity to come back and play Oregon after we had already played them earlier in the season, and that was the only thing that mattered.”
Day on Ohio State freshman wide receiver Jeremaih Smith and how he compares to former great Ohio State wideouts: “We always want to draw comparisons because that’s what we do naturally. Whether it’s coaches or players, it’s easy for everyone to not quite put him in a box but categorize based on someone who’s come before. Jeremiah is his own person.”
Smith on his relationship with Ohio State fifth-year quarterback Will Howard: “Will does a great job in practice just trusting us and just throwing the ball out there. We just tell him, ‘Just throw it out there. We’re going to make a play for you.’ It doesn’t matter if it’s a bad ball or not, we just have to make our quarterback look good. Will playing with that confidence he has, being a leader out there, I feed off his energy. He’s a great guy. I love Will to death. I’d do anything for him.”
Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon on how he has been able to work with his teammates as a captain to make sure they do things the way Day wants: “That’s the biggest thing about football. It’s a game about getting your body, mind and spirit right. I think Coach Day does a great job where he wants us to understand the moment and how the steps of each game go.”
Day on if the loss to Michigan might have been the best thing for this Ohio State team in terms of providing motivation: “It’s hard for me to say something like that, but I know that you’re a sum of your experiences. This team has had great wins this season. It’s had some tough losses. We have learned from those. You have to grow, and you have to build, and you have to make sure you’re focusing on your strengths and making sure you understand what your weaknesses are. That’s a big part of it. But ultimately it comes down to our guys. I keep going back to that because these guys are resilient, and we’re at a place where you can hear a lot of noise. I’m very, very proud of our staff, and I’m very, very proud of our players, but we’re far from done.”
Day on his players and how they are able to stick together after tough losses: “When you recruit great people with high character who care about each other, when you go through difficult times you stick together. You don’t splinter. Whenever we’re in these situations I just fall back on the players. These guys are the ones who are playing, not me. I’m just there to direct them and make sure that we’re all going in the right direction. These are the guys who are the warriors doing it on the field.”
Day on winning the last two games by blowing out their opponents, and what it means to be able to move on the way they did: “Every game is big at Ohio State, and we knew that when we decided to come to Ohio State. Certainly this game is huge for a lot of reasons, but I think the most important thing for our team is that we get a chance to play together for another week. To me, that’s the most important thing. Every game here is important, so when you lose you have to figure out how to move forward.”
Day on the matchup with Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10: “It will be the same thing next week. When you’re playing in the playoffs, you’re playing against very, very good teams. We hold ourselves to a high standard. Now we’re going to have to get back — we’re not staying the night, we’re getting back on that plane, we’re heading back to Columbus. So we’ll get some rest, and then we’ll focus on Texas.”
