Following Ohio State’s 77-31 victory over Oregon State, Ryan Day returned to the podium Monday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, despite Urban Meyer’s return to the facilities.
Meyer is allowed to resume all normal coaching duties starting Monday, but will remain absent for the last two games of his suspension. Day, who remains Ohio State’s acting head coach for those games against Rutgers and TCU said that outside of game day, the Buckeyes are back to operating with Meyer as the head man.
“We had a meeting earlier this morning, so things are back to normal,” Day said. “He won’t be there on game day, but everything else is back to normal.”
What follows are the remaining takeaways from Day’s time in front of the media.
Day Notes
- Said the coaches were excited to see Meyer back in the building. Added there was a lot of “embracing” in the coaches office.
- Day said most of the coaching and game planning is done during the week. Ohio State is going with Meyer’s decisions during the week, and Day is simply executing on game day.
- Day’s mentality to go with tempo is more comfortable to Dwayne Haskins, Day said, rather than going at a slower pace.
- Jordan Fuller was a game-time decision against Oregon State. Day said he expects Fuller to be back at practice this week.
- Praised Demario McCall’s return skills, but added it will be hard for him to crack the lineup with the depth at H-back on offense.
- On Terry McLaurin’s big game against Oregon State: “There’s been time in his career where it was faith without results. That was a start to a great year for him.”
- On the running back rotation, Day said Ohio State will continue to rotate Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins. “They need each other. When you’re playing 91 plays, you need to have depth.”
- Day said the game-week routine with Meyer will be the same, outside of game day. Meyer will be around the team the way he normally is, except for Saturday.
- Praised Haskins’ effort to chase down his own interception on Saturday and even force a fumble on the play. Also praised Binjimen Victor and Isaiah Prince for chasing down the fumble return-man.
- Day said he texted Joe Burrow and his family to congratulate them after Burrow led LSU to a 33-17 win over Miami (Fla.) on Sunday night.
- Day said Ohio State discovered Chris Olave while recruiting a quarterback at the same high school. “You’ll see him at some point make an impact on the season.” Olave made his first career catch as a true freshman against Oregon State on Saturday.
- “We didn’t see anything that caught us as unusual,” Day said of Oregon State’s defense.
- Day said Ohio State’s battle for third-string quarterback is a three-man battle between Matt Baldwin, WVU transfer Chris Chugunov and walk-on Kory Curtis.
