Ryan Day earned himself some points for brevity.
The Ohio State head coach took part in a 10-minute Zoom press conference Sunday afternoon to react to the College Football Playoff semifinal matchup with Clemson and, as expected, was posed a question about the status of star quarterback Justin Fields' thumb which he hurt in the second half of the Big Ten championship game.
Day used only four words in his response: “Justin will be fine.”
Not exactly a detailed response. But if anybody was, for whatever reason, concerned Fields might have to sit out the Sugar Bowl due to his injury, that would certainly appear to be unfounded. He played the entire Big Ten title game and even threw a pass after he got hurt. He wasn't missing a playoff game due to a thumb he and Day believed on Saturday afternoon to be sprained.
Now, how will the thumb injury affect Fields' performance? That's a complete unknown, and Day's answer didn't offer any insight into that.
Fields said his thumb "kind of went backward" when trying to brace himself for a fall onto the ground early in the fourth quarter. After that, it began "getting stiffer by the second." He completed one more pass on an out route to Garrett Wilson before he told the coaches he couldn't throw the ball anymore because "it was killing me." He said he planned to get his thumb X-rayed.
"Hopefully we have a good amount of time so I can get it recovered and healed up," Fields said on Saturday after the game.
Now he knows he'll have 12 days to heal.
As Day said, he should be "fine" by the time Jan. 1 rolls around. But what does that actually mean? We might not know for sure until the Sugar Bowl gets underway.
