Ryan Day knows the challenge awaiting Ohio State better than anyone.
That's why, in his weekly spot on 97.1 The Fan's Buckeye Roundtable, the Buckeyes' head coach said the team's had its road showdown with No. 3 Oregon “circled” on its calendar for a long time. He spots elite talent on both sides of the ball for the Ducks.
Day added that the plan for the trip to the West Coast is to travel out in the morning on Friday and keep his bunch adjusted to the Eastern time zone as much as possible. He was also complimentary of Sonny Styles' improvements during Ohio State's 35-7 win over Iowa and appreciated a speech tight end Gee Scott Jr. gave to the team last week.
- On the message to the team at halftime of the Iowa game: "We felt like we were moving the ball ... but we were turning the ball over. ... One thing when you're playing Iowa that you can't do in that moment is panic and think you can get it all back at once."
- On Will Howard's performance: "Quarterbacks are judged on how they play in the red zone, third-down, two minute. To see the throws he made in the red zone ... that's a great sign."
- Day said that center Seth McLaughlin has been a valuable cog in the offense, bringing a new perspective from Alabama's program and ensuring everyone on the offensive line knows his responsibility. "There's a communication that has to happen with the offensive line. ... There's gotta be adjustments in-game on the sideline, real discussion on what's happening ... All those help when you've done it before, when you have experience, you have confidence."
- Day said that it's important for his players to keep practicing hard every day, even if it's hard to see the gains until they look back. "Gee Scott spoke to the team the other day ... he talked about how every day can seem the same, but when you look back on it, it doesn't seem at all the same. ... When you're working every day, sometimes you can't notice the improvement or the lack of improvement. ... You're either getting better or you're getting worse. ... (Practice) really has correlation to how we play on Saturday."
- On Brandon Inniss: "He's a very competitive (player), he had a great offseason. ... He has a whole year under his belt now and he just has a toughness to him. ... He's a feisty, edgy, chippy guy that we want on our team."
- On Sonny Styles' seven-tackle game: "Sonny played hard, I thought he worked hard. ... So much of what goes on in their world is the preparation going in and the film study ... I thought he had a really good week of work and it showed on the field."
- Day said the team will leave for Oregon mid-morning on Friday and stay on "East Coast time."
- On the challenges of facing Oregon: "We're going on the road, great environment ... experienced quarterback, great running back ... tight end is an NFL guy. ... A lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball. Same thing on defense. Some really talented pass rushers ... really good players on the back end. ... Top-five matchup on the road ... this one's been circled for a while for us."
