It's almost time.
Ohio State and Penn State will face off at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. Three days before kickoff in State College, Ryan Day offered the latest updates on how the Buckeyes have prepared for the top-five showdown.
Day said Lathan Ransom will be active and Zen Michalski will be inactive on Saturday. He also discussed Davison Igbinosun, Caleb Downs and more. Here’s all the need-to-know information from the Ohio State head coach’s five-minute press conference on the Woody Hayes Athletic Center indoor practice field.
- On Davison Igbinosun wearing mitts at practice instead of gloves: "It's just something a lot of folks use, and we do too. It's usually during preseason camp or spring practice. Usually you use them for one-on-ones. We brought them out for the entire practice so he can't grab. That hurts you a little bit on the line of scrimmage, but then once you clear those 5 yards you train yourself to run with guys and not grab. He had a couple of really good reps today. I thought it was a good idea."
- On using a silent count against Penn State: "It's a big challenge. In going on the road, that's a big part of going into that environment is handling that. That's the challenge for those guys. They know that. ... We try to make it as loud as we possibly can (in practice) and simulate what it will be like. We've had multiple guys make sure to do it in preseason camp, do it in the spring and, obviously, we're doing it now during this week. We did it during the Oregon week, the bye week. We did all those things. Guys have reps at it, but it takes discipline. We had multiple guys do it. We feel confident going into the game that we'll be able to handle it."
- On Zen Michalski: "It's trending that he's not gonna play. We'll keep evaluating it, but we have a pretty good plan moving forward."
- On Ohio State's plans at left tackle: "I'll save that for Saturday."
- On Caleb Downs: "He's a tremendous player. You can see him flying around the last three, four games making plays. Always around the ball. Fast to trigger. We were able to get him in as a returner so he can have even more of an impact on the game. He's doing a lot of things for us. He's a tremendous player."
- On Lathan Ransom: "He had a great day of practice today, a full practice. He's ready to go."
- On rotating reps on the defensive line: "At the end of the day, we have to win the game. That's the first thing. Whatever we feel like going into the game is the right thing. We certainly take the opinions of the assistant coaches, but at the end of the day, I'm the head coach, so it goes through me. I think we need to continue to roll guys. We will roll guys. Now, how many reps? That's different. In the Oregon game, every rep counts in that game. We got to make sure we're doing everything we can to make sure we're fresh in the fourth quarter, for sure. But we also got to do everything we can to win the game. We will rotate some guys in there. We'll evaluate as we get closer to the game, but we'll roll guys in practice. We want to be fresh in the fourth quarter."
- On Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau being close to having a breakout game: "They want to. They're pushing hard. They had a really good practice out there, another edgy practice out there. In these type of games, our best players have to play well. That was the message to our team. Our leaders gotta lead and our best players have to play well in games like this. I know they're pushing hard to make sure they're playing their best game."
