Presser Bullets: Ryan Day Felt Ohio State Avoided Any Letdowns After An Emotional Win, Praised Special Teams Against Purdue and Said Tyleik Williams Could Have Played in Emergency

What Ohio State produced on Saturday was a methodical dismantling of Purdue.

The Buckeyes' defense dominated and its offense strung together a line of extended scoring drives in a 45-0 victory. Ohio State's special teams had a strong outing too, with a punt block and going one-for-one on field goals.

Day also praised Jeremiah Smith once again after he broke Ohio State's freshman receptions and receiving touchdowns records on Saturday and said defensive tackle Tyleik Williams could have played if needed after he sat out with injury vs. the Boilermakers.

Day said Ohio State played a complete game, but he was especially happy with the improvements on special teams. "There was a challenge set out, special teams, we went back and changed some stuff in personnel. ... Put a lot of work into it, but then those guys have to go execute and they did."
On the play of Ohio State's defensive ends. "I thought JT and Jack were both very disruptive. ... It starts up front and I think Tyleik was available, could have played, but thought we'd hold him unless we really needed him."
On the defensive changes: "When you start from scratch, there's just certain things that you make assumptions on or you have to make sure you're putting the right guys in the right place. ... We have to have the changeups in the game to keep people off-balance."
On Eddrick Houston's performance at defensive tackle: "He has a lot of ability, he is active. ... I think his future is very, very bright here at Ohio State."
There's a lot of reasons to go huddle and a lot of reasons to go no-huddle, Day said. But games are shorter now which means less touches for weapons. "There's just not as many plays as there used to be. ... Touches are not going to be as high as they were in the past."
On Will Howard: "He made some nice throws today, he took care of the football. ... I thought the second-and-long throw to Jeremiah was great. ... We're gonna go back on the film and figure out the things that we've gotta get better at across the board. ... Good to see us respond coming off an emotional win. ... We're in November now, every single snap matters."
Day reiterated that Ohio State really "hammered" its punt block and return team this week. "Good to see them make a difference in this game and change the game."
Day said the Buckeyes tried out some new looks defensively against a weaker opponent. "We wanted to try out some different things and work some different packages. ... We felt like this was a good opportunity to try some of that stuff."
On experimentation this late in the season: "It's gotta make sense, it's gotta fit in the right spot but we feel like it gives us a bit of a different wrinkle."
On how Ohio State started: "Coming off an emotional week, how do we respond? ... Be aggressive early, establish the line of scrimmage, get a turnover."
On Jeremiah Smith: "You guys have seen it and now he's gonna have to play his best. ... He's getting stronger, he's getting more experience, his understanding of coverages and different things."

Ohio State's Will Howard, Jeremiah Smith, Gee Scott Jr., Lathan Ransom and Jack Sawyer also met with reporters following the game and you can see what they had to say in the video below.