Ohio State's 2025 spring game is in the books.
After a scrimmage with plenty of standouts on both sides of the football, including a good performance from Julian Sayin as he battles to start at quarterback, Ryan Day spoke with the Buckeyes' media contingent in a postgame press conference.
While Day saw growth from Sayin in his outing, but remains uncertain if Ohio State has what it needs along the defensive line after a day when the offensive line was getting a lot of "knockback" against the Buckeyes' defensive front. He feels the Buckeyes will need to take a "hard look" at portal options.
Among a litany of other topics, Day glowed about the performance of wide receiver Mylan Graham and felt Brian Hartline established a "good rhythm" as an offensive playcaller.
- Day enjoyed elements of Lincoln Kienholz's and Julian Sayin's performance. "I felt like Lincoln settled down after the first drive or so ... but I thought Julian was, overall, in a nice rhythm from the start. ... We'll use this as another evaluation tool. ... I'm glad we did this. I'm glad we did the spring game."
- Day said that the defense kept things vanilla and wasn't mixing many coverages or fronts.
- On Sayin this spring: "There was good days, there was bad days. ... I think it's just a matter of playing the game. ... You can see the growth. ... I know we just need to play football with these guys ... I will say there was growth today."
- On the performance of the running backs: "I feel like they're in command I feel like James (Peoples) has a chance to be a special back. ... He's seen the way it's supposed to look. ... I feel solid about where we're at ... I feel we have what we need there."
- Day said he felt "there was a lot of knockback" of Ohio State's defensive line by the OL and the Buckeyes will consider portal options. "I think we've gotta take a hard look at it."
- On Mylan Graham: "He's another guy who just needs to play football. His route running is excellent, his athleticism is excellent, his attention to detail is excellent. ... I think he has a bright future here. ... He knows what he has to work on, but he has all the tools to be the next great one."
- Day said Will Kacmarek's injury isn't long-term and he'll be back this summer.
- Ohio State might run more 12 personnel this season with the push so many of its tight ends are making, per Day.
- On the offensive tackle depth: "Solid. Solid. ... We're gonna have what we need there eventually."
- Day said he ultimately wishes Ohio State had more spring practices with the inexperience of its units. "The guys who have played football here, they've played football, but not as starters. ... It's a whole different deal. ... Every time you go out there, you're either remembering our you're learning. We have a lot of guys learning right now."
- Day felt Brian Hartline had a "good rhythm" to his offensive playcalling. "He had a good plan. You could tell that he had thought through some of the scenarios beforehand because he had the calls ready to go."
- Day also liked what he saw out of defensive end Logan George. "We've gotta figure out how we can best utilize Logan this fall. ... He has heavy hands. ... We'll see how that fits and I think we need to figure out how his role is going to be described to him."
- Day says he can feel the impact of having three coaches to be hands-on in coaching Ohio State's offensive linemen.
- On how much of Matt Patricia's defense is installed: "We put a lot in. ... We've been seeing a lot of defenses, today we did not do that. ... If we're good and dominant, we should be able to play a couple defenses, play a couple coverages at Ohio State and win."
- On whether he had conversations with Sayin after some of his rougher-looking practices: "It's my job and our job to make sure they understand how hard it is to be the quarterback at Ohio State ... but the rewards are endless. ... A big trait of great quarterbacks is they're resilient, they keep coming back and keep working. ... Good to see (Sayin) respond to a couple bad practices."
