COLUMBUS — Sometimes we don’t share much of Ryan Day’s postgame news conference. Let’s try to rectify that. Here are three of the more interesting areas he addressed after Saturday’s 56-3 win over Ball State.
We’ll see what you think of this, and we can try this every week if you like it. And here’s the full news conference if you want to watch it.
Ryan Day postgame news conference
On Legend Bey making two mistakes bringing kicks out of the end zone, as he was tackled at the 16 the first time and at the 10 the second time. Kneeling would have given the Buckeyes the ball at 25. But he also scored on a shifty 25-yard catch and run.
“I think the more disappointing thing is the second time it happened again. And so there are things that are going to happen as freshmen. … What we can’t do is make the same mistake twice. So nobody felt worse than Legend on that.
“But those are trust things that we’re going to have to continue to work on to build trust within the coaches and the teammates and in the team. But you can see the talent, and he’s got a good attitude when it comes to being corrected. I think he has the right mindset when it comes to it.
“So we’re willing to work with him to get better and I think you obviously see what the talent is and certainly what he can do when the ball’s in his hands. So it’s his job to continue to work to get better, build discipline and trust in the coaching staff. And it’s our job as coaches to find ways to utilize his talents.”
Legend Bey on the field after the game
On shuffling the right side of the offensive line. Phillips Daniels started at right tackle, with Austin Siereveld at right guard, but on the third series, Siereveld moved to right tackle and Gabe VanSickle came in at right guard. Phillips came back in the game later and finished with 32 snaps, 15 fewer than the other starting offensive linemen. Day also went over and was looking at an iPad with the offensive line after a series ended after Daniels gave up a sack.
“That is the flexibility that we have and the competition continues and they’re pushing each other. But that’s typical of a normal game of
going over and watching the iPad and trying to identify what’s coming and the type of stunts that they’re bringing and how they’re bringing it and some different things that in a first game you’re going to see some things that maybe you hadn’t seen before.
“So identifying what those are, making sure the communication is good and then trusting your training. … That’s why it was good to play this game before we went down to Texas. But I thought it was great to see them come out in the second half and rock off the ball the way that we’ve seen them all preseason camp.”
Postgame YouTube show before our OT show
On the rushing attack in the first half, which had 17 carries for 35 yards, compared to the second half, when the Buckeyes broke off two long runs and had 18 carries for 202 yards.
“Coming into halftime, I don’t think anybody would have said the run game looked great, but that’s why you play a whole game of football. And in those first two drives in the second half, we were able to hit some of those things. But we’re going to get on the film and recognize the things that we did well and build confidence on that because there was a lot in this game to build confidence on.
“But then there were areas where we didn’t do as good. And there were a couple things early on that they did movement-wise that we finally got identified. I think Arthur (Smith) and Tyler (Bowen) did a good job of recognizing that at half and making a few adjustments on some of the schemes. And then the offensive line did a really good job there as well. So we know that as the competition increases, those things are going to get magnified, and that’s what tomorrow’s all about.
“But I mentioned to the guys in the locker room, there’ll be times we enjoy this through the night and then wake up tomorrow and move on to the next opponent. Not this one. The minute we leave the locker room, it’s on to Texas. So we gave them about15 minutes to enjoy it in the locker room and then it’s on to Texas. But we still need to get on the film and make those corrections.”
Julian Sayin postgame news conference