60 Minutes With Ryan Day: 2022 Ohio State Football Preview

uh you know it happens a lot where i just kind of pinch myself because when you think about the great tradition of ohio state and all the wonderful people that have come before you know the 13 decades that this year is the 100th year anniversary of ohio stadium and walked down the woody woody hall or the woody hayes athletic hallway and you see some of the great coaches that have come before woody hayes earl bruce and jim tressler meyer john cooper see the great players that have come before it's just uh yeah i mean you have to really pitch yourself because uh it means a lot and we talked to our team about that we talked about that in recruiting is that it's our job to hold up that standard and there's no other place that's better than ohio state to be a football coach i think when you look at our uh literally last year our guys have done exceptionally well um and really the way that name image of likeness was put into place is is what our guys have done they've made a lot of money off of their name there's your likeness and and so when you look at ohio state and you look at where we're positioned with the city of columbus the companies that are in columbus the brand of ohio state ohio state football the fan base you know you can see that the potential is off the chart so what you try to do is figure out what's going on out there now when you mix in you know collectives across the across the uh the country when you mix in the one-time transfer rule you have to do the best you can to project out what you think is is uh is right for your your team and uh you know we're gonna be you know great advocates for our players and we're gonna be aggressive a lot of teams are being aggressive out there and so we're gonna do the best we can to project that out every day it kind of changes you know as the landscape's changing but we're gonna try to do the best you can and check that out yeah um yeah we were on the golf course together at his tournament and uh we're on the 16th hole and um we found out about halfway through that hole that we're in the same conference together so um and we had a great laugh about that and got quick calls from uh from gene smith and martin and learn more about that but uh but we're very excited it's it's it's exciting for for both of us and both of our programs just same thing just very excited you know i think it's uh you know we're now part of a uh you know a national conference coast to coast and it's it's big moving forward yeah i don't know i haven't thought about that much i'm not going to look forward to playing against him as a good friend so we still got a couple more years i don't know if i'm a fan i don't know i just know that we have to adapt and that's what you have to focus on um i don't know if there's any other sport business where you have third parties who are you know a part of what's going on like likes going on right now in college football it's very very unique um i think it's strange but um you know i'm not going to sit here and tell you that you know i need to see a change in here or there anywhere i just think that we need to adapt and try to figure it out so that's what we're going to do um i think when you look at the last four years uh certainly my first four years at football coach at iowa state you said this is what's going to happen i just would never believe that and so i think we've just come to the understanding that every year there's going to be a lot of change and you can't sit there and throw your hands up and get frustrated you have to be able to adapt and right now you know part of adapting are these collectives well you know every year um we have the same expectation and uh the first goal is to beat the team up north you won the rivalry game and that didn't happen and so you know we had to we had to sit on that for for a calendar year that's that's not good you know we don't want to have to go through that again um and so in the off season we've tried to uh really make sure that the guys are reminded of that game that the coaches are reminding that game everybody in the buildings you're minding that game but also know that we have to move forward yeah we can't let that game beat us twice but uh that's something we never have to go through again yeah yeah i mean i don't know i i just um it it it's hard for me to think that um you know guys can just kind of transfer whatever they want as many times as they want i just i really wish that there was some more structure in place again when you think about all the other sports all the other organizations whether it's high school whether it's college whether it's professional there really isn't any other situation where someone can just decide to leave at any point and so i think that again creates a lot of hard feelings and as we move forward whether it's the nil world or this transfer world i just think there needs to be more structure involved and whether it's at least a two-year commitment or something along the lines um and again that's over my page i got to worry about trying to be notre dame and get my team ready but it's certainly something that i think we've got to look at and come up with the solution for right i do it all over again yeah i do it all over again i i just think that that's that's the job and i've come to accept that but it doesn't make it easy um doesn't mean there's not nights where you don't sleep very well because you don't know what's coming but i think that's the part where as you look forward you really don't know what's coming tomorrow you can plan for the future but just try to do a great job right now and just try to maximize the day and do the best you can and do what's best for the program at the time i hope so yeah i hope so i think when you look at that team every team's different so you can't really compare but but i think what you're getting at is you had a team that was kind of had some really good young talent like that experience a year before kind of a new style of system of defense coming in that year you're kind of seeing those two things to come together now we've got to go put it on the field but uh but that but that the expectation of the top 10 offense every year and the expectations have a top 10 defense we did that year and we had a strong team so um i think when you combine those two things you know if we can build on it then that that should be our expectation every year yeah you got to stop the run you got to stop the run and certainly uh you know a couple games last year didn't get done we got to do that so a lot of that has to do with technique a lot has to do with scheme let us do a toughness and i think the scheme that's being put in place the mentality that's being put into place but again also having another year of experience with some of these guys who uh maybe didn't play as much you know the year before they now are all coming back whether it's two second year guys third year guys or fourth year guys going in the last year when you look at that minnesota game they didn't have a lot of game experience now going into this game it it's a whole new feel i mean the quarterback had never thrown a college pass you know you look at all the guys who all of our linebackers i don't think they had one college start ever you know because you lost pete you lost tough you lost baron and then you lost justin hilliard they were coming off of last year so there was so many young guys going into that season and it showed it showed uh but hopefully all that can now pay dividends this season is you watching the spring the defense are you sitting there at that point yeah that's what i want yeah yeah remember those moments yeah yeah and and the ones that um offhand is just you know a bunch of guys running the ball and blowing up playing the backfield with about 10 guys jumping up and down all over each other with great energy great passion great confidence talking you know and that's what you want uh guys playing tough with great pad level knocking the heck out of people i mean that's that's what defensive football you know should look like and and we saw some of that this spring and i think our defense has been edgy and that's the way they should be you know i knew of him uh back when he was at cornell i i followed him when he was a duke and then obviously watched him when i was in oklahoma state this is somebody that has answers you know he's been around it you know as he says he's put in his ten thousand hours and uh and that that's good and plus he hasn't had coaching experience he's uh able to run the entire defense that's important in our structure the way that we haven't designed right now at ohio state is to have a head coach of the defense and that's what he's doing and and and when that thing's rolling right you know we had that like a 19 we talked about that was that was about as efficient as it could get and so um you know i think jim brought that to the table and so far so good yeah i think when you uh when you change the defense as drastically as we have you know a lot of people want to see what's what this is going to look like you know and um you know it's not reinventing the game so there's still a lot of things that this is what we're going to do and i think it's pretty easy to see for recruits to see you know how we're going to run it uh based on jim's past and some of the guys in that room perry and tim and larry you know because part of it is development too not just the scheme but the development so you know the recruits have been excited about that but i also think they're excited to see what this is gonna look like no i mean i think our recruiting classes is strong i mean we're still the goal is always to be top 10 in the country our top five in the country in recruiting class and i i think we will be this year you know we'll see how it plays out but um but but i think our defensive guys have done a really good job recruiting i mean they're hustling like crazy and really working at it but um you know i'm sure those guys do want to see that but i also think that they understand that we got some really good guys it's about development you know when it's larry johnson up front developing the d-line or what tim walt has done in the nfl and uh being a former buckeye you know he's worked with some of the best corners in the country you know and coach eliano you know what he did with with the guys in cincinnati last year so a big part of it is that and and obviously jim's background but but i do think guys are excited to see what this looks like and i think when they see the energy and a bunch of guys flying around like that it's going to be a much easier cell but i think that was why it was it was big you know we had some carryover in the last couple of years with our staff and thought long and hard about the changes that were made because like you said you know going into this year we're going to make a hard change and really make a change philosophically because there's some things that come with that and i just decided that was the right thing to do and um you know i'm excited about it i think it's the right thing to do i think we've recruited well i think we have a really talented defense and that's the goal and so it's a long way to signing day and we'll keep battling at this thing and you know keep working through the fall but i think we'll end up signing a really good defensive class yeah i mean they'll be right there and then cody uh will be right there um yeah we got a bunch of guys there that uh i think people you know fight for some time um but but that that's a that's a competition one of the pre-season that'll be they'll be fun to watch um you know cody had the shoulder so it'll be fun to see him kind of play i thought tommy really played well in the uh the spring and so uh cj hicks did a nice job and she chip coming in and making that transition a linebacker was great so you know we got some guys in there and uh you know to get ea back and kind of see how he can help us um so like you said we do have some depth there but who's going to take the next step as the starters i don't think we'll know until the first couple weeks of the pre-season [Music] well they're they're already preparing now um you know so by the time you get to that locker room it's kind of all the haze in the barn you know and i think that's um you know part of the first game is just the the lead up to it and making sure that uh you know you're preparing but you're not overdoing it as well because you got to go play that's going to be an electric atmosphere notre dame is unbelievable tradition just unbelievable uh players and coaches that have come before and somebody asked me like who has a better tradition they're not one's not better than the other it's just two different traditions you know but it's exciting i think a lot of people are very excited to see that game of the horseshoe right now yeah so we're looking at both of those guys in their skill sets and trying to project out what that would look like when they're on on the on the field and you know just try to have contingency plans in place uh probably 80 to 85 of the time the business side of things and the football coach really approaches football and make sure the players are we evolved yeah yeah and we actually uh we named mark pantoni the general manager this year you know for that very reason to try to start to go down that road because we do see it very much like that we're not there right now but but it very well could be headed that way and so we're trying to structure ourselves that way we hired some guys to really um specifically their job is to study the portal and what's out there so just like in the nfl they have a pro scouting department and a college scouting department you know we have a high school scouting department and now a college scouting department to you know look at the guys who are in college and in the portal and then the guys who are looking at the high school guys so the personnel department has become bigger and i do think the general manager position will take on a bigger role moving forward but right now kind of isn't too much are we gonna see the constant change is is what's probably uh takes a lot of our time and thought is because you just you're maybe not sure of what's going to happen next or what this means or trying to adapt to the new rules and so uh trying to figure that out i mean if we can somehow calm it all down and calm the change down then that would certainly make our lives a lot easier and take a lot less of our time but anytime something changes there's a ripple effect and there's a cause and effect to all that and we try to figure out what that means and project that out make sure that we're not falling behind and um i think as things expand yeah i think the staffs are going to get bigger and bigger and it's become bigger and bigger but um but in tool you know we create this kind of settle down on a certain set of rules and how this is going to play out i think you're going to see the same thing going forward what do you think and is that kind of his mindset yeah i think it says a lot about cj for him to make that comment on who he is as a person because um when you look at the two losses that i don't think he played that bad in those two games i don't think cj stroud was the problem but for him to say that and for him to take on those losses says a lot about who he is as a leader that's the way he is though he is very driven he wants it really bad he's very competitive but he's a very good leader i think in the offseason he's recognized that um i don't think he ever felt like he could do it on his own but i think he recognizes that's a different perspective that um you know it takes everybody and that comes with maturity and and he's done an excellent job of that but to say he he accomplished nothing last year that's not accurate but that's his approach i think that's what makes him great and i respect that about him so he did a lot of great things last year but i think his best football has had him i think right now it's only mitchell that won't be available for season well i i think you have to ask him i don't want to speak for him but anytime you're doing something for the first time you're just not sure i mean i know what that's like playing the position i also know what that's like being head coach at ohio state you know you just you're doing everything for the first time so you don't know so that you don't really fall into a rhythm until you start to um you know do it over and over again and get the repetition down and then have some success and then your personality starts to kick in i think that's probably what he's talking about yeah i know i've thought about that last year we opened up with minnesota on the road that was a scary game a thursday night road game with a very very inexperienced team a quarterback has never really played and thrown a college pass before against a team that was very very good they knew how to run the football and a really good environment by the way so preseason was tough last year and then we had oregon right after that so we had to they had to be ready to go um that's the same this year with notre dame the only difference is we have a different team so we're much more experienced this year so there's going to be a lot of similarities but at the same time we also kind of know what we have the only the only other part of it is it's a new scheme defensively so schematically we want to make sure that the guys have a great understanding and are playing fast on that first saturday night got a lot of respect for marcus as a coach as a person he's a former buckeye uh he's hired a really good staff he's got a really good team um and you know when you have a a new staff like that it's a challenge because uh you know you don't know exactly what they're going to do so try to do the best you can to prepare and have have plans in place yeah jackson is a special player he has just a unique skill of changing direction of short area quickness of setting up receivers or setting up dbs ball skills spatial awareness is off the charts and he's tough and he's competitive and um you know i just think that uh you know this offseason it's been it's been fun to watch him grow and it's really about maturity that's what you're seeing you're seeing guys who are in high school teenagers growing into men and uh you know used to be after you know in the fourth year that senior year maybe the fifth year senior now it's that third year you know and you try to get these great players to hang on to that fourth year but sometimes you don't get to so you gotta get nice to make the most out of them in that third year and uh this has been a great offseason for jackson now they have a high level of chemistry i think cj may tell you sometimes he looks for jackson maybe a little too much um but uh but no they they do and i think that was built maybe even when they knew each other in high school but certainly on the scout team that for that first year early on and their friendship has become stronger and i think they're become very very close on and off the field yeah we've tried to come up with some different things uh for him and and try some different things with him and you know he's he's very talented that way you know some guys you just they run routes the way that they're drawn up in the playbook and then there's some guys who just get open and he's that kind of guy earlier well you know the only difference i would just say is that you know when you're drafting you know you have a draft and when you say you picked them they get to go to your school you know in college you got to talk them into going to your school or you got to you know recruit them to go to your school so there's a lot of differences there but but i do think as we start to create more and more rules that i think it will start to look more like that uh down the road like for example a two-year commitment could be something for i mean yeah no we haven't we haven't had a long discussions about that but uh but i do think something like that makes a lot of sense um and just putting some guidelines in place for what that would be because um just i know there's some windows right now but you know i still think maybe a two-year commitment would be would be healthy is it weird to you though too i mean since you've been there your quarterback really said people come and go through like a revolving door but you always end up with that one or two guys and this year you know from a recruiting standpoint you can't be much stronger than that but you guys haven't played much i mean how tough is it just from that aspect of building the quarterback yeah it's very difficult yeah i laugh about that we've been dealing with the one time transfer role since i got to ohio state you know when you think about the guys who've come and gone um and just try to adapt i don't know what to say i mean it's just part of that's part of the mantra over the last four years you try to adapt with the times and just try to communicate the best you can bring in great people and and just do the best you can yeah right you talked about this earlier but josh proctor and nathan ransome a little bit of surprise how well he's come along but he'll be 100 ready to go august the 4th or whatever it is yeah yeah what does that do for the team yeah i think well he's going to be he's going to kind of ease into it but he'll be almost 100 i mean he's he's done an excellent job with his rehab uh he and stu have really got after it and uh it says a lot about him he want to get back on the field he's had a good summer so uh it's going to be great to see him back out there after you know that it was a significant injury uh you know they're looking looking at him a couple different things maybe not as much at nickel but but he does have a lot of versatility well i think you can um you have a little bit of a body of work to know what to expect when you have guys who've never done it before that first game where the lights go on you're not sure what you can get some crazy play and when you have a big game like that on the line that's not a time to figure out what you got you know so um so we really had to push through that last year this year we got a little bit more of an idea that i want to expect because guys have played in games and played big games and played the rose bowl and play the rivalry game so um you know i think we're going to be smart about that and make sure that guys are ready to go and they're fresh in that first game but also you know calloused and tough and you know cut that mentality that they're gonna be physical in that game yeah i mean you got to just let them go you got to you got to push through that you know you can't you can't um you know have a governor you got to go you just that's just the way the game's played so if we're gonna if we're gonna be tough we gotta practice stuff and and that's just the way it's gonna be this pre-season yeah well i think it's it's the just the mentality across the board you know and i think um you know it isn't just one play of just you know running two people into each other and saying this is tough i think a big part of it is your mentality we call it competitive stamina of being able to play four quarters or be able to play a whole season you know we think about the two games we played before we played purdue and then we played top 10 team in michigan state and played really tough in those games played really physical played really well but then didn't it was more inconsistent in that game and you know there were times where we didn't we didn't play that way we didn't play we didn't play with a pad level we didn't play tough yeah but but i think to me it's more of a not being uh competitive not having the competitive stamina to finish this season and not being consistent enough because every game at ohio state matters you know when you lose that second game against oregon i mean they're stressed to win every single game they're out and then to play that way at the end of the game that was disappointing it won't hurt so that's been a big emphasis but the way we practice is going to be important too and i think it was like that in the spring but i think there's a lot of games this year we did play that way or last year that we did play that way but another year of experience another year getting stronger with those guys i think it'll matter yeah and that's that's really what happened in the rose bowl you know and i think at halftime our guys really had a great conversation a lot wasn't much of a conversation at halftime uh but you know they they kind of got together and said no this is how we're gonna play in the second half because in those games you need leadership because it's not going every play the way you wanted to like you said in the purdue and michigan stage it's about everything we we thought would go that way went that way it was one of those days but when it's back and forth back and forth you got to keep swinging and you got to keep fighting and you got to get that game to the fourth quarter and win the game in the fourth quarter and have that stamina to finish off the game which we did we showed in that game that was that was tremendous for our team to not play with four of those guys but still find a way to win that game in a back and forth game like you're talking about because uh we don't find ourselves in a lot of those games so uh to have almost that entire team back with that experience together as a group means a lot and it's something that's important because in those big we're gonna have those games and we've got to be able to respond and play well in the second half because they just go back sorry you know you think about the rivalry game i mean that was a one-point game at halftime and we just didn't play well in the second half you know it wasn't like it was we were terrible in the first half we could have been better we just didn't play well in that second half and finish off the game you know and it was obviously a lot of stuff that we wish had never happened but i think just think that that's important as we go into those games yeah yeah all good um yeah i hope so that was the goal going into it we talked about that heading in and that was such a back and forth game was kind of a blur at times but i think what it what it did it showed that in those back and forth games that you know we can go dig that game out in the fourth quarter and um i think because we do end up in some of these games where we get up on teams if we're not up on teams sometimes you know some of the young guys will wake up we're not just blowing this team out it's not that easy it's the big 10 conference these are really good teams and so when when things aren't going well in adversity it's you know we're not going to have long faces at halftime maybe if we have 100 yards are off on offense and we can't really get the ball moving are we going to look at each other we got to say hey we got to come on the second half and play well on the other side of the ball if we've given up a bunch of yards uh on defense you know we gotta show up in the second half which is exactly what we did in that game because when things aren't going well that's the way that's when you have to respond and that's leadership and that's why we spend so much time this offseason on leadership because those days are coming i don't know when if it's going to be the first game or the last game or somewhere in between but when that happens we've got to respond as a team and i've been very proud of of our preparation in that area i think mick morat has done an unbelievable job and his staff this year i'm very proud of them and hopefully this pays dividends this fall yeah well i think when you look at those short-haired situations you got to make a decision uh you know how you want to get that yard um i mean there's certain times where you know we did get it and we did run the ball there's certain times there's just going to be an extra guy in there and you got to run a guy over or you got to decide to throw the ball and you know when we decide we want to run the ball and just run a guy over because they have an extra guy in the box we've got to do that and that's technique and that's pad level and that's understanding the scheme and making sure that if we're looking for certain double teams and schematically it gives us a chance to do that we do that um but i am very impressed with uh with some of the teaching that's going on the offensive line and making sure that uh when we get into short yardage situations and we get in the red zone we're able to run the ball we need to because i think that's that's what you're getting at in those games there was times where we didn't do that and um and that's the balance that we need we have to be able to do that we have to be physical on offense yeah i mean he had some good games down the stretch i just think um you know as a freshman running back he had a heck of a season but having a whole year under his belt now and then having an off season under his belt he's going to come off that much stronger but i'm also impressed with with mine and i'm impressed with evan pryor too so we have some depth in that room and more experience than we've ever had well yeah i think where that comes into play is if um if the ball is thrown then it was always that way right now if the ball isn't thrown then they can throw then they can still flag you right yeah that happened that happened to us last year i think the rose bowl um i think it was um and that happened i think cj scramble didn't throw it it was a holding call it threw the flag they picked it up because he didn't throw it so kind of a unique situation but i think it's it's appropriate because you know you're typically not going to throw it if you see a guy held and thrown to the ground but that's still penalty so um i think it's a good rule as you see just on both sides the way the passing game has opened up all recent years yeah i think so um i think you know with the rule of illegal contact past five yards in the nfl not having that in college then you see a little bit more contact downfield for sure yeah if there's confusion uh post snap then you've done a good job on defense and um and whether that's the quarterback or whether that's the offensive line identifying the blitz is in a run game that's that's good football now if you do too much of it and you're not playing with great technique then the minute they identify what you're doing then you can get rocked off the ball but the thing that i like right now is i think we're changing up the looks we're moving uh we're creating confusion for the offensive line for the quarterback uh but we're also playing with great great technique and great velocity and that's that's how we want to play football that's great it's great no it's been really good um and i think the thing about jim that's great is he sees the bigger picture so while he's still competitive and he wants to win it isn't like trying to win every single drill he sees the big picture of trying to win the first game against notre dame um but at the same time you know there's great back and forth going on and i think that makes us better on both sides of the ball i hate kills well i think you see things better from up top but you have less of a feel for the game down below so i think it depends on the staff you know and kind of you know your team and those type of things but i like to be down in the field because i just think you look people in the aisle you get a feel for what's going on in the game um you don't have as good a vantage point you don't see the game as well but if you have somebody up there who can see it and can give you great information then it can be a real you know advantage to be down the field when you're talking to guys you're feeling them they're still young guys i mean you put your arm around them talking to them you know you're seeing their response um you know series after series and sometimes that can be way more important than the schematic saying this play is better than that play um and sometimes rallying guys sorry sometimes rallying guys like when their confidence is down you know it's like hey guys we're okay here and here are the answers and here are the reasons why because they really want answers they don't know what's going on they're a little confused whether it's defense special teams or offense they want answers and when you can look them calmly in the eye and say this guys if we do this we're going to get this fixed in the field and go back out there and play it's hard to do from the box well i think uh you know there's there's a lot going on with the conference and i think the fact that able to um you know expand the usc and ucla made a big difference and i know that you know they're looking hard at adding other other teams and uh notre dame brings a lot to the table so i'll leave that up to those guys that's uh again i'm trying to be trying to be notre dame i'm trying to get our team ready but i know it's exciting i know there's a lot of possibilities out there yeah because i i think when when you get spread thin like that it's not good you end up becoming a jack of all trades master of none and uh the way that we're structured it doesn't really work that well uh when that happens so um you know certainly we'll be meeting with jim and talking with jim about all that but at the end of the day that that's what we need and um and that's what we're kind of operating at the high efficiency level no no no right did you what comes to mind is like even prior yeah can you show you enough in the spring maybe in his offensive workouts here we've now got to steam stuff for him and i can't do that i know without necessarily establishing him as a true running back you have to do that well i i think it's a great point and i think it's you know evan's a great point mine's one i think our tight ends are you know we have some really good tight ends but you have to do what's best to win the game and then along the way along the season guys are going to get opportunities to play and they're going to get certain things you know there are plays you want to maybe skiing for a certain player i can promise you that first game we're just going to do everything we can to win the game as time goes on and the season goes on you can start to explore different packages and see where that takes you but you know i think that's that's important for our team is to understand that it isn't just about them it's about the units about their team it's about uh winning and then if we win everyone's going to get their share and that's not in line maybe with the way that um you know society works right now but but i think that's why we put so much work in the off season understand that part of it you come to ohio state for you you come to ohio state to be great and chase your dreams and then hopefully when you stay at ohio state because your brothers and because of the team and you know it isn't about being the best individual player it's about being the best team this this season so we do have a lot of guys we gotta get the ball too so we had to figure that part of it out that's a good problem to have but but the focus has to be on the team and and we'll find different ways to get guys the ball did you see just blossomed in him over the last year uh his personality i just see the look in his eye i mean he's fun to be around he's got great energy he's got really good leadership just when you see him it's just like he looks right in the eye and he taps you up and gives you a hug and um it's just you know when you when you're one more year into the program like that that veteran maturity just a confidence level has just been off the charts and i think he's supposed to have a really good year yeah i just think over the um it's hard in the summer but i think during the spring there was just certain things you saw that that were pretty good you know just uh levels of the install that we're in that they were executing at a pretty high level and you can see where it's going um the guys are understanding it i gave our defensive players a lot of credit because they they've really put a lot of extra work in i see those guys diving in and just trying to watch as much film as possible i mean they're really into it and that's a big part of it as well so i think there'll be a point you know after maybe the first or second scrimmage this pre-season to kind of see where we're at but um but yeah it's it's going to be a it's going to be a process the good news is you know the ncaa allowed us to do a little bit more this summer so our guys were able to get more time in with some of the coaches uh it was a lot it was a lot i thought they did a really good job and i think a lot of it has to do with the way jim installs it and teaches it as a unit and then they break up but um a lot of it is same as or you know they kind of tie in some different things together and um it's pretty efficient and so it makes sense it's a system you know it's not just a bunch of defenses and uh i think that's what gives him a lot of flexibility and that allows him to adapt to what's going on in game i think that's you know you're asking me about you know one of the things i liked about jim it was you know somebody's beating them with a certain play he can adapt to and get that place stopped because he has the tools in his toolbox and i think he's done some of that already he's put a lot in and he mentioned to me he was very impressed with the amount that our guys can handle just learning you know not just the athletic part of it but just learning and so he's got musicians yeah yeah i think when you look at the last couple cycles um we've done a really good job in a lot of areas and i think hopefully that pays off this season you know and look at the class we had a couple years ago with some of the top guys in the country in all areas you know with the offensive line guard defensive end defensive tackle um you know the corners that we brought in a couple you know a year ago you know so i think you've seen that in all areas um but it's year to year you know every year brings on a new uh set of circumstances you know and um so you know the personalities change the people change you know with the transfer portal the roster changes you know and we're trying to have as much continuity as possible i think we're doing better than most but you know for for a lot of programs and somewhat for us it's year to year to figure out what that's going to look like but yeah i'm very pleased with how we've recruited and um i think when it's all said and done we get to december we'll have a great great i think there's a lot that goes with that you know i i think it's a good point but we talked to our leaders about that i think it's the way that you practice i think it's the way you you teach it's the way you talk it's the way you walk it's the way you approach things and um you get what you emphasize and we're gonna emphasize it and that's just the way that we're going to kind of approach things and the way we practice and um and everybody in the building is going to got to believe in it and if we do that we're going to get it done yeah no i never felt that i mean i felt like last year we decided to go i mean we went you know if you come watch our practice i mean it was paint flying off of helmets and just the way it was now you know cg did a great job of throwing the football and we had such great wide outs that you know and our protection was excellent too so we did do a lot of that um but it was some games you know we're rocking people off the ball and in the backfield and doing great i mean again you know you look at that michigan state you did a great job running against almost anybody in the country and we got after those guys um you know just up front and it's nothing against them it's just we played well in that game i mean they're a really good team they played really tough uh but then we weren't that way the next week and i think to me it isn't just saying well you know you weren't tough in that game or you were tough in this game it's it's the consistency level it's having a mature enough team to know that you have to bring it every single week you know when you watch that nfl they play 17 games one week they can look awful and the next week they you know they won the super bowl which is what the rams did you know they had a stretch in there well you can't do that at ohio state you have to bring it week in and week out and so um i just think that consistency level across the board is going to be critical but stopping the run for sure uh is important and sometimes it's you know the extra guy fit in the hole making the tackle you know um sometimes it's you know knocking guys off the ball and then changing the line of scrimmage we certainly didn't do that in the last game yeah i think when you look at zach right now he looks great he's had a really good offseason um really impressed with just the way he's gone about his business looks awesome so we're expecting a big year from zach you know tyler friday's back off the knee injury you know he's played a lot of football for us and that's going to be great tyron vincent is another guy who's had a really good offseason so these are veteran players that have to play veteran for us yeah yeah i think um you know kyle um has really done a good job this off season i think he's put a lot of work in and thrown every time i look out there he's thrown with somebody and then same thing with devin devin's now been here for a semester so he's kind of he's not new anymore so having someone like kyle with some experience going into the year is great and then having a guy like devin who's uh you know showing a lot of good things in his first six months is going to be good so so that room is is going to be competitive in there they're going to get after it and uh you know i'm excited to you know kind of see what the preseason looks like but you know i think every year or every kind of spring cycle you go through pre-season the season you get stronger you get more of an understanding of things i think that's where kyle's at and then you know hopefully after this pre-season for devon he's a little bit further along as well yeah we're waiting for him and eligibility uh the transfer and so once he can get cleared eligibility wise and we take the next step with him yeah we're still figuring that out yeah because we're only allowed 110 so we'll have to figure out how that works numbers-wise but the first thing we have to do is try to get them eligible and then we'll kind of go from there we're hoping in the next week but you know we don't know for sure because no no i don't think so i i think um there's still a lot of play action off of that that if you if you look back on those um a lot of the like the out-of-pocket you know we call them nakeds and keepers so i think we had good versatility there uh but but you know lining back you know whether it's under center or in the pistol it really does allow you more downhill and some really good play action and so um you know i think we really probably didn't have a lot of drop back out of that uh which we spent a lot of time in the off season working on drop back from under center and from from that pistol position but um but no it gives us some things and so we try to move it around a little bit um but but i think we have enough in place to keep the teams honest well you know lining up under center and throwing drop back pass there's a little bit of a rhythm to it where when you're in the gun you're already back there so there's something about that and then two like you said tendency-wise it'll open up some things for us we think he's excellent uh his players play really hard he's got really good answers um you know he's uh you know he kind of knows when uh when it's time to kind of heat everybody up for when it's kind of time to back off and play some coverage um but schematically he's very good but his players play really hard uh with challenges i mean just the fact that they're two really good teams you know and i think that it strengthens the conference and so i think the winner of the conference you can really be proud that you know there's two more really good teams in the conference yeah i don't know if they've uh decided whether it's tim or perry up top um i think i think you know when we get to the um the in-game stuff um during the preseason we'll actually go to the stadium and they'll probably make a final decision on that usually you want a guy with his eyes on the front and the guys in his eyes on the back end and you know as long as you have that then you can pretty much put together what happened each play and get good information in the game i think any time you're confident about what you've done you've done it before then you're able to play with really good confidence and you just um you see things a lot better it's like anything in life and i think now that he's done it before there's just that less anxiety and he can play faster on the field i think when you're anticipating instead of reacting any at any position then you're playing the way you want to play and hopefully that'll that'll show up in the field this year yeah no uh like i said the expectation every year is the same so we're not changing what we do now with our team and what we have for our team coming off of last year what we saw uh we felt like leadership had to be the biggest um you know know spent a lot of time focusing on that and really developing that and so we did that so that was that was unique um but but other than that it's just trying to you know obviously having a new defensive staff and there's just different dynamics at play but um but that's about it when you and me making riot talk about what you kind of wanted to see maybe what would just kept coming up because obviously you didn't want to turn off season into punishment right well just because you know you're trying to build that player leadership and accountability that our guys done such an excellent job of this off-season but in order to do that you have to have buy-in from the leaders and we did that you know we brought everybody together um you know we explained what a leader was we had the guys you know volunteered to be a leader they were voted to be leaders and then from there you know we had certain set of uh you know rules that the leaders had to agree on and nick did and i was in the meeting and they gave some really good feedback and it was about it back and forth and so when they went in and said okay here's what we're doing these first seven weeks leading up to the spring game it wasn't like well you know coach mick or the coaches are saying we have to do this no this is what we've all agreed on is what's best for the team and so i think with that there was a lot of accountability and i think the guys really enjoyed that having a voice and if they didn't like something they brought it up and we talked about it not that they always got their way it wasn't about that but it was about saying you know this is this is your team and when we get to halftime of those games your guys are the ones that are going to have to respond and so they've really bought into that and done an excellent job and i think because that they built a lot of confidence guys and matt jones being at the guard spots well both of those guys are built like guards and a little bit more road graders inside um so we hope we can get a little bit more push inside than last year but um but you know they're also gonna have to hold up and protection you know i thought both of those guys did a really good job in protection last year um so you know we'll see um you know those those you know paris and both fair did a really good job inside last year too it wasn't like they didn't do a good job but you know i think they were a little bit more tackle body types and uh matt and donovan are a little bit built a little bit lower the ground a little bit more of be new freshmen guards came in this summer if any of those guys really got your eye yet um now you know because again i hate doing that because once i once i point out one of them their parents will be on the phone me saying why don't you say my son so i i stopped doing that a while ago but but they're they're they're doing well they're they're you know kind of coming into the program trying to figure it all out um i will say this it does help for the guys who come in mid-year because they just have that whole spring under their belt you know and a guy like kai stokes and um you know a guy like devon brown or a guy [Music] you know i'm trying to think of who some of the other guys are came in mid-year um but but they they it's like they're not freshman anymore they're almost like sophomores because they've been here since january and uh and that makes a big difference it does so those guys are they're getting here this summer they're working at it they're they're pushing um there are a couple guys in there that i think have a chance to help us this year but we'll see how the preseason goes sorry thanks coach

Channel: Ohio Preps

Views: 6,915

Keywords: Ryan Day, Ryan Day Buckeyes, Ryan Day Ohio State, Buckeyes, Ohio State Buckeyes, Big Ten Media Days, B1G Media Days, Big Ten Football Media Days, B1G Foobtall Media Days, Go Bucks, Ohio State Football 2022, Buckeyes Football 2022, Ohio State Football News, CJ Stroud, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ronnie Hickman, College Football Playoff, Big Ten Expansion, B1G Expansion, Notre Dame Big Ten, Notre Dame B1G

Id: 3C7qaXoYT-E

Length: 56min 39sec (3399 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 27 2022