Ohio State Buckeyes College Football Postgame Quote, 12/29/2023

COACH DAY: We’ll go right to questions, please.

Q. I’m sure you came into this game looking for optimism and clarity, particularly at the quarterback position. Where do you go after this game? Obviously, Devin [Brown] only played ‚Äì not even a whole half. But didn’t look great. Obviously, Lincoln [Kienholz], first time out there. Where do you kind of go with quarterback right now?

COACH DAY: Well, I feel like Lincoln got put in a tough spot there, to say the least. I thought he battled his tail off. But clearly, we didn’t help him up front. We didn’t run the ball well enough. And a freshman quarterback out there for the first time playing, and we’re not running the ball well enough up front. So, it’s hard to get much of an evaluation coming out of the game when you can’t get any balance. I just felt like we could have helped him in certain areas, and we didn’t.

Q. Straight to the point there about the offensive line play. What’s your take immediately? And No 2, Carson Hinzman didn’t play center. Obviously, y’all made the switch, Matt Jones, Enokk Vimahi, right guard. But their speed rushers just kind of had a night tonight. What’s your take on it?

COACH DAY: Certainly, there was some zero-pressure that came, and they were aggressive on Linc (Lincoln Kienholz). There were a couple of things that hit. But overall, when you have a young kid in there, you have to be able to run the football and take some pressure off. And we didn’t do that well enough in order to win the game. The defense played plenty good enough. I thought they played their tails off and ran out of gas down the stretch.

We gave up 14 points and, what is it, 331 yards? Is that what it was? They played great. Good enough to win, the defense did. We just couldn’t put it together on offense. So, that’s the story of the game.

Q. Just from your vantage point, sending Lincoln [Kienholz] in for his first real series on the 5-yard line in the ball game, what’s going through your mind there? And what were you cautioning him about as he goes in there?

COACH DAY: I mean, when you’re a freshman quarterback who comes in during the summer, you don’t have the spring, you really don’t have much of a preseason, and then you get thrown into it with the scouts a little bit here and there. But when Kyle [McCord] was in there and Devin [Brown] was getting reps in the twos, Lincoln didn’t really get many reps.

He did get reps in bowl practice, but that’s not like playing in a game. I think his first few drives were inside the 10-yard line. That’s a tough place to be. What I didn’t want to do is put him in a situation where he’s going to the ball over and maybe see something he’s not

used to seeing. And then all of a sudden, we’re really battling uphill.

What I felt we could do there was get into halftime, get it settled, and try to get the ball towards midfield. If we did, the defense got us a stop, got us at midfield. We stalled and then missed the field goal. I felt like that was our chance to maybe jump on top a little bit. And just couldn’t quite get it going.

But I give Lincoln credit. He got put in a tough spot, and he battled out there and did make some good throws. But that was a tough ask right there. And we need to help more.

Q. What was your message to the team afterwards? Obviously, you didn’t want this kind of finish to a season. Two straight losses, 14-3 in a bowl game. What’s your message?

COACH DAY: I told them I thought a lot of guys played really hard in this game. And nobody wanted to lose this game. You saw guys fighting here and there. We got put in a tough spot, and we didn’t respond well enough. We didn’t help the young kid at all. And that’s why we lost the game.

So it hurts to finish the season like this, with two losses. And that’s not good enough at Ohio State, and we all know that.

Q. You talked about wanting to finish on a high note and springboard for next year. But now, that’s obviously not the situation. When you look at what happened tonight and what happened at the end of November, where does this need to go? What are you already thinking about to get into 2024 and turn it back around?

COACH DAY: I mean, this game was very different than last game. It was a different situation altogether. And yeah, we wanted to finish this game and build some momentum into next year. It didn’t happen.

But yeah, first thing I mentioned in the room was the guys who were deciding whether to come back or not, now they have to rally together. And we’ve got to put this team together moving forward of guys who are coming back and get finished some unfinished business that’s happened here. I know there are some guys who feel that way.

Q. Ryan, what is the status of Devin [Brown]? He left. Can you give us just a general idea?

COACH DAY: He had a high ankle sprain and wasn’t able to return.

Q. Like you said, it’s circumstantial here with the circumstances with the quarterback. Does this change anything? Looking at transfer portal? Or do you now just reassess a little bit?

COACH DAY: Yeah, we’re just fresh off the game, so it’s hard for me to process all of it right now. But we’ve got to figure out what’s best for the team moving forward. And that’s in a lot of areas. So we’ve got to take a hard look at that and get that figured out. But everything will be looked at.

Q. Coach, I wanted to just ask about some of the miscues on special teams. Some of the, maybe, self-inflicted wounds. Are there common threads that you see with some of the mistakes, perhaps with fair catches inside the 10-yard line, false starts on punts, things to that nature?

COACH DAY: I thought overall, early on, the whole punting operation, other than the delay of game, but there was a funky look there. And we always tell them, hey, if you’re not sure, don’t snap the ball. And we ended up getting that one off. So that one there, you know, was okay.

But I felt like we were punting with good hang time, and we were covering and flipping the field at times pretty well. So, I thought that was well done.

But you’re right, we shouldn’t catch the ball on the 4-yard line. Our heel should be on the 8. I think he felt like in that moment, they were right behind him, and they were going to pin it inside the 4. But still, you have to stick to your rules in that situation.

And then we missed the field goal, and that one was big at the time. It was a little momentum swing, and they get the ball back on the 30-yard line. There were some good things there but not good enough.

Q. When Devin [Brown] was playing in the first quarter, there were still struggles. Is that a matter of a new quarterback, new center, new right guard, no Marv (Marvin Harrison Jr ), or is there more to it?

COACH DAY: I felt like he was going to have nerves early on. I thought we were going to be able to play through it and figure out what that looked like going on in the second half. He had a little bit of nerves, but you could see the athleticism. See him break the pocket. Just miss the throw down the sideline. He missed a screen early on. But I felt like he was going to kind of have to play through that. This is his first start.

And then we lose him. And we had a lot of things in the game plan designed for his style of play. And we lost them. It was a little bit of a scramble, and we came up short.

Q. Did the game get a chance to slow down for you throughout? Or was there too much pressure at that time?

QB LINCOLN KIENHOLZ: It wasn’t really that fast, honestly, because I go against the best defense every day in practice. It was pretty good. I think the Mizzou coaches were trying to speed me up, give me some zero-looks. But other than that, I’m pretty sure it was just like another game. And I think like the big thing for me was just to slow down and just focus on my mechanics and everything and just trust my eyes.

Q. Ryan, obviously, this was a different type of year at quarterback. You have Kyle [McCord] the whole year. He transfers. You kind of get thrown. You’re playing Devin [Brown], and then Lincoln [Kienholz] comes in. How would you assess the quarterback room or quarterback play this year? I know it’s fresh off the game. But how would you assess how that went and how it impacted the season?

COACH DAY: I think it’s hard to say because we’re talking about a year’s worth of play of Kyle. He’s not here. I don’t think it’s fair to me to go back and go through all of that right now. And then this game was very unique. So bottom line is, we didn’t reach our goals this year. And that’s everybody. And so, the quarterback room is one of them. So that’s the bottom line. When you look as a whole, we didn’t get our job done.

If that’s what you’re looking for for an answer, that’s kind of what it is. I’m not going to go through and kind of evaluate Kyle at this point. I don’t think that’s fair. And as you saw what happened in this game. And again, we’ve got to be able to help them out more. Some of those zero-looks that Lincoln’s [Kienholz] is talking about, we can do better job with as coaches.

Q. Obviously, you tied Ohio State’s sack record in a bowl game. How much more difficult now does it make it to potentially put your name in to hop in the draft or to come back?

DE JACK SAWYER: Honestly, I’m not even really thinking about that now. I’m just upset about the game. I want to send the seniors out the right way. When you put so much work in, it’s tough when you don’t get the outcome you want. And I want to give Lincoln [Kienholz] a shout-out for stepping in there and playing with confidence. It’s not easy, and you went in and did the best you could. So, shout-out to you, man.

QB LINCOLN KIENHOLZ: Appreciate it.

Q. Ryan, I know you guys said when all the dust settles from the game, you’ll go make the evaluations and stuff. We thought coming into this, and I think maybe you did too, that tonight was going to be a big piece of that evaluation pot.

How do you move forward without that evaluation? Because as you said, it’s been an odd game. And you, obviously, didn’t have Devin [Brown].

And second part to that question is, I watched Devin after the injury and the way he carried himself on the sideline. Can you just speak to the way that he handled himself after his second injury in a crucial moment during a battle?

COACH DAY: Yeah, for Devin, I know he wanted to play in this game more than anybody. And even after he hurt himself, he wanted to get back in there and actually did it for a series. It just wasn’t fair to him. He couldn’t move, and he wasn’t supposed to be in the game at that point. But he was fighting to get back in there. And he kept a great attitude the whole time. He’s a great young man with a great attitude. He’s a great teammate.

Yeah, I don’t have a great answer for that because that’s not what we were expecting to come out of the game. We didn’t have a game to look at and go through and evaluate. We know what we see in practice, but it’s certainly different when you play in a game. So disappointed we don’t have that.

So we’ll go back to work and figure that part of it out. But again, I don’t have a great answer on that right now because we didn’t have a game from Devin.

Q. Ryan, why did you make the switch on the offensive line to play Matt [Jones] at center and Enokk [Vimahi] at right guard?

COACH DAY: I don’t want to get too much into it, but Carson [Hinzman] was having a tough time the last couple of weeks in practice. And we just felt like at the right time ‚Äì this was the right thing to do at the time. He was having a few issues there, and so, it’s not that Carson will never play here again. But based on the last couple weeks of play, the decision was made that Matt gave us the best chance at center.

Q. (Off mic)

COACH DAY: We felt like Lincoln [Kienholz] had been taking all the backup reps. And moving forward in the future, felt like this was the best thing. And Lincoln also gave us a chance a little bit with the zone-read stuff. Where that’s really not Tristan’s [Gebbia] game. And the game plan had more of that stuff in it. Even more than what you saw, because that’s what Devin [Brown] can do. And we felt Lincoln could at least do those type of things as opposed to Tristan. That’s not really his style of game. So we felt like the right thing was to have Lincoln in there.

Q. Your roster was affected by guys leaving, opting out. I need you to look into a crystal ball. Do you anticipate in the next couple of years we’ll see things put in place to try to ensure that rosters in the regular season look similar for the postseason, even if they’re not playing in games that are affiliated with the playoff bracket?

COACH DAY: I hope so. I hope there’s something. You have key pieces missing, and it’s just not the same team that you played with a month ago. But not that that’s an excuse. It’s just the way it is. We have to go win the game. I feel like absolutely. And I think maybe with the playoff that will change things as well.

Q. How do you evaluate your offensive staff moving forward? And do you think there’s reason to look at and potentially make changes?

COACH DAY: We’re going to look at everything, yeah. Ultimately, like you said, this is an example of a game. It doesn’t ‚Äì nobody cares that you have a freshman quarterback in there. You’ve got to go win the game. And it didn’t happen.

So, like I said before, everything is going to get looked at. If it’s what helps Ohio State go reach our goals and win these games, then we’ll make those changes.

So, got to really evaluate it the right way and make sure I’m doing it the right way and do what’s appropriate and best for the program.

Q. One for Jack and Lincoln. Jack, is it kind of true that you just kind of wore down as the game went on? And how will this affect, not just your decision, you think, but the other people in your situation in terms of coming back? And for Lincoln, how much do you think this experience, as tough as it was, will help you down the road, if that’s what you feel?

QB LINCOLN KIENHOLZ: I’d say I think it’s an awesome experience. Just going out there. Just playing in the Cotton Bowl is crazy fun. I mean, I think being out there was hard at first, but I think just experience of playing a lot and just being out there throwing, running a little bit. I mean, it just helps me build like my ‚Äì I want to say like my platform for the next four or five years.

DE JACK SAWYER: You know, I think a lot of us all are on the same page about we don’t want to end our Ohio State careers like this. Two tough losses. We all love it here. We love Coach [Ryan] Day. We love the staff. And sometimes, unfortunate things happen, and you don’t get the outcome you want. And I think it’s going to play a big decision and big factor in our decisions.