Ohio State Buckeyes College Football Pregame Quote, 12/23/2023

SCOTTIE RODGERS: We’re here with Ohio State. Welcome to North Texas. Coach, if you’ll start with an opening statement, and then we’ll go to questions for you and Xavier [Johnson].

OHIO STATE HEAD COACH RYAN DAY: Excited to be here. Just got in here with the team. Landed down probably about 45 minutes ago. Excited to be here. Excited to be back at the Cotton Bowl. It is a wonderful bowl and the hospitality here is top-notch. And I know our guys are excited about it.

Certainly have a great opponent in Missouri. Excited to have a great week of practice and get to work.

SCOTTIE RODGERS: Xavier, what does it mean to be here and be a part of this opportunity?

WR XAVIER JOHNSON: I think for a – as a team, just to have the opportunity to go out there one more time with our brothers, go out there one more time and compete. And like Coach [Ryan] Day said, against an excellent opponent, so at the highest level. I think it allows us to really earn something for the season. We put a lot of work into this season. People were sacrificing so much, sacrificing time, sacrificing seeing certain people or whatever that may be.

So it’s important, imperative that we come out of this season with something. So I think that that is the main thing. So we’re coming down here to win a game. We’re coming down here to enjoy ourselves and kind of have a celebration of the 2023 Buckeyes.

Q. Ryan, the obvious question, did everyone make the trip? Are you expecting any opt-outs? Marvin [Harrison Jr.] Anyone else you can speak specifically of?

COACH DAY: Yeah, everyone is going to be here. We have a team meeting tonight and may have an update on that later on. But right now, no updates on that.

Q. Coach, in the couple weeks since knowing you’re going to play Missouri, what has stood out to you when looking at ‚Äì what do you think [Eliah] Drinkwitz, with their offense, is capable of? And kind of in the few weeks of scouting, what have you seen that they do well?

COACH DAY: Well, their record speaks for itself in terms of losing two games. They’ve played well, complementary football, run, pass on offense, put you in a lot of stress.

On defense, again, same thing. They make you work it down the field. They have a strong front, a really good backend. So play really good complementary football and, certainly, have won a bunch of games this year at a high level and know how to win games.

So it’s been great preparing for them, and now we’ve got to continue to do that this week.

Q. Lathan Ransom obviously was the most serious of those injuries at the end. Any chance he will play in this game?

COACH DAY: No, he will be out for this game.

Q. Can you give an update about Devin Brown? You talked about him the other day. You’ve probably had a few more practices. What have you seen from him? What do you need to see from him in the game? And, Xavier, I’m curious about your impressions of Devin.

COACH DAY: I think the first thing you notice is his command of the huddle, his command of the offense. I think he’s done a nice job of that. He has a charisma about him that I think the guys appreciate. He’s got a chance to extend plays with his feet. He’s got a strong arm. He’s very intelligent. He has a lot of ‚Äì a lot of skills, a lot of traits that you look for in a quarterback. Now he’s just got to go play the game.

What are we looking for in the game? We’re looking for him to take care of the football and, ultimately, lead the team to a win. What a great opportunity for his first start to be in the Cotton Bowl.

WR XAVIER JOHNSON: Like Coach [Ryan] Day said, I think he has a charisma, a confidence to him that he’s exuded even throughout the process of when him and Kyle [McCord] were battling. So I think for somebody like a player like myself to go out there and play for someone who is a pro the whole time, he didn’t hang his head, he didn’t jump in the portal or do something like that, he stuck around the team. And every day he was in Kyle’s ear, trying to figure out exactly what Kyle was seeing and just being a grown man about his business.

So for me to see that, even as an older guy, I think that allows me to be confident in the player that Devin is and just the personality that we’re going to have leading us on offense.

Q. Xavier, playing in big games is part of Ohio State’s DNA, a game like this. And I know you’ve got teammates that you play with now or have played with that’s from Texas. So what have they said if they have any knowledge about playing in the game, playing in AT&T Stadium, playing in that game? Anybody on the team have some experiences that they’ve shared or talked about?

WR XAVIER JOHNSON: There’s an ongoing debate over which state is the best state on the team for football ‚Äì high school football. So the Texas guy feels ‚Äì Texas guys feel very strongly about Texas. I’m from Ohio, so I feel strongly about Ohio football.

But, yeah, I think everything is bigger in Texas, as they say. Even as we just pulled into the Gaylord Hotel, I was looking at it and I was like, Wow, this is a really big hotel.

So I think just having an opportunity, like I said, to go out on a big stage in an environment as incredible as the Cowboys Stadium (AT&T Stadium), I think our team is going to cherish that opportunity. And I think the way you cherish an opportunity like that is to go out and give it your best and respect the game and the opponent and the people who are putting on the bowl by playing our highest-level football.

Q. Coach Day, obviously a lot of excitement around Ohio State football. You guys had a pretty memorable moment on Monday with one of your alums, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, having the game-winning touchdown and one of the best plays all year in the NFL. What was your reaction to that play? It’s a Missouri/Ohio State connection there. You guys obviously squaring off later this week. Take me through what was your reaction to seeing JSN make a big play like that.

COACH DAY: I was really happy for Jaxon. He had been through a couple of injuries. We all know how talented he is and what a baller he is. So to see him make that catch, for me the first thing I thought of was the catch he made in the Rose Bowl a couple years ago. It was almost the exact same area of the field and similar type throw that C.J. [Stroud] hit him with. And really happy for Jaxon. He’s been through a lot the last year and a half, and he’s got a really bright future ahead of him in the NFL.

Q. Anything on the Missouri/Ohio State side of that?

COACH DAY: I remember seeing it as it happened on the field. I was actually watching the game. So certainly coincidental, I guess, that that happened like that.

Q. This is for both of you but I guess primarily Xavier. Ohio State is such a unique place in that you can go 11-1 and still end the season in a close game that obviously didn’t go your way. How do you view the season and how important is a victory in this game in terms of shaping how you view this season?

WR XAVIER JOHNSON: Yeah, like you said, we ‚Äì you come to Ohio State because of the pressure. I think that if you’re running from the pressure, you’re scared of playing in big games or having your head on the line every Saturday, Ohio State is not the place for you.

So we go into every game expecting to win. And if the outcome is not what we want, then we regroup. We lean on our brothers, and we rebite on what has been instilled in us through the offseason and lean back on our training. So for us, I think that a victory here is very important.

I think one of the special things about Ohio State is the legacy of excellence. For me, with it being my last game of eligibility at Ohio State, kind of propelling that standard of excellence and continuing to push that forward and kind of paying it forward in a sense, it’s extremely important for us.

And we talk about looking back at the season, we’ll have a championship to show for it. And like I said, I think that for me and for my brothers and for everybody who has been a part of this season, that college football is grueling and it’s a long season. And you work year-round for 12 opportunities. And what we’ve come up short in one of them.

But I think that it’s imperative to kind of, like I said, finish the season the right way. Not only for this team but for Buckeye Nation and just continue to give back to them who have given so much to us.

COACH DAY: I think the margin is so tiny and so when you come up short it hurts, but I think about the players. And like X (Xavier Johnson) said, the sacrifice, the hard work. Everything that goes on from January, when you restart a season, all the way until the end. For it to come down to a play or two, we know that that’s what the game is all about. But that doesn’t take it away from these guys and the legacy they’re leaving behind to their teammates.

Xavier is a great example of that. What he’s done for his teammates in terms of setting an example, being the Block O award winner, coming in as a walk-on, earning a scholarship, becoming one of the best special teams players in America, becoming a huge part of our offense the last two years. It’s just tremendous. And what a great example for the younger players as they continue to strengthen our culture.

But like X said, this game, winning the Cotton Bowl means a lot to the people of Ohio. It means a lot to Ohio State. It means a lot to our team to win this game and do it the right way. And so that’s what we’re going to do this week.

SCOTTIE RODGERS: Coach, we’ll end on this, you talk about that meaning a lot to your program, your program’s 2-0 in this game. Missouri is coming in with a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum. It’s going to be really important for your team to match that, because that’s something that they are ‚Äì have been living on and gotten them to this point in a program that is kind of on the uprise.

How have you been coaching your team to get them ready, leading up to this, and how will you do that going into this week?

COACH DAY: Well, we’re in the Cotton Bowl and it’s a New Year’s Six game so we’d expect nothing less. We’re preparing to play the best football in America. That’s what we’re going to do. So we know it’s going to be a challenge. We’d expect nothing less coming to the Cotton Bowl.

We’re going to continue to prepare for this game the way we’ve prepared for other games in the past and use the same model that we’ve used for bowl games in the past in terms of preparing. Our guys got a little bit of a break. We will get back at it tomorrow, get on the practice field, have a great week of practice over at the stadium, and then go follow our plan to win.

Q. Other than Lathan [Ransom], is everyone else healthy? Is everyone else going to play in this game?

COACH DAY: As of right now, yeah. I don’t have any updates in that area. There’s nobody that will be out that would be new to you right now, yeah.

Q. (Question regarding which players will play in the game.)

COACH DAY: A little bit here and there. But again, it’s hard for me to kind of say because everyone -¬≠that’s kind of their own deal. And we’ll kind of let them communicate that as time goes on. But excited about the team that we can potentially have back here.

So I know that there’s some guys that are having a ‚Äì they’re going through it and making sure they’re making the right decision for them but also for the team.

And so each guy who has to make that decision ‚Äì Like, X (Xavier Johnson) doesn’t have to make a decision. He knows he’s going right? Some guys know they’re going. The guys that have to make a decision, they are being really thorough, asking the right questions, and doing it the right way.

Okay, guys, see you soon.