Ohio State Buckeyes College Football Pregame Quote, 12/05/2021

This year’s Rose Bowl Game presented by Capital One Venture X will feature the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Utah Utes. This will be the second meeting in history between Ohio State and Utah, and their first matchup in the Rose Bowl Game. We are joined today by Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.

COACH DAY: Thank you. First off, it’s an honor to be coming to the Rose Bowl. I want to thank everybody involved with the Tournament of Roses, the most prestigious bowl game in all of college football. And very excited. We have a great opponent and a tremendous amount of respect for Coach [Kyle] Whittingham and his team and what they’ve done. We certainly know this is going to be a challenging month and a great game.

We were out at the Rose Bowl in 2018. We played Washington. It was a tremendous experience. Our players really enjoyed themselves, and they were excited to find out that we were playing in the Rose Bowl.

So, we have an unbelievable opponent, a beautiful setting, and everyone here at Ohio State is just very, very excited about playing in this game and look forward to getting out there soon.

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: To echo what Coach [Ryan] Day said, everybody in Salt Lake is elated to be heading down to Southern California for the Rose Bowl. Obviously our first trip.

We’re excited to come down and experience it. I’ve got a lot of buddies, old SC guys, that have been to the Rose Bowl several times, and they say there’s nothing that compares to it. So we’re really looking forward to it.

The entire Salt Lake community will travel well. It’s something that the community is very fired up about. We’ve only been in the Pac-12 about ten years now, so this is our first trip down here obviously. And we’re looking forward to it.

Ohio State, what a tremendous opponent. Been doing a little bit of homework since I found out who our opponent is going to be, and there is no weakness. I can tell you that. They throw the ball well. They run it well. They score. They defend. A thousand-yard rusher, a couple of thousand-yard receivers, and another guy on the verge of it. So we have our hands full.

It’s going to be a great challenge for our team, but all our guys are excited about it. Like I said, it’s going to be a great experience for our players. And as I’ve heard, it’s second-to-none. This bowl game is second-to-none. So excited to be here.

I know you were out there in the Rose Bowl. Coach Sean McDonnell is retiring from New Hampshire. I know you were his quarterback. What did you learn from Coach Mac? And what did Coach Mac – you learn from him to bring you out to – with Ohio State?

COACH DAY: Yeah, thanks for the question. I got really my start in coaching and certainly I’m in this profession because of Coach [Sean] McDonnell. Played at the University of New Hampshire where he and Chip Kelly really mentored me. And football wasn’t even my first love until I got there, and then made it my profession.

He is one of the best coaches I’ve been around. He’s tough. He’s demanding. He’s loyal and had an unbelievable career there. And, you know, everybody at the University of New Hampshire I know is very, very proud and also sad to see him step down. But congratulations on his retirement. You know, one of the best in college football.

Question for each of you. For Coach Whittingham, what does it mean for your program to get to the Rose Bowl? And for Ryan [Day], we remember when Urban Meyer put the whistle around your neck after the game three years ago. How long ago does that seem? And how much have you learned, grown, aged since then?

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: Okay, well, for us, we’re ‚Äì you know, it’s just a great opportunity for our program. It’s the next step in the evolution of our program, getting to the Rose Bowl, because of course that’s, in most years, what Pac-12 Champion gets to experience. We’ve been to the Pac-12 Championship game three years, and this is the first time we’ve been able to get over the hump and become the champion. It was the next step and our next goal as a program. We’ve only been at the Power Five ten years, I guess 11 years. So it’s just something that we’ve been shooting for and had our sights set on for a number of years. And we finally were able to get over that mountain, and we’re very excited to have that opportunity.

COACH DAY: Yeah, that was a very memorable experience in ’18. You know, it was a game versus Washington that was a well-fought game. And I just remember jumping out early and our guys playing strong throughout that game. And then obviously afterwards, you know, being in the locker room with coach and that ceremony meant a lot to me. And yeah, I think that seems about 20 years ago, Bill. And I would say that I’ve probably ‚Äì I’ve probably aged a lot. A few gray hairs popping in. But that’s all part of the experience. But very, very memorable. I have that picture up in my office back in Columbus.

Hey, Kyle [Whittingham]. I wanted to ask you about your team obviously had to deal with a couple of horrible tragedies with the losses of Aaron Lowe and Ty Jordan. And just wanted to ask you about your team’s resolve to deal with those tragedies and, you know, how do you think your team has been able to overcome that to stay together and have the kind of success that you’ve had?

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: Well, first of all, I couldn’t be more proud of our leaders on our football team. Couldn’t have got through it without those guys and the ownership that they took. As you mentioned, we’ve lost two players in the last calendar year. Christmas Day almost a year ago we lost Ty Jordan. It was ‚Äì you know, the season was over with, and we weren’t together as a team. So we had to do a lot of it in the team meetings by Zoom and kind of get everybody together that way.

The second player, Aaron Lowe, was during the season, it was game three, game four. And we just, as a football team, banded together. We had a mantra. We’re going to ‚Äì we’re going to get through this, we’ll never get over it, but we will get through it.

And our guys ‚Äì can’t say enough for our guys and particularly the leaders, the captains and the upperclassmen of how they kept things together. And the chemistry on this team just couldn’t ‚Äì kept getting better and better as the year went on. And we became closer and closer.

And it was tough. As a coach, there’s no blueprint for an event like that. You don’t have a protocol or a way to handle that. It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever been through as a football coach, hands down. And, you know, for us to get through it and continue to play at a high level, that was a credit to our guys.

I think maybe the biggest component to that or the biggest factor is Aaron Lowe, the young man who I mentioned, died during the season, his mom came and talked to the team that Monday right after the incident. It was late Saturday night. And she said, hey, she gave our team the blessing to carry on and that that’s what Aaron would have wanted, and that’s what she wanted. So that was real inspiration to our team once she came and spoke to us and they heard from her that she and Aaron expected us to carry on and continue competing and fighting for a championship.

Coach [Kyle] Whittingham, when asked about Devin Lloyd and the impact that he makes foryou and maybe specifically even for a match-up like this, how do you get to use him as a weaponin the various game plans you put together for opponents that could vary pretty greatly in termsof skill and approach?

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: First of all, Devin [Lloyd] is a special football player. I’m going to tell you the best defender that’s ever come through the University of Utah, at least in the modern era. There may be someone in the ’30s or ’40s or whatever that I don’t know about.

But in the modern era, he is going to be most likely, and I think without a doubt, the highest drafted defensive player that we’ve had. He is a guy that is a self-made guy. He came to us as a safety and a wide receiver out of high school, and we projected him a linebacker. And he became a self-made ‚Äì just through sheer hard work and determination one of the top linebackers in the country.

His versatility allows us to use him in an inside backer spot, which is where he is most comfortable. We can also bring him off the edge. He’s done a lot of pass rush for us in the sub packages. So he’s a guy that really can do it all. He’s got the size, the strength, the speed, the agility that all the big-time players have.

So he’s meant the world to us. And, of course, he just won the MVP in the Pac-12 Championship game a couple nights ago and very well deserving of that.

So for Coach [Ryan] Day, what was your guys’ initial reaction for getting selected into the Rose Bowl? And then for Coach [Kyle] Whittingham, after winning your first Pac-12 title for the Utes, what’s your approach coming into this game in the Rose Bowl?

COACH DAY: I would say we heard about 2:30. We brought everybody together at 2:45 and explained to them what we were going to do in terms of a schedule for the next month. And the guys were excited to play in such a prestigious bowl game and with such a great opponent. They were very excited about that and looking forward to getting to work here this month.

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: As far as us, we’ve had a pretty good track record in bowl games. We have a procedure process that we follow, adhere to, and it’s been successful for us. And so we’ll follow that just like we have all the other bowl games we have played in.

We have played in a couple New Year’s Six bowl, I guess they’re called, the Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl, in years past. It’s not our first rodeo in that regard.

But we have a process that we’ll adhere to, and we have not had the chance to have a team meeting yet. We have one tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. I’m on the road right now recruiting. So we’ll get everyone together and map out and tell them what’s going on for the next 28 days and get a plan in place.

And typically our guys do a really good job preparing for a bowl game. I’m going to tell you right now, we’re going to have to. With Ohio State as our opponent, we’re going to have to have great preparation to have a shot.

In the day and a half since the win on Friday night, I’m just curious what things have been like for you in terms of ex-players reaching out, ex-coaches reaching out. What has that end of things been like for you?

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: It’s been a great ‚Äì Ute Nation is excited, all the ex-players and coaches. I’ve had literally over 600 texts, and I just finished today responding to every one of them. That was no easy task.

But they’re excited. You know, I’ve been splitting my time between that and recruiting. Obviously, I’m down here in Florida right now on a recruiting trip.

But I can tell you there’s a lot of excitement from all the ‚Äì all the ex-players and coaches that have come through Utah. And the community, like I mentioned before, is ecstatic. And I think we’ll have a very good turnout at the Rose Bowl as far as Utah fans traveling to that game.

This is actually for both Coach [Ryan] Day and for Coach [Kyle] Whittingham. It’s actually the same question. What has Urban Meyer meant to both of you since you guys have both worked with him at your guys’ stops?

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: Go ahead, Coach (Ryan Day), I’ll wait.

COACH DAY: Certainly. You know, with this game, too, it just brings up such great memories of what he’s provided me and my family and the opportunity.

I was down there as a graduate assistant at Florida with him during his first year and then came on, you know, in ’17 at Ohio State and never would be in this situation without him. And forever in debt for what he’s done for my family and I.

And when you just think back on those times and your legacy in college football, I hope someday that there’s somebody that I’ve done the same thing for in this profession because it’s all about relationships.

KYLE WHITTINGHAM: I would echo the same sentiment that Coach [Ryan] Day mentioned as far as shaping me as a coach. I don’t think I would be where I am today if I had not had that opportunity to work for Coach Meyer for those two years. And I had the same whistle ceremony that Coach Day had, and that was a great experience as well.

But it was interesting, I had been at Utah for what, eight or nine years. We had a coaching change. I thought I should be the guy. Didn’t get it. I was very disappointed. Urban got the job. Turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me in my coaching career because I had a chance to spend two years with Urban and just his day-to-day way he ran a football program.

And there was just – everything was mapped out. There was – organization is one of his strengths. And being able to see how he ran the program and being able to absorb all that knowledge and the way that he did things was invaluable to me.

And like I said, I found out right away that I wasn’t ready for the job when I thought I was. But two years later, you know, he had ‚Äì I learned so much from him that I felt very comfortable taking over. And that’s how it laid out. That’s when he went to Florida, and I took over in the 2005 season.