Ohio State Buckeyes

Week of:
Season:

Week of Dec 21

Ohio State Buckeyes

Opponent:
Tennessee
Ohio State
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Coach Ryan Day
Mon., Dec. 16

Transcript not available.

Ohio State
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Coach Ryan Day
Sat., Dec. 21

Q. I don't know any artful way to say this, but where was that performance hiding?

RYAN DAY: I'm proud of our seniors for a lot of reasons. One, for the fact that they were able to finish their last game at Ohio Stadium with a win like that. I'm also proud of the way that they responded.

I told them in the locker room that in life you're going to be -- you're defined by the way you handle adversity in life, as a person, as a man, as a dad. So to see the way that they responded in this game, you can tell from the jump that they had a look in their eye that they were going to go win this game. I thought they played that way.

A lot of football ahead of us. Great win. We'll enjoy this for 24 hours. Then it's on to Oregon.

Q. From a coaching perspective, this was like 180 from your last game. What did you guys do different? Did you just say we're going to go out and throw the ball, play loose, play aggressive?

RYAN DAY: I think it was a combination of things. I think it's a little bit of everything. I think when you go back and look at the season -- we talked about it going into the game -- we were a different team. When we lost Seth, we played that Indiana game. We got the punt return, looking back on it. We got that turnover down in the red zone. We really didn't play great on offense in the Indiana game, truth be told.

Then we went into the last game and still didn't quite know what the ramifications were from everything that was going on based on who we had up front. And there was a lot of things that played into that game. But certainly one of them was we called this game more aggressively. There's no question about that.

But also I think we did some things in this game that maximized what we have in terms of our strengths and minimized our deficiencies -- not that everything was perfect in this game; it wasn't. But I do think that -- and I also thought Will was excellent in this game. Played really well. Did a really good job of placing the ball in some big-time throws. When he needed to make plays with his legs, he did.

And certainly Jeremiah was dynamite again. But Will was a leader.

But we also had balance in this game. It wasn't like we were throwing it all over the place. We did have balance. We had some good runs, and those hit for us, which makes a big difference when you have that run/pass balance that we're looking for.

This has got to build momentum going into this next game.

Q. You dominated the first half but then you looked up at the scoreboard heading into halftime and you were only up 11. Did you feel like you let them off the hook a little bit? And what was the conversation at halftime knowing that you dominated the half, albeit just an 11-point margin?

RYAN DAY: Yeah, that's why we knew coming out in the second half we had to win the next four to five minutes, and we did. That really helped, because you're right; you can feel that a little bit.

I say it to them all the time coming into halftime you're going to be up/down or it's going to be tied. So, now we have to go win the next four, five minutes of the game. They deferred, so they got the ball. We had to get that stop. We did. And we went down and scored, and that made a huge difference.

But I tell the guys all the time that in games like this, you've got to have poise because there's ups and downs, and you can't get caught up in that. But, yeah, there was a point there where we have a chance to go up 28-0, and we throw the interception. Great play, and I liked the call.

I liked how aggressive we were because that's part of it. When you're going to call the game aggressively and something like this happens, you have to be able to live with it.

But, yeah, we had a chance to score there and go 28-nothing, and the game is pretty much in hand at that point.

But they fought their way back in. They're a good team. This is a very good SEC team that came up here. So we knew it wasn't going to be easy.

Q. I know obviously the confidence from this group comes from the work you put in on a daily basis. But when you sit for weeks and you obviously just want to get into the game, how important is it for you to have that first drive the way you guys did that to build confidence for the rest of the game?

RYAN DAY: And just the execution. We've talked about that the last few weeks in some of the press conferences we've been in. I know you've heard us harp on execution, execution, execution, because there's a lot of things coming out of that last game that we just look back on and we just didn't execute very well.

And certainly there are things that we needed to do better in terms of scheme. But we also didn't execute. I thought we for the most part fielded the kicks better in this game. I thought we blocked better in this game. I thought we ran through contact better in this game. And certainly we threw and caught better in this game. And that made a huge difference in it.

You're right, there was a confidence coming out of that first quarter because we were playing with a lot of energy.

But even coming out of warmups you could feel it. These guys wanted to play in this game and there was a confidence that got built through practice. And I thought we had a good game plan going in. I think the guys believed in it. And that went a long way to get that first drive.

Q. (Indiscernible) how you got through it and just how important this was, because this was a season-defining win to this point? What did you do to make sure that you guys were ready because that was obviously a devastating loss?

RYAN DAY: The first week was an identification of the issues. You don't just move on from the game. You have to identify what the issues are and have real conversations with the players, allow them to speak because they're vested in this. And then coaches have their two cents.

You give it about a week and then you put a plan together on how we're going to move forward, how we're going to get these things fixed.

And you find out who your opponent is. We found out it's Tennessee. That's where the two weeks of work went.

About Wednesday of this week you could tell these guys just wanted to get on the field. It had been a long leadup for us, weeks. To say it doesn't weigh on you, it does. We have a lot of pride in who we are. These guys have a lot of pride.

These guys, they love each other and they're a great representation of Ohio State. And I'm glad that they were able to -- for the last game, for those seniors -- to finish with a win, but they are not satisfied at all. I mean, they quickly are going to get their focus on Oregon, which is going to be a rematch for us, which is exciting, and going into a great opportunity to go play in the Rose Bowl again.

So I think it says a lot about who our guys are that we're able to respond like that in a big way.

Q. You talk a lot about leave no doubt. How important was it for you guys in terms of building momentum to not just win tonight but to leave no doubt?

RYAN DAY: That's it. And even there were a couple of points in the game, there's a couple of calls and different things where in the past, when you have one of these games and it comes down to the last play, you can look to those as game-altering plays.

But when you leave no doubt, nobody will talk about those plays because we did. And there was a few opportunities in this game to do that very thing -- fourth down stop. There was, again, those drives right there in the third quarter that I felt like allowed us an opportunity to pull away when the defense was getting stops.

Q. You told us during the week that we could see a rotation on the interior of your offensive line there. Could you just talk about the job Luke Montgomery did. But also Austin is playing essentially two different positions in one game. Just evaluate the job he did going back and forth depending who was in the game with him?

RYAN DAY: When you don't notice the guards, they're doing pretty well. I noticed Luke's energy, toughness and edge. I've got to watch the film and see how he did, but we blocked them much better in this game. And they have a good front.

I thought we got some of the gap schemes going. Some good double teams. It wasn't all perfect by any means, and we'll have to continue to diversify going into next game. But I thought we at least focused on the things that these guys could do well and now we have to build on it.

And they play with confidence and energy. You could see after we scored a couple of touchdowns, they were jacked up, and coming off the field with good energy.

And the leaders of that group is certainly Donovan Jackson and Josh Fryar. And good to see Carson play well, looked like it anyways from my point of view, watching the game on tablet that he played well. That allows us to have balance, and as you know that's a huge part of it.

Q. (Off microphone).

RYAN DAY: We'll have to look at it, but it seems healthy to me to get those guys involved in the game.

Q. This week, the defense talked about if they had to win the game, they felt confident doing that. Obviously your offense plays the way it does so they don't have that as much on their shoulders, but other than a couple of drives they hold the fort down. Their performance and what they can build on from this.

RYAN DAY: They're playing with confidence. And coming off the last game, I think they felt like, you know, we have to go win the game, but when the offense is playing to their potential, like they were today, now it's complementary and you can end up with a game like we did tonight.

So you just never know. It could be like the Oregon game. It could be like the last game of the season. You just never know how those games are going to shake out. And we have to do whatever we can to win. We've talked about that before. Just win the game. And so we've got to win three more.

Q. With Will, that first touchdown throw just seemed like it was so on point. He looked to be just kind of dealing tonight. Did you see anything different from him the last couple of weeks? Just because down field he looked better. He looked more concise almost at every turn.

RYAN DAY: I thought his footwork was good. We worked hard on some of those throws, and he hit a few of those right on the money. The fade ball and go ball were really well done. The levels ball, too, and Carnell was really a well thrown ball. Probably missing a few others. But he was accurate today.

A big thing for Will is his footwork. When his footwork's on point, and when he's seeing things well, he's as good as anybody in the country.

Q. I wanted to ask you big picture about the Big Ten and what kind of the season maybe looks like when you have three teams advancing to the quarterfinals. And from a big picture perspective what was this first year like playing in the Big Ten? And how good are these teams that are in the tournament?

RYAN DAY: Well, I think the Big Ten has great football. I think that we play nine conference games. So we beat each other up sometimes. But when you have an opportunity like this against a very good SEC team, we know how important that is for the conference.

And great to see some of the other teams in the league representing well because it is a great conference and a very difficult conference.

Ohio State
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Assistant Coach Chip Kelly
Sat., Dec. 21

Q. Tennessee's front was known for kind of getting pressure on quarterbacks and sacks. You guys didn't give up any tonight and it seemed like Will had a lot of time to throw. What do you think the line, you guys did to ensure a clean pocket for a lot of the game?

CHIP KELLY: I think our line played outstanding tonight. That defense going in, I think they were fifth in the country in total defense and fifth in scoring defense. We know how difficult they can be. You watch their games and they got after everybody they played.

But I think really credit to our offensive line keeping Will clean. Will knew if he could be clean and go through his reads and get a chance to go through his progressions we'd have a shot at beating these guys. I think our offensive line did an outstanding job on protection for Will.

Q. When you make some changes along the offensive line are there things maybe you could do to help those guys out? Are there ways you can call plays things you can do to help them out things you wouldn't otherwise do if (indiscernible)?

CHIP KELLY: We're always trying to play to their strengths. Depending on who is in the game -- and Justin did a great job telling us what the rotation is, who is in at left guard, who is in at right guard. Everybody has strengths sometimes you're trying to hide a weakness or two.

But I think we tried to play to their strengths. I think all three guys have strengths. You just, you don't get a ton. We get some feedback looking at the tablets and seeing some things, but I think all three guys did a nice job.

We'll break the film down early tomorrow and get a grade on them and get a look at them. But I think having depth at this point in time during the season is critical in the fact that we got three guys in there that I think played at a pretty high level today, was important for us.

Q. To what extent do you buy into the fact you can throw to set up the run? And was that kind of the emphasis in this game, because it was a lot of passes early and later kind of took the control and ran out the clock with the running game?

CHIP KELLY: Just depends on who you're playing. I think there's always a philosophical approach when you're playing somebody based on what their strengths are and weaknesses are and what you're trying to exploit.

I don't think it's as easy as, say, throw to set up the run. I've done it before and gone three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out. And we've never gone anywhere with it. It's not just do this it works. It's about players executing and I thought our players executed at a high level tonight.

Q. For the last three weeks, what impressed you about Will, not just the way his play improved but how he handled the three weeks after the Michigan loss?

CHIP KELLY: I think the one thing with Will is he's consistent. He's the same person every day. He's not too high. He's not too low. He's a lifelong learner. He's got a thirst for learning. He's in every day. He's watching film. He's studying.

He's always trying to get better, and can he just get a little bit better on a daily basis? But one thing about Will there's a consistency to his approach and there's a consistency to how he is every single day in practice.

He's not one of those guys that's low on one day and high on another day. He's not like that. He's kind of really steady in his approach to how he prepares for games. And I think that's what you see when he plays in a game like he did tonight.

Q. A few days after the Michigan game Ryan said we have plenty of good-enough players to go on a run and win the national championship. What did this performance tonight say about what you guys are capable of when you play your game?

CHIP KELLY: It says we're one of eight teams left. Everybody is fighting for the same prize. And obviously each game gets a little bit more amplified.

But to win it all, you've got to win the first one. That's really the whole team's focus. I thought Ryan did a great job keeping everybody focused. It really wasn't talk about what are we going to do on January 20th because January 20th didn't mean anything if we didn't take care of December 21st.

I think our guys were laser focused on playing this game. When you turn the tape on and see how talented Tennessee is, that got your attention right away. There was no looking past them to whoever is the next game.

Obviously we know we've got to go play Oregon, and that was in the back. It was all about Tennessee because you've got to win the first one to get going.

We'll regroup tomorrow. We'll look at the film and then we'll start as quick as we can getting ready for the next one.

Q. Nobody knows Ryan and is closer to Ryan than you are in the coaching profession. Last three weeks I would imagine have been as tough a time for him as ever in his coaching career. How did he handle it? What did you see from him during this period, maybe that I don't know if you've seen before or impressed you or whatever?

CHIP KELLY: I just saw the guy I've known for since he was 5. I told him a long time ago he's built for this. And he understands it. He understands the gravity of what his position is. He understands how everybody feels about Buckeye football and rightly so.

He feels the same exact way. I don't think anybody took the loss to The Team Up North harder than he took the loss. That's the type of person he is.

But he also has to lead from front. It wasn't, feel sorry for me, and, hey, is everybody going to pick me up and make me feel better.

It's no, we've got to address this the right way, look at what we did on film. We have to figure out how can we correct that. How do we put our positions -- I think your job as a coach is to put your players in positions to make plays. We didn't do it the last game. And we did a better job tonight.

And our players went and won this game. There's not one coach that played today. The credit goes to those guys. They were awesome and they were clicking on all cylinders. And when you start to call plays and Will can finish the play before you get it out, you know how dialed in you are. And I think that's what these two weeks were.

We said we're going to go -- before I could get the second play off it was a 10-play word call. He had it. He knew what we were doing.

And I think the buy-in, especially from the leaders here, our senior leaders, is tremendous. And I think that's what's going to propel us as we continue to move forward with the ultimate goal of trying to get to January 20th.

Q. (Off microphone)

CHIP KELLY: In both. We have a communication system that is kind of unique, but we're always talking through the headset and hand signal and got it. And I will start to make a "no check to" -- and he knows. He got it.

So it just tells where he is and how dialed in Will has been throughout the entire season. And I don't know what he finished today, but I think it was above 80 again. We talk about that. But there's a reason for that. It's how hard he works at it.

I think he understands the fundamentals of the position, but really the game within the game and taking what the defense gives him and making those decisions of when to take a checkdown and not to force a play.

But if your opportunity comes and you do have a shot to put the ball only in a spot where J.J. can catch it, or if J.J. can't catch it they'll have to interfere with him. Great decision-making today.

But I think the credit goes to the players, man, those guys have been awesome since what happened in the last game. And I think those guys said, hey, we've got a chance here because we're in it. That was the only thing they were hoping for is, are we still in this tournament. If we're in the tournament, then let's go win it.

Ohio State
Assistant Coach Jim Knowles
Sat., Dec. 21

Q. Once again the defense was pretty airtight. They had the two drives the second quarter and that was pretty much it. What was the priority for you guys in terms of game plan for this team?

JIM KNOWLES: No explosive plays. Make them -- if they're going to score, I think the one play, one score it was like a 16-play drive. We had our shots. And a really suspect quarterback-roughing penalty. And make them go the distance on us.

I thought we had a great plan, early three-and-out, score, early three-and-out, scores. Got us out in front.

Q. Jack and J.T., this felt like this was one of their most productive disruptive games. What did you see out of the two defensive ends in this?

JIM KNOWLES: We knew they were going to have a good game. The setup with their quarterback was a little different. It was a lot tighter. We thought we would be able to change up coverage enough to make him hold the ball. So we expected they were going to have a good game.

Q. How much are you looking forward to a rematch against Oregon, where you guys kind of took some hits there. But now you get a chance to redo. How different is this defense? We've talked about this. How different is this defense now compared to then?

JIM KNOWLES: I don't know how different it is. I think there's been adjustments. There's been some different calls, but I think it's confidence. And we're looking forward to the opportunity because it was not a great game for us.

Quite frankly, I think the guys got a little pissed off. And it led to a run for us in terms of defense and where we're at statistically, which has got to be number one or close to number one in categories.

They used that game as a motivation. I'm sure they're looking forward to another opportunity.

Q. There's been a lot of SEC chest pointing, let's say, from pundits, even a few coaches on Twitter; I won't name names. But why does the SEC have that air of superiority around it, do you think?

JIM KNOWLES: I have no idea. I don't know. Today we played pretty well. That's all I know.

Q. They get the ball to start the second half. It's a tight game. What were you hoping to see? Obviously I know what you wanted to see, but what did you say, what was the halftime like?

JIM KNOWLES: I got after them pretty good at halftime. I did, to be honest with you. I felt like we were rolling in the beginning of the game. And then I just felt like we took our foot off the gas a little bit.

So, I got after them at halftime and challenged them because I knew the way the game was going that as long as we did our job everything was going to turn out all right. I thought they came out. I thought they came out strong in the second half.

Ohio State
QB Will Howard
Sat., Dec. 21

Q. I know you didn't question the game plan but when you guys were preparing for Tennessee and you're seeing the game plan being put together, where you were going to get opportunities to push the ball down the field, were you licking your chops at the opportunity to do that?

WILL HOWARD: I think giving us the two or three weeks that we had to get ready for these guys, I think, gave us a little bit of an edge. And we were able to really break them down and figure out what we liked, what we didn't like and figure out what we were doing well.

And I think coming into this game I was really fired up about the game plan, like more than usual. And I think the way that we were able to execute it -- at the end of the day, it's how you execute it.

Like, I never go into a game like feeling bad about a game plan. It's how you execute it at the end of the day. But, yeah, I was fired up about our game plan today. And I think we did a hell of a job executing it.

Q. Will, why more fired up for this game plan than other game plans?

WILL HOWARD: I don't know. I mean, you saw it was a pretty good game. That's probably why.

Q. When you guys play aggressive like that -- and you've said multiple times it's the best special teams corps in the country -- you mix it with getting Tre out of the backfield and hitting Gee, what's it like when you're in sync in a big game like this?

WILL HOWARD: Yeah, it's huge. Getting the ball in our playmakers' hands is big, especially in space. You see what they're able to do. Tre busted that last run, I was, like, I don't know what he even saw. It was crazy.

But just giving those guys opportunities to get in space and do what they do is huge. And I think we did a heck of a job doing that tonight.

Q. Tennessee's front has been pretty good throughout this year and your line kept you from getting sacked. You had a clean (indiscernible) a lot of times. What did you think of the protection you had tonight?

WILL HOWARD: I'm so proud of those guys. I had to listen to them get just harassed for the last three weeks. And I had to sit here and just act like it didn't affect me, because those are my brothers, and I go to war with those guys every single day.

And for them to show out and have the performance that they had tonight, it was huge -- and against a really good front. I mean, they're probably the second-best front we've seen all year.

For them to come out and do what they did against those guys was huge. And I'm just so proud of those guys for not listening to the outside noise and sticking their noses down and really getting gritty and working for everything.

Q. Just your thoughts on Jeremiah stepping up? True freshman doing this. Does he surprise you anymore and your thoughts on his game overall?

WILL HOWARD: No, he does not surprise me. I think all of us can agree that we're not surprised by how good he is now. He's a dude, man. I think he's the best receiver in the country. I think we've got the three best receivers in the country, but I'm a little biased.

But you see what the kid does with the ball in his hands and what he does with the ball not in his hands. He runs unbelievable routes. He's smart. He works hard. I mean, he's everything you would want in a teammate and receiver.

And all those guys, man, are studs. So you are able to see that, put it on display tonight.

Q. Given the way that the first meeting against Oregon ended, what do you think about the rematch ahead?

WILL HOWARD: I'm excited. It's going to be a heck of an opportunity for all of us. I think we've all been looking forward to this one and for another crack at these guys.

And the way that last one ended doesn't sit right with me. It still doesn't. It still bugs me. And I'm just thankful for the opportunity that we get another crack at them.

And in life, I said this before the game, in life you don't get a lot of second chances. The fact that we're getting a second chance here is a blessing from the Lord. And we're going to go out there and have some fun and let it rip, man, because this is all we've got. It's win or go home.

Q. There were questions leading up to this game about what the atmosphere might be like with Tennessee fans. How do you think the fans were for your final home game?

WILL HOWARD: Great. Great. I think they thought they were going to take over this place, and we showed them pretty quick that we weren't going to let that happen. I think obviously us jumping out to a pretty quick start helped with that, but I've got to give credit to Buckeye Nation for showing up and being loud, and that drone show in the third quarter was pretty damn cool.

Q. You threw your arms up at the end of the first quarter, three touchdowns, three possessions. How much of that was frustration like released and you guys just playing, like you said, executing the game plan and, I mean, when you guys are clicking like that, kind of hard to stop you guys.

WILL HOWARD: I don't know about frustration, but more excitement and just I was thrilled that we were having the success we had, but we were far from done and I think we showed that.

Q. Chip volunteered it like you were finishing the plays in practice and in the game. You're a fifth-year guy. You've been through it, but is that as locked in as you've been? Where does that come from, where you can finish the plays?

WILL HOWARD: I like to think that I can do that every week. That's something that I try to get in my preparation.

When we go in there, we install a bunch of stuff going into Tuesday, it's like maybe I'm having to -- because he's telling me the plays and I'm trying to learn, like, this week what's the verbiage going to be on this one? Really by like Thursday I try to have them all down pat, where I can finish them. Literally, he starts it and I'm like, okay, I know what the play is.

Just understanding the game, knowing we're in the red zone, it's third down, I know we're going to call this. There were times tonight where there was a third down and I knew that we went into a certain personnel package and I knew what he was going to call.

That's just us being on the same page. A lot of that has to do with me trying to get in there and around those guys as much as I can be so that we're all on the same page with what we're calling, and part of that is just my preparation. That's how I like to operate.

I want to know the game plan inside and out and why we're doing what we're doing, and I like to think my memory is pretty decent. I like to try and memorize the plays.

Q. Coach Day always talks about leaving no doubt. How important do you think it was for you guys not just to win, but to leave no doubt tonight?

WILL HOWARD: It was huge. I think we did a hell of a job not letting off the gas. Because when it's 21-0, 21-10 going into the half, we could have let that go sideways, but the defense came out, got a huge stop. We go down to score, score again, and it was like we left no doubt. We could have let that become a game, but being able to go out there and continue to keep the foot on the pedal was huge.

Q. Couple of your passes, especially to Jeremiah were what they call dimes in a Coke bottle -- you understand what I'm saying.

WILL HOWARD: You crack me up, Tim.

Q. But did it feel like that? Did it feel like you were on tonight, for want of another term? I don't know, how important was it for you to have that feeling?

WILL HOWARD: You kind of, as a quarterback, you kind of get into a rhythm and you get into a flow state, and I felt like tonight we were able to get into that. I feel when I'm able to get completions early, get the ball out of my hand and get the guys in space, you catch a couple of breaks. On that first drive, I get a face mask penalty on pressure to throwing the wheel to Q, but you luck out and you've got to catch a couple of breaks.

But once you're able to get that first first down and get moving, you kind of get into that rhythm and that rhythm is huge, for me as a quarterback and really for the offense. We always talk about getting that first first down, and it's downhill from there.

Q. TreVeyon Henderson had a game, running and catching, what's your impression of his game tonight?

WILL HOWARD: I'm so proud of him. Him and Q did a great job tonight. But Tre made some unbelievable plays. That kid, he just shows up to work every single day. He continues to amaze me with his abilities, how connected he is to the Lord and to his faith while he's also going out there and laying his body on the line. I'm just lucky that I'm on the same team as Tre and a lot of these guys.