Ryan Day previews facing Penn State, Sean Clifford

The unbeaten Ohio State Buckeyes are one of six undefeated teams in the country, as they sit No. 2 in the latest AP Poll. Their strength of schedule has been questioned from time to time this season, but this weekend they will face their first ranked opponent since their week 1 victory over Notre Dame, as they hit the road to take on No. 13 Penn State. Beaver Stadium is one of the most hostile environments in college football for visiting teams, which Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day discussed ahead of their visit.

“Well no matter when you go into Penn State it’s going to be a challenge, they do a great job with the atmosphere and there’s still a handful of guys that went in 2018, but not all of them,” Day said. “So we went in 2020, it was different, it was COVID, but we know whether it’s a night game, an afternoon game, noon game, it’s gonna be a challenge. Their crowd’s gonna be in it and they’ll play a factor.”

The Nittany Lions have already sold out their entire student section for the whole 2022 season, and Saturday’s crowd for their noon kickoff will be ready to make it as hard as they can on the visiting Buckeyes.

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Day also spoke on their matchup versus the one-loss Nittany Lions and what they bring to the table aside from home-field advantage.

“And they’re a good team, you can see what they did last week, you can see what they did all season, really good coaches, really good players, veteran quarterback. So new scheme this year on defense, we play good on special teams, so we got to play our A game,” Day said.

The veteran quarterback Day is referring to is Sean Clifford, who’s been a part of Penn State’s program since 2017 and has his name etched in the top five of many statistical categories in the Nittany Lion’s record books.

“Played a lot of football, and a lot of guys who play that much football, they have so many snaps under their belt, they’ve seen so many different things and that makes them dangerous in it of itself. But he’s tough, he’s really good throwing the ball, he’s accurate, he’s made a lot of plays in his career with his feet and his arm,” Day said. “And so anytime we play Penn State and certainly with Clifford we know that they’re really good and they can attack you a bunch of different ways.”

The Buckeyes will be looking to slow Clifford and his offense down this Saturday, while also maintaining their own offensive excellence they’ve achieved this season, as they kick off against Penn State at noon this Saturday in a matchup airing on FOX.