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Ryan Day discusses Ohio State's impressive first half performance vs. Georgia in Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•12/31/22
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(Thornton/Getty Images)

The Ohio State Buckeyes have come out swinging early in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs. Buckeyes’ quarterback C.J. Stroud has put together one of the most masterful performances in his college football career thus far, carving up the Bulldog secondary. Marvin Harrison, Jr. has hauled in over 100 receiving yards in the first half, giving him his 7th game this season with 100 receiving yards or more. That ranks him second in Buckeye program history in that stat. Heading into the locker room, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day discussed his team’s impressive start vs. the Bulldogs with ESPN’s Holly Rowe.

First, she asked him how his team was able to move the football with four plays in 55 seconds to score their fourth touchdown of the first half. The touchdown drive put Ohio State up 28-24 with 0:49 left in the first half. “We worked on it for a long time. That was a two-minute drill we worked a lot on. C.J. did a great job of executing that one right there. That was the coverage we thought we’d get and they had to put it on the field. So, a lot of football left here. We expected to play like that in the first half. Now we’ve gotta do that in the second half and go beat ’em,” Day said.

Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud has been spectacular

It was a really, really impressive first half showing by the Buckeyes.

Stroud connected on 15 of his 19 pass attempts for 238 yards, while tossing in three touchdown passes. He did a spectacular job of buying extra time with his feet to make some ultra-accurate throws. His third touchdown pass was a beautifully thrown spiral from the 45-yard line, where he connected with wide receiver Xavier Johnson at the 12-yard line. Johnson then put an absolutely lethal spin move on Georgia’s superstar freshman of a safety, Malaki Starks at the 6-yard line. Johnson put the spin move on him while traveling at full speed, avoiding Georgia defenders on his way to the end zone. It was one of the more spectacular plays of the year for Ohio State.