Ryan Day talks redemption for Ohio State in College Football Playoff
The last time Ohio State was on a football field, the Buckeyes were blown out at home against rival Michigan but Ryan Day knows redemption is possible in the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes head coach prepared his team over the last month for Georgia in the semifinals at the Peach Bowl.
“I’ve just been really pleased with the way our team has worked over the last month,” Day said on College GameDay. “The preparation they put in to get to this point, the focus has been on Georgia. There’s certainly been a lot of noise and a lot of things that we’ve learned, but the focus has been on preparing for this game and it started back in Columbus, and continued down here in Atlanta. Gonna be a long day here as we prepare to play in this game, we’ve been waiting for what feels like forever to play this game, but our guys are very, very excited, great energy about them.
“And the great thing is all that matters is what goes on in the field. And I know there’s been a lot of people that are not giving us a chance to win this game, but I can tell you the guys are really excited about playing.”
Ohio State virtually backed into the final four by virtue of a USC loss and the 11-1 Buckeyes are out to prove it was no fluke.
Day was asked what specific matchups could dictate the game against the Bulldogs.
“Well, I think it’s across the board,” Day said. “It’s every matchup. I mean, certainly there’s the high profile matchups on the perimeter and up front, but it’s every matchup, every guy in the field is going to win their one-on-one matchup period. And they got to win every single play because when you play in games like this, every edge, every play is of the utmost importance, and it’s going to be a fist fight every play.
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“So while there are some more, I guess, high profile matchups that are going to be critically important, to me, it’s every single guy on that field. And it may be on special teams. It may be, you know, third down. You just never know when that’s going to be, so we got to do a great job playing every single matchup and understand that games like this can come down to one or two plays. I think that’s what got us in the last game, too many explosive plays that got the game out of hand. So we have to understand that and we focused on that over the last month but we got to win one-on-one matchups.”
It’s also the biggest game of C.J. Stroud’s life. The two-time Heisman finalist quarterback did not win the award either year, nor did he end his season with a win at Ohio State.
Day exuded confidence in his signal caller.
“He’s the leader of this team,” Day said. “And it isn’t just C.J., it’s everybody on the team that has worked very hard. They know what the opportunity is here. They know what’s in front of us and we know the last month has hurt. It has, but it’s motivated our team. And you know, I think you can feel it in practice every day. And we’re gonna go and swing as hard as we can. Because there was a week there, we didn’t have anything. And when that gets taken away from you, it gives you a different perspective as you go back to work over the next month.
“We know we have a huge challenge in Georgia. But that’s kind of the way we want it, you know, in their backyard going down here. It’s going to be a hard game. We got the defending national champs and all those types of things, but we’re gonna swing as hard as we can in this game. And C.J. is our leader. He’s gonna lead the way.”