Five things Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Saturday before facing Notre Dame

ATLANTA — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day held court with the media for an hour on Saturday, two days before his Buckeyes face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the national championship game. There were, naturally, plenty of questions about how OSU made it here despite losing to Michigan in the regular season finale.

That is to Ohio State what Northern Illinois is to Notre Dame.

Both of those losses, though, are in the past. This is the present. Here are five things Day said about other topics, including a few Notre Dame-related tidbits.

On Notre Dame not having beaten Ohio State since 1936

I think when you go into games like this, there’s a lot of ways to look at it. There’s a lot of stats we can look at. The truth is we’ve played these guys three years in a row — well, this will be our third time in three years. So our guys know who these guys are and have a lot of respect for them and are excited to play in the game.

This game has nothing to do with the past and what’s gone on. It’s all about what’s going to happen in this game, and that’s what we’ll focus on.

On the game being played in the south but Notre Dame and Ohio State being from ‘Big Ten Country’

I just think this year with the 12-team playoff, it’s just been a little bit different. And everyone has their own story, and there’s a lot of great teams out there. A lot of things come into play when you make a run like this, injuries and just different things.

We’ll look at it at the end of the year and figure out the adjustments that need to be made, I think, internally. But I also think that we all need to look at how this is playing and what this means, playing 16 games. I think it’s a great learning opportunity to see what that’s going to look like moving forward.

But I know it’s been exciting for college football and for the fans.

On the challenges of facing the Notre Dame offense

I think they do a great job on offense. Coach Denbrock has done a great job wherever he’s been. Riley Leonard is an excellent leader. Jeremiyah Love is one of the most talented backs we’ve gone against. And they have a very good offensive line. Evans is really good at tight end. They have multiple tight ends. Receivers are weapons.

They’re going to challenge us in a lot of different areas. So we have to play Big Ten football. That’s what it’s going to look like. Every play matters when you play in a game like this, and certainly against this team it’ll be the same way.

On this being a throwback matchup with Notre Dame and Ohio State being top traditions but it coming in a brand-new era of college football

I guess that transition has been happening the last few years, but you can see obviously this year it’s really accelerated. The thing that’s hit me is that we’re in the middle to late January, and we’re still playing, and some teams are starting spring ball in another week or so. It’s just very, very different.

I think it’s all things that we have to learn from when we assess what’s going on, but it’s been hard to take a step back and look at anything because you have a short period of time to get back and win the next game, and every single ounce of your energy has to be to go win the next game. Then you wake up and you realize you’re on to the next one.

We’re not there right now, but I know after the season, we’ll wake up, what just happened, and then we’ll try to assess it the best we can and make it better.

I know there’s a lot of things we can do to make this all better, and I know institutionally we’ll continue to make those adjustments, like you said, and do things the way we’ve done before, but also adjust.

But also I think in college football we need to look and see how we can make this even better as it’s gone on because every year it’s gotten better. And I think it’s great right now, but when you think about the potential and what it can be for the players and these teams, it’s pretty extraordinary.

On Ohio State having a ‘tough’ team, contrary to what former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz said in 2023

I think when you’re starting out the season and you’re putting a roster together, you have to start from this game and move back. I think when that happens, you have to build a team — I think now the Big Ten has allowed us to do that with the addition of some different styles of play on the West Coast, and then certainly the traditional Big Ten play.

It’s a combination of being able to get big and strong and heavy and stop the run and run the football when it matters but also being a spread-out game where you can be in a little bit of a track meet and have the skill to play with anybody in the country. I think that’s the combination that you need to have.

That’s the goal every year, to do that. When you need to go get that yard, get that yard, and when it’s time to get that stop, you get that stop, but also having the skill to be able to run with everybody in the country. That’s how we start, and then as the season goes on, we look to identify the areas where we have to get better or whatever that might be.

But I think it all starts in the off-season with our off-season program and what Mick Marotti does, and I think our off-season program — I know it now because when I see players come from other teams, you get great feedback. You get guys who come in from different programs and say, Talk to me about what your program is compared to our program, off-season, during the season, all that. It really gives me confidence knowing we’re doing the right things.