Everything Ryan Day said before the 2025 Goodyear Cotton Bowl

Here’s everything Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said on Friday ahead of the Buckeyes matchup with Texas in the 2025 Goodyear Cotton Bowl.

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RYAN DAY: Honored to be a part of the Cotton Bowl again. Just a tremendous bowl. And I’ve said this many times that the Cotton Bowl does a great job in their hospitality. Everybody there takes a lot of pride in the bowl, and it’s a great setting. Have a great opponent. Have a tremendous amount of respect for Texas, Coach [Steve] Sarkisian, his staff, and the players. It’s going to be a great environment, and we’re very excited to play in the game.

Q. Back when you were making the decision to give up play calling, you had talked about how it would afford you some opportunities late in the season to be involved in the team and other areas. Now that that time of the year has arrived, what are some areas that you think it’s really benefited you in ways you’ve been able to get your hands on different parts of the program?

COACH DAY: Well, I actually think this time of year in the playoffs, I’ve had more time to actually be part of the football. During the season, a little less. But now that we’ve been in the playoffs,

I’ve been able to step aside, really, in terms of some of those other things, and really get more involved with the football, which has been great. But certainly, having Jim Knowles and Chip Kelly here allows me the opportunity to step away, be around the team, look at things with a wider lens, and that’s been very important this season.

Q. Texas has struggled in the run game against Georgia twice, and obviously, Arizona State in
the Peach Bowl, and you have obviously played great run defense all year. Does this look like
an area you feel like you could exploit Texas?

COACH DAY: I look at their offensive line, the coaches, their running backs, and I know that they’re very, very talented. They’re very good. So we’re going to have to be at our best, I know that. And they’re always looking for balance. Again, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Sark (Steve Sarkisian) and the way that he designs his offenses, the way he calls the game.

So, our defensive staff is going to be working around the clock to put a great plan together. And then our players, in terms of executing the plan. And that’s what’s most important as we head into this week and focusing on the process.

We know when we get to this point in the playoffs, we’re going to be playing against great players and great scheme. And we know that this offense has a chance to be very, very explosive.

So, we’ve got to get back to work this week and focus on the game plan, make sure that we have a good mixture of the things that we’ve done in the past, mixed in with things that are possible change-ups along the way, based on how they attack us.

Q. Ryan, you guys entered the CFP, a lot of people were doubting you. Now, you guys are considered the front runner to win the national championship. How do you make sure that you guys continue to play with the same edge, now that you’re getting a lot of praise when you were coming in with maybe a lot of people doubting you?

COACH DAY: Yeah, I mentioned to the team the other day. Same guys in the room as was there a month ago. And nothing that’s happened in the past, or really the noise that’s around the building, has anything to do with our preparation and our focus and our process, and that’s what we’ve been diving into.

We don’t need any extra motivation to win this game, but one thing that does motivate our team is an opportunity for the team to play for another week together. And this is a great group of guys that cares a lot about each other, have fun with each other. They love competing with each other. You can see the passion on the field when they get on the field.

And I think the way that this format is and the way the playoffs are set now, it allows us an opportunity to grow as a team and to learn and to get better and to peak late in the season. And so, I think we’ve learned a lot about our team. I think we’ve grown a lot as a team, and we’re banking on this to be our best football of the season.

But these guys, they care a lot about each other. And we’re just going to focus on the execution and making sure that we’re preparing ourselves as best as we possibly can to go play this game against these guys on Friday night. And that’s it. Nothing else matters.

I’ve said this before, nothing that’s happened previously is going to have any effect on what’s going on other than learning from our experiences. So, we’ve got to do a good job of starting from scratch again. I think that’s one of the things that our guys need to understand is that when you’re playing in the playoffs, it’s almost like seasons within themselves during that week.

And you almost start from scratch. You go through and you say: Okay, here’s your opponent. Here’s your process. Here are the walkthroughs. Here are the meetings. Here are the practices. Here are all the things that come with preparing for a game like this and to bring competitive
excellence.

And so, we’ve got to do a great job this late in the season of being disciplined and to do a better job than Texas.

Q. Ryan, what is the biggest advancement that you’ve seen Will [Howard] take? From that new guy that walked in a year ago, basically, to being a leader, like — Justin Frye talked about how he stepped up as a leader when you’ve had those offensive line problems, et cetera. And just kind of took them by the horns and said, you know, this is not going to stop us and stuff. What stands out most about him at this moment?

COACH DAY: I think even for somebody who’s experienced like he is, you know, with his age, you’re in a different school. You’re in a different program. You’re in a different offense. And playing within the offense and being here now for the number of games that he’s played, he’s learned a lot about himself, but he’s also learned a lot of the offense. He’s grown into the offense. And I think he understands that his job is to be the number one leader on the team and on the field, and that the team is going to take on his personality.

But in terms of the football on the field, I think he’s done a great job off the field of grasping the concepts. He’s put a lot of work in with Chip [Kelly] and with Billy [Fessler]. The first couple words come out of a play, he can finish it for you, and that’s when you know he knows exactly what’s going on. He makes sure everybody’s on the same page.

When you’re in the huddle, you can communicate a lot of information, situation, down, distance, score, all those things that come into play, and so I think that’s been important. I also think his footwork has improved. I think when his footwork is on time, and he’s able to time some things up in terms of his play-actions and drop-back passes, you’re seeing him play really good football, making good decisions, and throwing the ball accurately.

Q. Slow starts were kind of a problem for you during the regular season. Obviously, not a problem in the playoffs. You guys have gotten off to great starts both games. Has there been any extra point of emphasis on that? Is there anything you can point to explain why you guys have gotten off to the starts that you have, and how important has that been?

COACH DAY: We’ve always wanted to have fast starts, we all know that. But I do think we’ve talked about, early in games, you want to set the tone for the game as an individual, but also as a team, as a unit. Both games, we’ve started off with the ball, and we’ve gone right down and scored. And so execution fuels emotion, and that certainly has a big part of it. They go together.

And we’ve executed well in those first couple drives, and that’s had a big part of it. Defenses got some three and outs early in the game, and we’ve been able to jump on the last two opponents.

But we also know that when we get into halftime, we’ve got to go play in the second half. And we didn’t do a great job of handling the middle eight in this past game, and so we had to get that fixed. The issues are always there. You come out of a game like this, it’s easy to say: Well, you know, everything was great. It wasn’t great. There was a lot of things that we’ve got to get better at if we’re going to beat Texas. And so, we’ve got to make those adjustments coming out of the game. We got back here yesterday, got back on the film. It was a quick turnaround, but guys did a great job getting in here, getting on the film. We kept our routine, and so that’s going to be the focus.

But yeah, we always want to get fast starts, but we know it’s going to be four quarters. We’ve got to come out at halftime. I think that’s the thing that we talk about all the time. When you come into halftime, it’s going to be one of three things: You’re leading, it’s tied, or you’re losing. And how do you figure out how you’re going to adapt in the second half to go win the game?

Q. Just in regard to obviously a lot’s changed in the year. Obviously, Cotton Bowl appearance
last year against Mizzou. Circumstances were much different. So, just how have the young guys — obviously Jeremiah Smith is pretty special, but how have the other young guys on this team followed the message of the seniors and locked in, in terms of knowing they’re one win away from a national title, playing back in the Cotton Bowl?

COACH DAY: Yeah, well, we’re two games away from a national title. And the only way that we’re going to get to that final game is to win this game, and that’s it.

And I think yesterday we were able to talk about that a little bit, but once that’s done — the Oregon game is over, and we’ve had to move on from that, just like we’ve had to move on from other games in the past. And the only thing that matters is this game right here playing against Texas.

Again, our motivation right now is keeping this team together one more week, and then we’ll go from there and figure out what’s next after that. But everything else right now is a distraction. Like you said, the leaders are the ones that have to set the pace on this. And when you’re a young 18, 19, 20-year-old person, it isn’t always easy to stay locked in for this long of a time.

And I think the team that can be disciplined enough to do that and continually prepare at a high level and not cut corners, not fray, not get distracted, not try to take shortcuts this time of year, is going to give themselves the best chance to win.

And so we’ve got to do the best job we possibly can at preparing for this game, and that’s our focus, and that’s our process right now that we’re going to continue to dive into.

Q. Obviously, talking about AT&T Stadium, how much does the familiarity with the place help?
I know it’s a special place for Ohio State, coming ten years ago after the championship, but also Will Howard won a championship there in the Big 12 just two years ago. Talk about Will’s being able to go back there and you guys going back there.

COACH DAY: Yeah, even for me, the TCU game. There’s a lot of history there. And I don’t think that really has anything to do with anything, quite honestly. We’ve got to go play on the field, but it’s a great venue. We’ve had a lot of great games there, and I know we have great fans in the Dallas area and throughout Texas. And so we know it’s going to be a great atmosphere.

Q. You guys knocked off the Big Ten champions after a nail-biter in October. And there are already calls for CFP reform. Was it an advantage for you guys to just keep playing and not have that long layoff? Or was this first round, where the guys that all had byes had losses, just a testament to how competitive college football has gotten?

COACH DAY: I know we’re all looking to see how this all shakes out, and then going to evaluate it and figure out what’s the best moving forward. I don’t really know the answer to your question, other than the fact that I did feel like — you know, we’ve talked here in this room about going back and watching some of the old NFL teams and winning that first wild card game. And then getting some momentum into the playoffs and continuing to play.

There’s been evidence of that throughout the NFL playoffs because there really has never been a College Football Playoffs like this before. So you go back on things that you can best compare to.

And so, I did feel like if we could get a good win in the first game, we could build momentum. Now, it’s our job to keep momentum. We have it right now, but that doesn’t mean anything if we don’t keep it.

So, we’ll continue with our process. These games are coming fast. They’re not bowl games. They’re just like game weeks. And it will be the same thing there. We get in on Wednesday night, and then we play the game on Friday. So it will be a quick turnaround, and we’ll, again, focus on our process.

Q. Will [Howard] looked, maybe, the most comfortable he’s looked all season against Oregon. How do you, going into this game, capitalize on that confidence, that momentum? How do you really make that count for you?

COACH DAY: Well, I think, again, for Will, the more he plays at Ohio State in this offense with his teammates, he’s getting more and more comfortable with everything. And you can say, well, he’s played a lot of college football before, and he has. And you’re seeing some of those things show up on the field.

But just like anything else, you see guys who move from NFL team to NFL team, and sometimes it takes a while to get into the offense and understand it. It’s like a language. When you can understand it, like second nature, that’s when you can play your best football.

So, again, what does that mean moving forward? Nothing. He’s got to go do it from the first snap all the way to the end. And if you start thinking back on good games, bad games, and start to think that that’s going to affect this next one, you’re dead wrong. So, he’s got to be the best leader on the field, but he also has some confidence right now going into this game, which, again, he’s got to continue to build on.

Q. Obviously, you have history with Quinn Ewers. You guys recruited him out of the high school ranks. What drew you to him then? And what impresses you about his game now?

COACH DAY: Well, he was one of the first eighth-graders that I ever offered. He was in our camp here in the Woody [Hayes Athletic Center]. And I saw a young — he was a boy at the time, really, who just had a tremendous release.

And I remember grabbing him and grabbing his dad and said: Man, you got a bright future ahead of you. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but we’re going to offer you a scholarship to Ohio State, even in eighth grade. Again, I don’t know if that’s legal or not, but we did. And then we went through the process. And boy, it was strange how it all shook out. He decided to come, really, in the middle of preseason camp for us. And so it was a little bit strange. But again, with college football, you look to adapt the best you can.

And then CJ [Stroud] really had a great season that season. And he decided he really wanted to play. It was disappointing for us, but we certainly understood. And from afar, I’ve watched him, and he’s got a lot of talent. He’s a really good player. He comes from a great family. And he’s had a great career at Texas. And a lot of people here still have good relationships with him and think the world of him.

Q. Ryan, there was one play, in particular, the second Jeremiah Smith touchdown, but Donovan
Jackson got into just a battle royale with Jordan Burch. What does Donovan bring to this team moving over to that left tackle, playing selflessly and stuff? But it was cool to watch, and maybe put that into words for me what he’s meant.

COACH DAY: Yeah. I would say in terms of his leadership, he’s been extraordinary to — you know, we all know the story. This is a guy who came back, by the way, from Texas, so going back to his home state to play in this game, which is great. Exciting for him.

But he came back to play guard and be the top guy taken in the draft next year, after a very long decision with him and his family. So then, after that Oregon game, to have to go move to tackle, it was a very selfless thing to do.

But in the meantime, when he’s embraced it — and this is a great message for our young players — he embraced the change for the team. He’s now become a very, very good tackle. And he’s increased his value exponentially, in my opinion, with the ability to play both positions.

We’ll need him to play that way in this game. They have tremendous pass rushers. They do a great job rushing the passer on the edge. They have some really good players. But he battled his tail off. And all those throws that Will [Howard] has an opportunity to push down the field, it’s because of the protection of the offensive line.

So that goes into a lot of work. And sometimes I don’t know if the offensive line gets credit for the protection, because in the pass game, it doesn’t work if we don’t have protection. It doesn’t work if we don’t run the routes properly. It doesn’t work if the running back doesn’t pick up his blitz, and then obviously the throw and catch.

So, a lot goes into the passing game, and the protection is a big part of that.