Ryan Day after Ohio State upset in CFP: ‘We put ourselves behind the 8-ball’

The quest for a national championship repeat is over. No. 2 Ohio State lost its second straight game in a 24-14 setback at the hands of No. 10 Miami and surprisingly fell out of the College Football Playoff bracket.

Buckeyes coach Ryan Day, baffled by the ineffectiveness of his game plan, lamented the slow offensive start to a game his team never led. Ohio State went scoreless in the first half of a game for the first time since the 2016 CFP semifinals, and the 14-0 gap it fell into proved too deep to overcome.

“When you start like we did, you put yourself at risk of having to be really close to perfect in the second half to win the game,” Day said after the game. “We get behind the 8 ball.”

The grueling play came in the second quarter when quarterback Julian Sayin threw an interception to Miami star defensive back Keionte Scott, who returned it 72 yards for a pick six. The touchdown gave the Hurricanes a two-possession lead, and although Ohio State surged over the next two quarters to tie within three points, it was never able to get over the hump.

Below is everything Day said after the loss to Miami in the Cotton Bowl.

On whether the first-round bye contributed to the slow start:

“I felt like it took us a while to get into the rhythm of the game. I thought we got into it coming out of the second half. So it was going to take a very, very efficient second half to win the game, being down 14-0. But I felt like at that point we got into a rhythm. When we had that drive there where we took the shot, it was incomplete and the next play was a hold, what put us way behind the chains was the momentum we needed to win the game. When you get off to a start like we did, we run the risk of having to be really close to perfect in the second half to win the game.

“We worked really hard the last three weeks before this game to win the first quarter, win the first half and be ready to play. I thought we had a great plan going into this and what we did. I think the guys bought into it. But ultimately we didn’t get it done. It starts with me and goes from there. I take responsibility for not preparing the guys. As you know, we spent an awful lot of time preparing. come up with the plan to get everyone ready to go and play in that first half, and we didn’t win the first half. We need to understand why and learn from it for the future.

On the impact of offensive struggles on his personnel decisions during the offseason:

“I just came out of the game, so I have to evaluate everything, but at first I felt like we struggled. Gabe [VanSickle] had a little trouble at the beginning with his first big place there. We were pushing each other around a bit. We lost Austin [Siereveld]. They have an excellent front. I thought the guys were fighting and getting back into rhythm. I thought we had a good plan to get rid of the ball quickly, but it obviously didn’t work. We took five bags. We need to come back to it and figure out where we’re going to move forward, but we need to sit down and evaluate all of this. »

“As you know, we were in this situation last year when we lost Seth [McLaughlin] and we lost [Josh] Simons. It’s part of the game this time of year. You have to have depth and perform well in those moments. That’s the main thing. It’s our job as coaches to prepare them and do what they can. Lorenzo had a shoulder injury and Austin had a bruised leg. He was in tears because he couldn’t get back into the game. The decision was made that we weren’t going to put him back in the game when he was struggling at that point, but he would have done everything he could to get back in the game and play in this thing. He cares about his teammates and wanted to finish.

“We obviously have a team of guys that have invested a lot in this program. Some guys, this will be their last game as Buckeyes. It’s going to hurt and sting. I just wanted to make sure they always know how much we appreciate everything we do and everything they’ve done for this program. But it hurts right now. It hurts for these guys. They’ve put a lot of work and time into this thing. It’s our job as coaches to make sure that we find ways to put them in a position to succeed, so ultimately it’s our responsibility to do that. We have to think about it carefully and figure out what we need to do to improve.

On Styles’ injury:

“He’s been struggling with a shoulder all season.”

When pressing the accelerator pedal offensively:

“I think you saw us play with a little bit of pace today, but when you’re not getting first downs early on, you’ve got to make sure you’re making the right plays and doing what you need to do to get first downs. I think some of those things gave us some juice in the second half when we needed it. I thought it gave us an edge at certain points in the game. But it wasn’t done well enough. All things we’ll make sure to look at.”

On the pass protection breakdown:

“It’s hard to say just one thing. We tried to help – they have a really good front. We felt like it was a little different scheme than we faced the week before against Indiana. Indiana had a lot of pressure, a lot of movement, a lot of twisting and everything. It was a bigger group of guys that were a very loaded front. We came in with a certain plan, and you can tell from that first third that we struggled. By staying quiet, we I Didn’t really get the ball on that one. That caused the first sack, and it kind of went from there.

“I think there was a moment where we were able to control the situation. We were moving the ball pretty well. [Keionte] Scott doing there on the pick-six was a big part of the game. He fired up and hit that thing, and we didn’t quite execute it correctly in terms of what was happening on the perimeter. I think Julian’s decision to cast him was the right thing to do at that time. But he made a hell of a play and that, early in the game, certainly turned the scoreboard over quickly and put us in a hole. At that point, you have to fight to get through it, and we didn’t succeed.

“We wanted to be aggressive. We felt like we had a home-field advantage in the passing game. It was give and take.” Jeremiah [Smith] ended up with 157 downfield. We felt we could do it and we were going to be aggressive, but we also knew the give and take. That was part of what we were working on. In the end, it didn’t work.”

On whether the change in callers led to the slow start:

“I have to look at everything and figure out what it was and what it is, because it’s not good enough. Look at everything. We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to do better. That’s the bottom line. Whatever it takes to get better, we’ll do it.”

On Caleb Downs who will likely play his last game at Ohio State:

“What Caleb Downs did for Ohio State and does every day, you see a lot of it on the field, but what I see is off the field. He’s a special young man who’s done a lot for this program. I’ll always be in his debt for what he’s done for us. Not only his play, but what he represents off the field, who he is. His family is great. He played his heart out tonight. Nobody does it worse than him. him.”

On the future of Julian Sayin:

“He’s someone who hasn’t played a lot of football. This is his first year playing. He’s competing. He’s working on it in the meeting room, what he does in terms of preparation, what we put on his plate to get us in and out of games, the protective checks. This guy right here has a very, very bright future ahead of him. I think Julian has a chance to be as good as he wants to be. Now he’s got to learn from this. It’s a big part of the game. When you look at a lot of guys who have success at the highest level of college football, they have a lot of games under their belt this season to learn and grow, and he’s going to come back even stronger next year.

On the decision to use a silent count:

“Here inside. We’ve played here before. It doesn’t take much to really echo the interior here. So we thought it was the right thing to do.”