.png)
German (DE) 
English (US) 
Spanish (ES) 
French (FR) 
Hindi (IN) 
Italian (IT) 
Russian (RU) 
3 hours ago
6
Earlier today, Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day met with media ahead of his team’s opening game against the Texas Longhorns. Despite being the defending National Champions and the favored team at home, it’s Texas that arrives in Columbus with the No. 1 ranking.
[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and get the BEST Longhorns coverage!]
Ohio State has had a lot of turnover since the two teams played last January. One of the new faces for Day’s program is at quarterback where Julian Sayin will make his first start.
Day’s message to his first time starter
“The message, you just win—find a way to win. I think when you start setting expectations you can get yourself out of whack. We’re going to take it one play at a time. He’s got a good group of guys around him—a good defense, good special teams, good offensive line, good skill guys. He needs to lean into those players and find a way to win the game. We’ll try to get him into a rhythm and go from there. That’s really it, it’s a start. It’s the first game. We’re excited for him. You’re seeing him every day get more and more confident, comfortable in what we’re trying to do. We gotta get on the field and play and it’s about time.”
An interesting back story, Sayin very likely would have picked Texas had Arch Manning not committed in the class before him. That means Steve Sarkisian has a lot of familiarity with the second-year player.
This isn’t a must-win game, but…
Despite the game having such a high profile, it has zero meaning when it comes to winning a conference championship and guaranteeing a spot in the 12-team playoffs.
“First off I think it’s great for college football playing a game like this opening weekend. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Sark, for his coaching staff, for his players, and we’re excited to play these guys. You know t’s rare that you would play someone like this towards the end of the season and then start the regular season with them but here we are. I think it’s a great barometer coming out of the first game, but for us, as we’ve talked about before, the preparation starts really early because you gotta be on point. We gotta play a clean game, that’s very very important. As you get closer to the game you just do everything you can to prepare the guys. When you look at our season, which is unique this year, one of your goals should be to win your opener. That’s clear. We did that when we had Big Ten games to open the season—win the opener. And then you kind of go from there which allows us the opportunity to focus on one game at a time. Once this game is over we’ll figure out what we did well, what we need to improve on, the issues will be there—they’ll surface and we’ll address them.”
While the fact is this isn’t a ‘must-win’g game, there’s no downplaying this contest and I’m glad he didn’t take the bait.
Matt Patricia vs Steve Sarkisian’s opening script
One of Ohio State’s big losses from last year was defensive coordinator Jim Knowles accepting the same position at Penn State. That put Day in the market for a new DC. He settled on one-time NFL head coach Matt Patricia, whose extensive coaching experience was largely gained in the NFL.
“I don’t know. Steve’s a great play caller, always has been. I’m sure he has his method for doing that. Most guys who are scripting games are trying to get the quarterback into a rhythm. I’m sure they’re going to want to do that with Arch. And then he’s probably trying to identify what he’s got out there—different formations, different groupings. Trying to ID what is going on on the field. It’s usually a combination of those things. You want to move the ball but you also want to get down the field and you want to score. Also, identify what’s going on on the field. What are you seeing? That’ll be his plan. His scripts are well known for having a lot of success so we gotta do a great job of recognizing what they’re trying to do and get him (Arch) on the ground.”
Making adjustments plays a significant role in this game
Despite the familiarity from playing in the same calendar year, a lot has changed, not only with personnel, but Day also expects some new schematic wrinkles.
“Yeah, as always. The first half is—you can make adjustments now pretty quickly on the sideline with the tablets but halftime is really where a lot of adjustments get made. We gotta get out there and play clean and get a feel for what we got. I always say to the guys at halftime we’re either tied, winning, or losing and that we have to come out and play well in the second half. I think what you’re getting at is you gotta have contingency plans in place for what you may see. Just because they’ve shown it in the past doesn’t mean that’s what they’re necessarily going to do. So we have to be ready for everything. They’re a great coaching staff so they’ll definitely have their wrinkles.”
Texas vs Ohio State kicks off at 11:00 a.m. this Saturday on Fox.
Comments