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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 8, 2018

Ryan Day

Columbus, Ohio

Ohio State - 52, Rutgers - 3

COACH DAY: 900 wins in Ohio State football history is humbling to be part of a tradition like that. To see our student section out there, to all the Buckeye Nation coming out to a game like this in the rain in the fourth quarter, the student section on both sides is going crazy, chanting and they're staying in there having a blast.

Again, really honored to be representing such a great university and a great football tradition. I thought our guys came out and played hard today on both sides of the ball. Defensively they were smothering their offense so we got in a rhythm early in the game and thought we came out playing fast.

Q. Every week it's maybe a new home run hitter. It's good to be an offensive coordinator instead of on the other side of the ball.
COACH DAY: Yeah, I mean, you know, the thing that we talk about all the time is that you just don't know what's going to happen. So like, for instance, last week Terry McLaurin has a big game. Then we turn around and now Johnnie Dixon hits two home runs. And J.K. hit for a couple of plays. And we had a long pass that got called back.

And so you don't know who is going to get the action. But when you're team players and you don't care who gets the attention, that's when you can be a special group.

Q. Ryan, given all that with all the playmakers, you got Parris involved early, got him the ball on the running play. Was that any idea, four touches last week, and got him off to a quick start, was that something you wanted to try to do?
COACH DAY: You know, overall, we wanted to throw the ball a little on first down. We did that. It was more about what they were giving us. And sometimes when you call a play you don't know where it's going to go. Sometimes you do. Obviously anytime Parris touches the ball good things happen for us. That's always an emphasis for us.

But I thought that we did a nice job of throwing the ball early and then kind of running it late.

Q. Dwayne at this point, we talked about this week the way he gets the ball out quick and all that. You guys are going to a crazy environment and a big game next week. Just Dwayne handling everything, whether that's reading a defense in a play, whether it's just during the week, how is Dwayne Haskins just sort of handling everything so far?
COACH DAY: Growing every practice, every game. And building as we go. It's not going to be perfect. We know that. Trying to prepare every week for the game and get everybody off to a good start. But I think his preparation was good this week and he came out and played well.

Q. What just stands out in your mind, when I say Johnnie Dixon? It seems like every other catch is a touchdown, et cetera. And then following that up, were those just reads by Dwayne; if the post is there, hit it, and then back down? Or was it were you targeting Johnnie all the way on those?
COACH DAY: Johnnie is really a special young man. He gets up in front of the team, guys listen. He has the respect of his teammates. Very well thought out when he's around the team. So much respect for everybody. In terms of his ability, he's a big play guy. He's down the field and he can track the ball. On those plays, we were trying to take a shot. There was a young corner there on the field. We thought if we got the right look, we'd take that match up.

Q. Chase Young, did you speak with him after the game about the situation, the two unsportsmanlikes we know he'll be able to play next week no matter what. But what was your message to him, I guess?
COACH DAY: I didn't have a chance to speak with him. Obviously anytime we want to play with emotion and not let emotion play with you see. So that will be addressed.

Q. What's your assessment of the way that Tate played today, long touchdown pass, long, really good run, just his development and just the way that and extended action he played?
COACH DAY: I thought you got a chance to see what Tate can do today, which is great. He's 10 for 10, throwing the ball. And ran for I think 90-something yards. And he can beat you with his feet and beat you with his arm. And that's what makes him a special player. And we got him in the rhythm early.

Same thing, couple of quick passes here and there and hits the long shot down the sideline on third down, stepped up, made a great throw. And Terry did a good job there. He's getting better as well. And so if we can just keep building, then we're going to have something really good.

Q. I know it's been a balancing act for you guys getting him development time on the field but also protecting your depth at quarterback. What were your thoughts when you saw him get hit late in the game, stayed down for a little bit, and how do you feel that's coming along in terms of the evolution of how you guys think about that?
COACH DAY: Never good to see a guy take a shot like that. Really proud of the way he jumped right back. Got the wind knocked out, hard shot there, but shows the competitiveness and toughness that we know he has. That was great.

In terms of the depth, we're just working on it. We know we're trying to get Chris and Matt and Corey involved in this thing more and more so we can keep building depth as we move along through the season.

Q. I know Ohio State scored a lot of points for a lot of years, but it just feels like this is a different or more evolved or more explosive one than the last few years. Does it feel that way to you all, when you're involved with this day to day, that the offense has hit another gear?
COACH DAY: I think we have a great group of guys here. We have a lot of talent on offense. And I think that combined with the tempo has been great. We did play fast at times today but not as fast as against Oregon State and that was a little bit by design. I thought we got into some good plays based on what they were giving us and we took some shots in the pass game and then hit them.

Q. Last week the defense gave up 31 points. I know they were not particularly happy with how they played. Would you assess their play and did you sense a resolve this week with them?
COACH DAY: Yeah, obviously Greg and all the guys on defense have a high standard that they hold themselves to on defense. And they didn't like to put up that number like that. So this week we called up Nick at the end of the -- at our, you know, at our meeting there right at the end we brought the team up, he addressed how this week it was a tough week of practice. And they got after the guys.

You could see it during the game. They were in the backfield, I felt like, every other play, really creating havoc. I thought they played with an edge, which was great moving forward.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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