Lettermen Live: Ohio State Football Podcast

Ryan Day, Buckeyes quickly end Rose Bowl celebration, turn focus to Texas in Cotton Bowl

Ryan Day, Buckeyes quickly end Rose Bowl celebration, turn eyes to Texas in Cotton Bowl | Ohio State #OhioStateFootball #OhioState #CFBNews Subscribe for more Ohio State Football coverage: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lettermenrow?sub_confirmation=1 Ohio State Buckeyes videos from Columbus, Ohio from the staff of Lettermen Row.

Duration:: 15m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

- Letterman Rowe has made its way back to the Great White North, or it's Columbus, Ohio. It's just really snowy outside. I left LA, it was nice and warm. I come to Columbus at snow and I guess it's just traveling with me. What's also traveling with me is Ohio State Buckeyes over to Arlington, Texas for the Cotton Bowl. That's Mick Walker, the one-year vet. Tim May, the 41-year vet, still out a little westward. He'll be back shortly and he'll be joining us. But Mick Walker's here joining me. We are going to talk about Ohio State because we just talked to Ryan Day in the aftermath of 41-21. Ohio State over Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Now the Buckeyes turn their sights on Arlington, Texas, AT&T Stadium, Jerry World, if you will, for the Texas Longhorns. It is the College World playoffs in my final. Mick, let's talk attitude real quick because I thought we got to lose fast, free Ryan Day in the press conference, making a couple jokes. The highlight of it obviously was a reporter named Jeremiah Smith asking him a question about how the offense is clicking. Ryan Day's retort was, well, we'll just keep throwing it to you. Ryan is loose, he's confident right now, and he believes this team can win a national championship, but he's also very laser focused. Somebody said that they were one win from a national championship. He said, no, we're two. He's focused, but he's also having a good time in this process. What do you think of the way that he handled this thing? Yeah, the whole-- two wins away was probably the most intense. He got the whole thing. I think he was genuinely frustrated that they were implying that it was just one more. But you and I were talking before. He was a genuinely snappy Ryan Day, not just with his comments, but he got talking ball with a couple of offensive questions, and he was snapping, moving his hands around, talking about how the play calls went. So it just seemed like he was very, very sure of how things are going so far. And I think that's pretty obvious with how, again, how he said the team is playing. Yeah, that's what you want right now, because they are-- they're dominating. I mean, there's not much left to say about the performances that they've had. They absolutely killed Tennessee. They killed Oregon. They didn't give Oregon even a chance to enjoy the sunset over the San Gabriel Mountains on Wednesday. It was a tour de force from this program, and now you move forward. And a lot of people thought that Oregon was going to be the toughest challenge. Ryan Day made sure to talk about how tough this Texas team is going to be, and by the way, it's probably going to be a de facto home game for the Longhorns. Like, they fully understand the challenge that's ahead. Ryan Day asked repeatedly, which he will be again the next time we talk to him out in Dallas, or I guess in Arlington, about Quinn Ewers and being here and everything. A lot of respect paid toward the Texas signal caller today. Yeah, a lot of respect paid, but there's also a lot of motivation. You and I have talked off-- off camera a lot about, obviously, Colin Simmons takes home the Sean Alexander freshman of the year award. I imagine not the Jeremiah Smith needs any more motivation, but that will be there. Caleb Downs also will have some because Jada Barron, who's a very talented defensive back that'll likely match up against Jeremiah Smith, took home the Thorpe Award, which is for the defensive back of the year. Caleb Downs, obviously, I think money would say is probably the best safety in the country, but Jada Barron gets the award. So while everything is clicking on all cylinders, there's plenty of points, whether it's Jim Knowles, Ryan Day, Chip Kelly, the whole coaching staff can kind of hit on to make sure that this group is still motivated and driven going forward for a shot to play at the National Championship after the Cotton Bowl. Yeah, I mean, and look, they don't need extra motivation. Like, they just don't. He said that that was a direct Ryan Day quote, if we wanted to put quotes around. We do not need extra motivation. Yeah, it's-- I mean, you're either going to play another game or you're not. And this is not the typical bowl season anymore. It's not the typical Cotton Bowl. It's a strict business trip. It's only, I think, three nights. Ohio State will make this a nice-- two nights, actually, after the game, they'll just fly home. They're going to make it a nice tight window. They're going to get in, get out, do their media obligations for the record. We will talk to both coordinators on Wednesday night in Arlington at the Team Hotel. Thursday, we will talk to some players. And then Friday, night is the game. So it's pretty quick and it's fast approaching, too. Like, we're a week out. And normally, with these bowl trips, like, you've got a buildup, which is what I want to talk about a little bit more, is one of the most interesting parts of this was Ryan Day was asked about the NFL schedule and the way that he's learned from the NFL. He said, normally, in the CFP games, you would have a month to prepare and you have to throw everything you had at one opponent with 30 days off. This time, you're getting the best opponents and you're preparing for them in succession. And you have to have more, you know, for lack of better term, bullets in the chamber. Like, you have to continue to have, you know, moves to make, plays to call, defensive change-ups to throw. Like, you have to have so many different things dialed up, loaded up, and ready to go in such a short window. Like, this is, it is rapidly approaching. We'll be boots on the ground in Texas in, I think, four days. Yeah. And I just got back 10 hours ago. Like, it is-- Few hours of sleep for the guy over there. I think three, max. It is moving very quickly. And hey, you would much rather be in this position than be Oregon, where you're trying to pick up the pieces of what went wrong in Pasadena. But it is all eyes on Texas. And, you know, Ryan Day talks about that. But he also talks about, you know, Austin Ward of the podcast asks him, like, hey, Ryan, did you celebrate for 24 hours, like you said you would? And he said, no. He got on the play in the first two hours, all Texas film, notes and everything. And then he said he couldn't sleep. So he kept going. So, like, this man is on a mission, a war path, whatever you want to call it. He is dead set on getting this thing done. It's, you know, not even enjoying the Rose Bowl is nasty work. But that's what these guys are doing right now. Like, they don't care. They want to win the title. They didn't want to win the Rose Bowl. Yeah, and he seemed genuinely happy to talk about how he got no sleep. And it was not a Spencer where he was. Spencer is ready to get back home and get some sleep eventually. But Ryan Day genuinely seemed happy, saying, like, some people would have slept. I didn't want to sleep. I was ready to go look at Texas. And you mentioned Oregon. If we look forward, obviously, Penn State and Notre Dame are playing in the bottom half of the bracket. It does behoove Ohio State a little bit that you've already seen Oregon once. You've already seen Penn State once this season. And then you've already coached two games against the Marcus Freeman coaching staff. Obviously, a new offensive coordinator. So that does, as you ramp up. And even if you can give past Texas, that does help Ohio State a little bit. But, yeah, it seems like all-- the foot is on the floor when it comes to the pedal and trying to get ready for this Texas game. Because I think they know this is one. And obviously, you play them again next year. So the stage will be set for the match-ups going forward, not only in the next Friday, but going forward in the next season. And then, I think this does bode well for this team, because they kind of get to keep that same week's schedule. It's 10 days between the Tennessee game and the Oregon game. There's nine days between Oregon and Texas. You've got a good stretch of time here. But again, it's not like a typical bowl season. So you've got to keep going. You've got to keep building. You've got to keep stacking these days. But the games are coming a little quickly. He's very confident right now in his group. But at the same time, I think they understand that, hey, if they spent any time celebrating the Rose Bowl, that was time they lost, preparing for Texas. It has to be on Texas, because this program has plenty of Rose Bowls. I could count them if I wanted to, but I won't. It's won plenty of Rose Bowls. They want a few more of those. Yeah, they want the big Scarlet Banner in here, because that's the one that they hang forever, not the Rose Bowl. I guess the Rose Bowl does technically hang forever, but they've got Rose Bowl trophies in there. They want another CFP trophy. So they're happy to have won the Rose Bowl. Don't get me wrong. The Rose Bowl was awesome. It was a step in the right direction, I guess, is what they'll consider it, though, because if they go out and they lose to Texas, it doesn't matter. And that's why Ryan, he didn't get any sleep. He wanted to start preparing for Texas. He didn't want to celebrate the Rose Bowl. It was very clear. He was happy up on that stage. He got off the stage. I followed him into the locker room. I followed him back on the field. They're in Pasadena. And he's talking to Sports Center there, and he does not even crack in a smile when he's asking a couple of joking questions. He is ready to get to Texas. And I would love that if I was an Ohio State fan. Like the way I'm reading this is like, this guy is ready. He understands what he's got. He understands what's in front of him, and he's ready to attack it. And if that means no sleep on the plane home from Pasadena, so be it, because he's ready for this. Yeah, the other thing I think Ohio State Fans should love is how we kind of talked about the defense. He was once again asked about kind of the reengineering or whatever term I can't remember the exact term he used after the Oregon game and what they've kind of done. He spoke pretty openly about what signaling faster, different, getting set up faster, but also a few other things that I think that was probably the most interesting thing that he spoke about when it on the-- Oh, yeah. It's just on field. The stuff about, you know, he said 80% of the changes this defense made since the Oregon game in October was on field communication and pre-snap. Just getting lined up, which sounds very elementary, and I think it is pretty elementary, but they weren't getting lined up in that first match against Oregon. Now that they're lining up well and they've made some tweaks, whoo, the defense looks good. And so Texas is the next challenge. If you want to be at the Ohio State Texas game, you need to go to game time because it is not cheap. We can save you $20. It's the best we can do, but also that's pretty good when you're considering that you couldn't save $20. GameTime.co, the game time app is the place to go. $20 off your first purchase. For Ohio State versus Texas, when you use the promo code ON3, that's right. And check out, use the code ON3. Get $20 off your first purchase in the game time app. Go to the game time app. Use the game time picks feature. It lets you customize the way that you see all these tickets. It is not cheap to go to Dallas, but somebody on our message board, I can't remember who it was, and that's OK. Set it best. If you can, get your butt to Dallas, because Texas fans are going to be there in droves. It's going to be a very burnt orange Jerry world AT&T stadium, but that doesn't mean Ohio State fans can't scoop up some tickets as well. Go to gametime.co. Use the game time app. Get $20 off your first purchase. In the game time app and at gametime.co, when you use the code ON3, yeah, Mick. But just lining up seems so easy, but Ohio State was having trouble with it. Now that they are, Caleb Downs has been unlocked. This defensive line has been locked. But Jack Sawyer, JT to him all the while. Ty Hamilton played really well. Tyleak Williams is on a tear. And the line back, there's Cody Simon. Oh, they're playing so well. They were just in clip from the Rose wire. Remember, Sonny Styles, there's some sort of shift. And Sonny Styles moving on the line, checking with the defense, talking to the corners, the safeties, everybody outside, checking everything. And that's something I think at the beginning of season, Akron game, we're probably not seeing him from Sonny Styles. He's making the transition to linebacker. But obviously now with the changes, it seems like that linebacker position, both Cody and Sonny are playing at such a high level, mentally and physically. Yeah, it's incredible. And I think one of the differences is before Cody and Sonny were just talking to the defensive backs. The defensive line was doing its own thing. And then the back seven was doing its own thing. That has been streamlined. And Jim Knowles talked about how you wanted to be the fastest play calling defense in the country before that Tennessee game. That showed up against Tennessee. It showed up against Oregon. Tried to go tempo at times. Ohio State was completely ready for it. I don't know if Texas is going to do that near as much. I don't know if this Texas offense is nearly as good as what Ohio State just shut down from Oregon. But I think Sark is going to have some things dialed up. Jim Knowles is going to have to be ready. And those guys are quite literally going to have to be ready at the snap, which is what they weren't in the first half of the year. You're seeing all that pay dividends in big ways. Last thing I wanted to get to. 4th and 5 from the 28 yard line, Ohio State's up 14 nothing. Absolutely rolling. They have a chance to go for it on 4th and 5. Instead, Ryan Day sends out Jaden Fielding for a 46-yard field goal. Splitsville. I mean, like right down the middle dead center, probably good from 55. And Ryan Day was asked about that today. And the ability to get Jaden Fielding some confidence in a game where you're already up 14, you know that he can do it. You send him out there with a chance to make it a three score game. And he nails it. He gains his confidence back. Then you send him out there again when you're up 31 nothing. He lands in on a 36-yard field goal. His confidence is high again. I think it was already high because I talked to him before the Rose Bowl. He seemed like a confident guy. Still, even though he was over his last three. Now with two kicks made in the Rose Bowl. Like, Ohio State knows that he's kind of back, you know? And Ryan Day acknowledged. Like, full stop, he acknowledged. He did not have a good day against Michigan. Like, I think he said like a rough go of it in that game is what he said. Openly mentioned a kicking competition. This was not somebody saying, hey, do you have a kicking competition? Openly mentioned it and how they did, how they went through it. And it's been one of your biggest talking points on the Letterman Lounge message board is Jaden Fielding, when it comes to kicking on the road away from Ohio State and has really done well. Penn State made a couple kicks. Oregon made a couple kicks. Obviously two kicks in the Rose Bowl. Something about Ohio State and I don't know what it is. And if he's going to be returned next year as they're starting kicker, they need to get that figured out. Because the kick offs and the field goals were not the greatest in Ohio State in this year. But away from Ohio State, Jaden Fielding has been pretty nails for what you want from a college kicker. I mean, you're facing a team in Texas that went to overtime because they had a college kicker in Bert Auburn who could not hit to sub 50, sub 30, sub 40, sub 40, assured field goals. And now, I mean, I think he's one of Texas's record holds for kicking. And you have to think Ohio State might be going into a game with a kicker. They're more confident than Texas. Yeah, it's huge. So Jaden Fielding kudos to him for what he did in the Rose Bowl. He was pretty happy after the game on the field going back up the tunnel. He was pretty fired up. So were his special team's coaches that I saw celebrating with him. And Ryan Day, obviously now, has maybe some rebuilt confidence in his kicker moving forward into the next two games. If they are to beat Texas, they'll have a second game. If not, well, the season will be over. We'll see what happens. But we're going to go-- we'll be in Dallas to figure that out. Tim May, the 41-year vet and I. Mick and I are going to talk recruiting later on Friday. Tim and I will talk a lot of Ohio State, Oregon, on Saturday when he gets back into the capital city from his westward expansion that he's been on. The last few days, he's going to return to Columbus. We're going to talk tomorrow. Make sure you find that. We'll have Letterman Live presented by Wendy's on Saturday. We'll talk again, Ohio State, Oregon, and the recruiting ramifications on Friday afternoon. But now we're just here talking in the aftermath of Ryan Day's press conference in the aftermath of Ohio State 41, Oregon, 21 at the Rose Bowl. We're back in the capital city just for a few days. Then we'll head out to Texas and we'll cover the Cotton Bowl. I'm going to have my cowboy hat on if you don't mind. Could be some stuff on Sunday, too. I believe we're told today they're getting some eight or so players and there could even be another open practice portion on Sunday. So a lot more stuff. And again, it's just a kind of without the open locker room that's been turned on a couple of the rest of the media you got to do last week. This is even more like a game week for Ohio State. There's a couple of media availabilities. No big open locker room. We've got to go play card games and connect for us. Just we're going to talk to the media. We're going to do our thing in Dallas for a couple of days. We'll come back. And then hopefully you do your thing in Atlanta in a couple of weeks after that. Yeah, I mean, National Championship gave just a couple of weeks away. We'll see if the Buckeyes are there. For now, we're just going to stay here, be where our feet are. Few days, we'll ship out the Dallas, see what happens there. That's Mick Walker, the one-year vet. The 41-year vet will be back soon. I'm just Spencer Holbert. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, like this video below. Then you'll be notified when Tim and I go live on Saturday when we got videos on Sunday in the aftermath of talking to all those players. Mick Spencer, thanks for watching. Go to LettermanRoad.com right now. $1 for your first seven days. We're giving you the cotton mill coverage for free, folks. $1 for your first seven days. Then we'll worry about the pricing after that. You won't even be concerned. Thanks for being here, Mick. I'm just Spencer. Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys back in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center