The coach of the team that won the most recent College Football Playoff said not to call his new squad the defending national champions.
“We’ve said it before: We’re not defending national champions because now we’re not defending anything,” Day said. “You know, they can’t take the trophy away, so we’re looking to attack and win a championship with this team, and so that’s starting with the offseason and it’s continuing through July. I think we’ve had a great offseason, but now we need to have a great August as we heading into this first game, against Texas.”
ExploreAll our coverage from the National Championship Game
Whatever you call them, the Buckeyes are set to take the field in just over five weeks against a Longhorns team that might be ranked No. 1 in the country, and their coach said they have much work to do on both sides of the ball.
Here are four more takeaways from Day’s time on the main stage in Las Vegas:
1. He’s excited about the defense.
The top unit in the sport a year ago, the Silver Bullets are rebuilding this season without coordinator Jim Knowles and eight starters, but Day liked what he saw in the spring from a unit now led by Matt Patricia.
“I think Matt has done a great job of building relationships already with the current players,” Day said. “You ask the recruits about Matt, they just have glowing responses about who he is, the way he connects, his personality. I’m fired up. There’s guys that we have to replace, but when you look at some of the guys that are coming off the edge, when you look at our back end, when you look at our linebackers, you see a lot of potential there, but we have to go do it. That’s why August is very important.”
He also stressed the importance of maintaining what was successful last season under Knowles, something they hope to…
Source link : https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/4-takeaways-from-osus-ryan-day-at-big-ten-media-days/SSMUCUGP7JGEHHTMFG32GK64BM/
Author :
Publish date : 2025-07-23 01:07:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
