Day, Buckeyes moving on, but not over CFP loss | News, Sports, Jobs
COLUMBUS — Ohio State soccer coach Ryan Day answered nearly 50 minutes of questions Wednesday in his first news conference since the Buckeyes’ 42-41 loss to Georgia in a college football playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
He said the loss still hurts. But the focus is now on the 2023 season, with OSU’s 15 spring drills slated to begin in early March.
“Every year you look back at situations – one game here, one game there and we could be national champions. It won’t go away, but at the same time you mustn’t let it dominate your thoughts.” day said. “You have to move forward. Life goes on. But when you’re that close, it hurts. It stings. Time heals all wounds, but it will take time.”
Some other thoughts from Day:
≤ The Buckeyes have added four players via the transfer portal and expect to add a fifth player who has not yet officially signed up. All of these players were added to fill holes in OSU’s roster, Day said.
“I think it was pretty clear when we get people from the transfer portal to fill the need. We don’t bring boys in just to bring boys in. All of these guys fill a need for us.” he said. “I think there were times when prospects were available on the portal when we didn’t see fit to just hire another man. What we’ve done is fill in holes. If you look at Justin (Fields) and Jonah (Jackson) and Trey (Sermon) and Noah Ruggles, these are situations where we had a hole and addressed that issue. My concern is if you start inviting too many people from different programs, the culture in the dressing room can be affected.
Offensive lineman Victor Cutler (Louisiana-Monroe), quarterback Tristan Gebbia (Oregon State), safety Ja’Had Carter (Syracuse) and long snapper John Ferlmann (Arizona State) have officially joined the Buckeyes. Cornerback Davison Igbinosun (Ole Miss) has announced that he has signed for Ohio State and is expected to enlist.
≤ Day said he’s looking forward to seeing Kyle McCord and Devin Brown compete for the starting quarterback job.
“Kyle is a third year, Devin is a second year so Kyle has a year more experience and has started a game and played in more games than Devin but it’s going to be a tough competition.
“Both have slightly different abilities. I hope one of them shows up and we can name a stater. A vision of who the starter comes from spring would be nice. I hope one of them will emerge in these 15 (spring) exercises.” he said. “You’re both going to get a lot of reps (exercise reps). At the end of the day, it has to be the guy that our team believes in, that our coaching staff believe in, that can lead the team to a championship.”
≤ Center Luke Wyler’s decision to enter the NFL draft after three years at Ohio State came as a surprise to the OSU coaching staff.
“We were hoping Luke wouldn’t declare but he did and we just wish him the best of luck and he’s going to be a very good pro. Hopefully Luke can be drafted early. We didn’t really expect that.” day said.
Wypler’s departure means Ohio State will have three new starters on its offensive line in the fall. Starting tackles Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones also entered the NFL draft.
≤ Wide receivers Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming, defensive end Mitchell Melton, running back Evan Pryor, center Jakob James and safety Kourt Williams will be unavailable for spring training.
“I think there will be a few more and we’ll give you an update as we get closer to spring. These guys had some long term surgeries. We’ll have them after spring, but we’ll only be careful with them in spring.” day said.
≤ Day, who grew up a fan of the New England Patriots, responded to Tom Brady’s announcement Wednesday that he was retiring by calling him the greatest quarterback of all time and saying: “What an incredible career.”
