Ryan Day talks 'blocking out the noise,' building confidence among players heading into the season

Coach. How ready is your club? Do you think to play a game as a time? Are they tired of hitting each other? Yeah, it's, it's about that test like this every year, this time of year. But, um, yeah, I wanna get started, want, wanna get the year going, wanna make sure that, um, you know, we get as many guys, you know, in the game as we can and evaluate where we're at with our team. You know, you, you make assumptions this time of year and some of them are right. Some are wrong and we gotta go put them on the field. You start to, you're ranked number two in the country. Do you pay any attention to that? Do you, did you even address it with? No, I mean, whatever it is it is. And, um, you know, we're not really interested in anybody's opinions or expectations or anything like that. We're, we're really focused on right now and I, I think that is the good thing about a team that's been here a while. You know, they can kind of knock out the noise and just focus on what matters and, you know, we try to get them into woody here and, and block everything else out. You know, Woody Hayes used to say when people tell you how good you are, they're trying to make you soft. Don't listen to that. Is that something you preach to? I, I preach to them that whether you know, whatever they say, you know, praise and criticism is all the same. So you, you shouldn't be listening to other folks and what their opinions are. And II, I think the majority of our older guys have been through that before. They, they've heard the worst things you could possibly imagine. They've heard the greatest things you could possibly imagine that's all gonna come. That has nothing to do with anything. Now, when you're young and you haven't been through it before, it's something that we have to talk to our guys about to make sure they understand that you have to block out all the noise. But that comes with being a Buckeye and these guys know what it is as you look at this season. Do you have a rallying cry? And you, you've talked about hardest playing team in America, is that, is that it? Well, that's, that's what we wanna be. That's that one. That's what our identity uh has gotta be and you gotta have an identity as a team and that, that's what I want it to be. So, um, you know, as the head coach, I gotta make sure that's clear to everybody and that's a vision. But the other part if you r rally and cry or whatever, but just as you look back, you know, the last couple of years and, you know, you can say, well, there's a play here, there's a drive here. There's one here, there's one there. But like, you know, when you're a fighter and you're at the end of a, of a, a boxing match, like, don't leave it to the judges, don't leave it to a photo finish. Don't leave it to one field goal. Don't leave it to one play. You gotta leave, no doubt. And that's what we've talked a lot about leave, no doubt. Don't do it. If it comes down to one play, we gotta win that play, but it shouldn't come down to one play. And that's been the mentality if you're saying rally and cry, I guess maybe that was what it would be. You played this game at the highest level. You've coached it at the highest level. You look in your kid's eyes. Do you like to buy? In fact, there's no question. I mean, we, we probably could have had eight captains on this team and these guys are, are all in and they have been and Mick's done an unliveable job in the off season. Our coaches have done a good job is a great chemistry on this team right now. And yeah, I'm fired up to get going Buckeye Nation is going to get to meet your new starting quarterback. Will Howard? Um, how would you describe him, uh, mature, um, poised, athletic, strong? Um, that was probably the ones I'd say. When did you know he was the guy? And what did he do? You talked about? He, you know, he won the room coming out of the spring. He was still learning the offense and, and it's, it's a different offense than where he came from. So he was still learning the language. He was in an offense for quite a few years at Kansas State. So when he came here, it was all new and what we asked him to do in the passing game that running, it is very different. So, uh, there was an adjustment phase there and worked his tail off in the spring when he got here in the summer, it was a different deal and you could tell early on in camp. And then in week two, I thought he really took the last step. What's his toughness level? Like, I've seen him when he was playing at K State. He's not afraid to run. And, and I gotta be honest with the guy, I wouldn't want to tackle him. He's a big man. Well, we, we don't tackle and practice on the quarterback. We don't hit the quarterback so I can go off what I've seen on film and, uh, he's been physical in games and we expect him to be that way here. What's it been like being reunited with Chip Kelly? And um I mean, is it, is it been fun? I mean, you, you guys are obviously very close friends. He's almost like he is family to you, right? He's been unbelievable. Um unbelievable. He's embraced so much of what we've done here with the culture, but also, um you know, brought great ideas to the table. Um He's very, very innovative in what he does, but he also, I, I think has been really good about focusing on building a team that wants to play downhill, play, clean football, play physical football, run the football and it doesn't matter if you know what's coming. Um And you know, he's, he does a really good job of incorporating the quarterback in a run game, whether it's throws or, or running and those type of things. So, uh it, it, to me, it's been more about the mentality that he, he's been able to, to help with and it's been great. You and I both know it all starts with the O line. How pumped are they knowing that you, that, that Judkins and Trey Henderson because lineman loved to see guys hit home runs and then you got a quarterback that may take off. I I, you know, there, there's confidence there. You can just see there's a hoop in their step and when, when, when those guys ee even if, if it's not blocked great, but you make a guy miss and you squirt one out for an explosive play, like, you know, it makes the offensive line feel good and these guys have the ability to do that and then all of a sudden they, you know, they get their gander up, they get their confidence up and now they're rocking off the ball more and it's just, we had a couple of times this preseason where we had some really good moments with the offensive line in the run game and that was exciting to see and I think it built confidence in them. Um I, I do think having Seth in there has solidified some things. Um, just in terms of the communication, I think chip is uh simplified some things as well. So, you know, we gotta go out there on Saturday and figure out what we got. But, uh, but there's been some encouragement. You have an appreciation, you've always said celebrate the wins. They've played football here. What 100 and 35 years, I think there's only been eight national. It's not easy to win at this level, is it? No, not even, not even close and we have to respect every opponent and respect every week and respect the game and, you know, these teams who are playing are good teams and, and everybody out there like, you know, you, you can't just walk into a game and, and not respect games. I mean, it doesn't work that way. And I think sometimes, you know, when, when you hear some, you know, some of the media speak or some of the things that are said, it's like, well, just, you know, just get to the, you know, the big games or whatever like that. Like, it doesn't, the game of football does not work that way. It just doesn't, as much as everybody like to think it does and it's not, it's not right. Um And it's, it's, it's disrespectful for our opponents to even think that way and it's not healthy for our team because we're, we're, we're building a foundation here to where we need to be. And so that has to be the focus right now. I think our team is focused. Defense looks stout might this be your best defense since you've been the head coach? I mean, we want it to be, but the proof will be in the pudding, you know, time will tell, we gotta get out there and do it last thing other than winning the game. That's goal. Number one, always, what do you wanna see? I wanna see the fastest, hard and play, hardest playing team in the country on TV. When, when I, when we press play on a Saturday night watching the film after the game like that's, you know, I want a bunch of guys grading out a champion and when I say me, we do, we want to see everybody grading out a champion. We want to see the hardest playing team in the country and what the scoreboard says, the scoreboard says, take care of the football and play really, really hard win the turnover, battle, win the rushing yards, you know, all those things important. It's not just as simple as that, but ultimately, like that's what the evaluation is gonna be coming out of week one.