Ryan Day has fiery response to K’Vaughan Pope and Dallas Gant quitting on Ohio State
By Josh Hill
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day reacted to K’Vaughan Pope’s outburst on Saturday and also sort of threw Dallas Gant under the bus as well.
Saturday was a rough night for Ohio State football.
Sure, the Buckeyes trounced Akron after a sluggish start to the game, but it was the action away from the field that has been dominating everyone’s attention.
Linebacker K’Vaughan Pope ended the first half of Saturday’s game with an outburst that concluded in him tweeting his displeasure with the team while sitting in the locker room.
None of it was a good look for Pope or the Buckeyes, and now the pieces are being slowly picked up by head coach Ryan Day.
But if you’re looking for Day to be gentle with Pope, or the current situation brewing in his linebacker room, you’ve got another thing coming.
After Ohio State took care of business, as they were expected to despite the slow start, Day commented on Pope’s outburst and answered questions about what is going on in the Buckeyes’ linebacker room.
“Someone just told me there was something with a tweet,” Day said. “I”m going to get the details of everything that happened before I comment further there.”
It’s not just Pope that has Buckeyes fans concerned. His outburst came just days after Dallas Gant entered the transfer portal.
Day said he understands a player’s “prerogative” to leave, but followed that up by pretty much throwing Gant under the bus for his decision to leave the program.
“I have a hard time with that because when you make a commitment to a team at the beginning of the year, you made a commitment to Ohio State and the Buckeyes,” Day said. “One of the hard things is you have to play certain guys, and you have to make some decisions on who’s playing in those games. You really count on the guys to be great teammates still even if they’re not getting on the field.”
It’s hard to not hear that and feel like it’s not also directly applying to Pope after his actions on Saturday night.