Ryan Day started focusing on beating Michigan during Michigan State blowout
By Scott Rogust
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said the team’s focus is on the Michigan Wolverines following their dominant win over the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday.
Week 12 of the college football season began with a pivotal Big Ten game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans were looking to prove the College Football Playoff committee wrong with a huge win over the Buckeyes. Instead, Michigan State saw their chances end on Saturday.
Ohio State defeated Michigan State 56-7 to earn their 10th win of the season. Following the game, head coach Ryan Day said that with Michigan State out of the way, their focus is now on Michigan. In fact, Day said he was actually thinking about next week’s game against the Wolverines while taking on the Spartans!
Ryan Day at the podium for his postgame press conference.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 20, 2021
Says all of Ohio State’s focus will quickly go to The Game next week.
Ryan Day says "the game wasn't even over yet and I was already thinking about (next week's Michigan matchup)."
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) November 20, 2021
Ryan Day started focusing on beating Michigan during Michigan State game
Speaking of the Michigan game, Day had opted to rest his players when the game was totally out of reach to get ready for next week. He made the decision even though he said there were “a lot of players” who still wanted to play in the second half.
Ryan Day said there were a lot of Ohio State players who wanted to keep playing in the second half, but the Buckeyes took the opportunity to rest them for next week.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 20, 2021
Perhaps the biggest story of the Michigan State game not related to the score was the performance of the Buckeyes quarterback C.J. Stroud. In the first half, Stroud completed 29-of-31 passes for 393 yards and six touchdowns. This all came in the first 30 minutes of game-time!
Day took time during his press conference to say that Stroud is deserving of some Heisman recognition. Yet, he did point out that some voices that are calling for the quarterback to win the year-end award were the ones that said he “shouldn’t be playing.”
Ryan Day on C.J. Stroud: “The level of play that he's playing at right now is very high.” Says he thinks Heisman voters should take into consideration that his statistics today came in barely over one half of play.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 20, 2021
On C.J. Stroud, Ryan Day says "the same people that told him, 'Maybe you shouldn't be playing,' are the same people telling him he should be the Heisman Trophy winner. You can't listen to either of those people."
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) November 20, 2021
With a 10-1 record, Ohio State can strengthen their playoff resume with a win over Michigan, who also has just one loss as of this writing. The Buckeyes are currently on an eight-game winning streak against the Wolverines.
With the Spartans out of the picture, the Buckeyes’ focus is on the Wolverines.
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