Well, hi everybody. Brendan Gulick with you and welcome to
the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on frankly
A somber Sunday. This is,
this is not the reaction
that the Ohio State Buckeyes were hoping to have today.
A frustrating and as Ryan Day said,
sobering day here in Columbus.
I think they were holding on to some outside hopes
that perhaps
the Buckeyes might be one of the four teams selected
for the College Football Playoff,
as unlikely as that may be seemed going into the
day today.
But as it turns out,
Ohio State was left on the outside looking in.
They are the #7 ranked team in the country in
the final CFP poll,
and so they really weren't part of the conversation for
one of those top four spots.
And it goes to losing.
Not just losing to Michigan,
but frankly, in my opinion,
losing at the wrong time of year.
I don't like that. That's part of
the deal here, but it seems pretty clear cut that
losing at the wrong time of the year
is pretty impactful. And so Ohio State will play in
the Cotton Bowl on Friday,
December 29th. They're going to play the Missouri Tigers,
who have had a very good season.
And Ohio State, I think,
will probably have a pretty competitive game against Missouri because
the Tigers are going to come in wanting to beat
the Buckeyes.
That would be a win.
That would be a resounding victory for their program.
Who the heck knows who's going to play in that
game for Ohio State?
We will find out all those answers along the way.
But Ryan Day talked to the media today for the
first time since
losing to Michigan now eight days ago and he touched
on a wide variety of topics
and we'll get into some of those here.
I'm I'm trying to give you the the impression of
what
what it's like around here.
And while there are a number of my fellow media
members on both sides,
we're all kind of spread out in the indoor field
Talking with you now.
It's pretty quiet and and it feels,
you know, metaphorically like the dark clouds that we see
outside right now in central Ohio.
Not a great day. Pretty darn disappointing for the Buckeyes
because of the way this thing all shook out.
And I asked Ryan Day
a couple of questions that were not so much about
Ohio State but more college football Central.
I asked him point blank,
Hey, you are, you are a coach that preaches winning
at all cost.
Just win. Figure it out.
You just got to win.
It doesn't matter if it's an offensive blowout like we've
seen the last few years.
Doesn't matter if it's incredible defensive efforts like we've seen
a lot here this year.
Winning at all cost matters.
And I wanted to know how it's at with him
that a four or a 13 and O team that
plays in a Power 5 conference,
that one at all costs without their star quarterback,
did not get in the playoff.
How did that sit with him?
And he he really didn't want to get into the
specifics around the decision.
He's trying to stay focused on Ohio State,
and I get all that.
But he alluded to the fact that he didn't think
it was right that
a undefeated Power 5 conference team did not make the
College Football Playoff.
He thinks that should get you in the playoff.
I think he's right. I think it's completely ridiculous.
If Florida State was left out,
don't care what other people think right now about Alabama
being better than Florida State.
They very well might be right now.
I think Florida State got hosed beyond a measure of
a doubt.
And
I get the impression that that doesn't sit well with
Ohio State fans either.
Because while they didn't take care of their business against
Michigan and so ultimately they can only look themselves in
the mirror,
Knowing that winning at all costs
isn't actually always enough to get you in
is not OK. And there are some problems with college
football and the way things are changing
might address some of those.
I think it's a good thing that we're going to
an expanded playoff.
I've said 100 times recently
that for 10 years I have felt it's really dumb
to have a fourteen playoff when you had five Power
5 conferences.
And obviously things have changed.
That's going to go away a little bit now
with the expansion.
But
you know there there are a lot of questions about
this sport at large that
people are asking themselves today.
Here's a great example. The committee says that Liberty,
in a game that nobody in at the top of
college football
is going to care about.
Right? Liberty's playing Oregon because Liberty apparently was dominant in
their schedule and undefeated compared to SMU,
even though Liberty had the lowest strength of schedule
in the entire country. There are so many contradictions with
these final CFP rankings that that have left people really,
really upset today.
And while Ohio State certainly isn't blaming anybody for their
lack of inclusion in the playoff,
I guarantee you there are some people within this building
that are pretty ticked off by what they saw today
and in those rankings.
So I guess we'll just leave that part at that.
I did also ask Ryan Day a question that I
think a lot of people want to know the answer
to around scheduling good competition.
Outside of the league, they've played at least one high
quality team the last several years outside of league play.
Obviously Notre Dame was the big non conference,
you know, win this year and for so long that
was both
bolstering Ohio State's resume, right?
That's why they were #2 going into the last week
of the regular season,
because they beat Notre Dame on the road and they
beat Penn State and they were undefeated.
Huge reason for why they were #2,
I asked Ryan Day. Hey,
with the changes coming, are you still in favor of
scheduling
Texas, Georgia, Alabama like they are on your future schedule?
Obviously Oregon is now a conference team,
but Oregon had been on the future schedule as well
and Ryan unequivocally said yes,
you have to play those teams outside of league play.
You measure yourself against the best teams in the country
and you learn about how good you are or are
not based on how you play in those games.
And and he made it pretty clear he wants to
continue to schedule that caliber of team.
So if you're an Ohio State fan looking to see
what this schedule might look like moving forward,
sounds pretty clear to me like Ohio State is going
to continue to make it a priority
to play those teams and that they wouldn't necessarily look
to back out of contracts,
at least at this stage of the game with with
some of those other big teams.
I think that's really interesting because there are a lot
of people that disagree with that.
I'm glad to see Ryan Day takes that stance.
But there are a lot of people saying,
well Gee, what, what good does it do to go
play,
you know, teams that could beat you when now there
are even more,
you know, spots available to you?
With his twelve team playoff,
he was asked basically, hey,
what do you think about
the idea of playing a conference championship?
Is it even relevant anymore?
Should you not play one because you could hurt yourself
if you lose at the wrong time moving forward?
You know, Ohio State's got the the,
they've got sort of the blessing here of of being
able to recruit to a place with the fans and
the tradition and all the resources that are available here.
It would be an enormous shame to even think about
Ohio State not being a top 12 program in the
country,
right? That that would be
pretty hard to fathom. So they should probably feel pretty
good about making the playoff every year here moving forward.
But Ryan Day didn't want to go much into that.
He was. He was pretty focused on saying,
look, we didn't win last week and we needed to
win.
And it's been a pretty tough week around here.
I admire the fact that he's taking a lot of
ownership of of that.
You know, there were so many people here this last
week that were,
you know, hey, does this guy even get it?
He's lost three in a row.
Does he even understand how important this game is in
the state of Ohio?
It's pretty clear Ryan Day unquestionably knows what losing to
Michigan is all about and and why that is problematic
and why that's not the standard around here.
I I think it it really bothered him that at
11:00 and 1:00
they weren't even talked about
as one of the top four teams in the country
on the national you know selection show today.
You never even saw Ohio State's graphic on the screen.
It was never even a conversation on whether or not
they should be in the top four
based on the the details that we were shown publicly.
They didn't even bring a reporter here nationally to to
cover that.
I think that's kind of crazy because if you look
at what actually happened today with Florida State,
if Georgia beat Alabama, then the top four were Georgia,
Michigan, Washington and Texas, 'cause they were the next best
team in.
So Florida State was never getting in the playoff
at all, regardless of how they played yesterday,
even with Alabama beating Georgia,
because the the reversal would have also kept them out.
And so
you know a tough day around here realizing that
A1 score loss on the road where you had the
ball at the end of the game,
you were driving and you had
if you threw a a game sealing interception
that ended your season essentially
and and you could kind of feel the weight of
that around here this afternoon.
Not not a lot of fun right now in Columbus
in terms of turning their attention forward.
They're going to play a Missouri Tigers team that's been
pretty good this year,
and who knows what the team's going to look like
when they actually,
you know, get off the plane and
you know which guys are going to play and which
ones aren't.
It's a wild time in college football right now.
And in the middle of that press conference,
news comes out on social media from Evan Pryor that
he's entering the transfer portal.
I'm sure that didn't catch Ryan off guard.
I'm sure he had that conversation ahead of time.
He certainly didn't react as though he didn't know that
was going to happen.
But considering a transfer, Portal's not technically even open until
tomorrow.
How many of these guys are already leaving schools and
then committing to new programs just continues to show that
it's the Wild West and the rules are in so
many ways not relevant.
And it's it's terrible what's happened in a lot of
ways to this sport and what what we're turning this
into.
I hope there are better forces at play where we
can make some progress on getting things back to what
we know and love about college football.
But I'm I'm concerned that there are too many things
that are too far off the tracks in that regard.
So
personally, I don't think it's a shock if Marvin Harrison
doesn't play in in the Cotton Bowl.
We don't know for sure.
You know, he's one of a number of guys that
I think
realistically could opt out. Now,
I've also heard recently that maybe it's not a
100% guarantee that Marvin bolts for the NFL.
He's obviously one of the best players in the country,
and he would unquestionably be
one of the first picks in the NFL draft,
maybe even the top pick.
The nil era has changed things so drastically that I
don't think you can rule out any possibility.
Maybe Marvin decides he wants to stay.
Maybe he gets an nil deal that is so valuable
to him and his goals are still,
you know, part of of the the most important fabric
of who he is that he wants to accomplish at
Ohio State.
Maybe he wants to stay.
I guess we're going to find out.
He's got, he's got some thoughts and conversations he needs
to
to work his way through.
But it this, this does have a feel,
you know, similar to the Rose Bowl a couple years
ago where Ohio State's like,
hey, we had a great year and ultimately just wasn't
quite enough at the end to to get in the
College Football Playoff itself.
And so you're using this bowl game to both conclude
this year and in some ways already start trying to
make an impression for the following year.
You know what? What young guys are going to pop
up and and make big plays down at Jerry's World
in in Dallas?
The game is on Friday,
December 29th. It's one of the first couple of the
New Year 6 bowl games.
I think there are a lot of fans that are
feeling like,
what do we care? We're playing Missouri and
you know it's not a College Football Playoff game.
And we've created this, this scenario now where if you're
not in the playoff,
then whatever game you're playing is irrelevant.
And there are a lot of fans that feel that
way.
And I get that. But there's going to be a
lot of,
a lot of interesting things to watch from this team
leading up to that game and in that game because
you are looking at the future.
And there are going to be a lot of young
guys that are going to work hard
during practices the next couple of weeks here to try
to make impressions that they should get legitimate playing time
and be a big part of this thing moving forward.
Ryan was asked a ton of questions about Michigan and
about quarterback play
and I think the best way to sum it all
up is that he was very non committal when asked
about who is going to play quarterback,
whether they were looking for a quarterback in the transfer
portal.
You know, should Kyle just be the starting quarterback and
that's that.
And Devin Brown and Lincoln,
Keene Holtz, would they play,
would they not play? He.
He was extremely non committal in answering all those questions
and frankly,
I don't blame him. You know,
it's
the reality probably set in for him
that the Buckeyes were not going to make the College
Football Playoff
when they saw Alabama beat Georgia on Saturday night.
I I would guess that's probably when Ryan Day could
realistically say I
don't know if we're going to get in this thing.
So maybe at that point you start thinking forward,
but prior to that I think you're still holding out
hope that things could have fallen your way.
So I don't know that they've had nearly enough of
those thoughts and conversations around what they're going to do
in in that bowl game.
But when Ryan was asked to evaluate Kyle McCord this
year,
he he said, and I quote,
I think he's a good quarterback.
I do.
He acknowledged where he started,
how we got better, how we progressed throughout the course
of the season.
And you know, ultimately, yeah,
was it good enough or was it not good enough?
They need to figure that out,
he he said. When you lose the last game of
the year and you're 11 and one and you don't
make the playoff,
you evaluate everything what what wasn't quite good enough
to keep you out. And yeah,
quarterback is part of that evaluation.
But he's going to evaluate the coaching staff,
he's going to evaluate offensive line,
He's going to evaluate the defense.
He's also dealing with the fact right now that Jim
Knowles interviewed for the head coaching Jabba Duke.
You know, I know Ryan would prefer to keep Jim
Knowles here.
He made the comment, Jim is really happy at Ohio
State,
but recognizes that it's part of the business,
that it's the time of year where guys could get
plucked off your staff and maybe he decides he needs
to make staff changes on his own accord.
He he said he'll evaluate that
perhaps there's reason for him to make some of those
moves before a bowl game
because then you could start to see what some of
that looks like before you actually,
you know, get into into spring practice and and start
working toward next year.
So yeah, there's there's an awful lot to be determined
with this Ohio State program right now.
And
I would say the the body isn't even cold yet.
That's probably the best way to put it.
It's a it's a sad day.
It's a somber day. The Buckeyes are not happy right
now and
you know the the stinging loss from Ann Arbor a
week ago is is still very much present.
I I am very interested to see
how Ryan Day wants this thing to go forward the
next couple of weeks.
What guys is he going to give opportunities to?
How does he, how does he coach Kyle McCord through
some pretty tough adversity right now?
Ryan was asked about you know
the the mental health initiatives that he's been so omnipresent
with here.
You know what? During his time
and Kyle Mccord's probably gotten a heck of a lot
of vitriol on social media and
national pundits and every corner of America saying that Ohio
State's quarterback play wasn't quite good enough here.
And Ryan reiterated in the press conference today,
he knows he's loved around here.
And you you try to build somebody up as best
you can and prepare them for when things like that
happen to to try their best to ignore the outside
noise.
Kyle's a tough kid, and I think he's,
you know, able to handle some of that criticism that's
come his way.
And I I look, I've said it all along.
I didn't think quarterback play was the problem for the
Buckeyes this year.
But we can debate that another time.
I I thought I I thought he played well enough
to win.
I don't know. Certainly disappointing that Ohio State is at
this point of the year and
and not in the College Football Playoff.
I think the thing that most disappoints me is the
fact that
the College Football Playoff selection committee seems to have a
different set of criteria all the time.
And
it's just these moving goal posts,
right? I'm not saying Ohio State should have been in
the playoff this year,
unequivocally. I think this is obviously the first time in
10 years that you've had eight teams that all had
an argument,
and some of those arguments were a little more obvious
than others.
Really doesn't sit well with me that an undefeated Power
5 Conference team was left out
And and then by the way,
the justification makes no sense to me that
if you take Florida State out of the playoff because
you deem them not quite good enough with their current
quarterback situation,
why are they ranked ahead of Georgia?
Why are they ranked ahead of Ohio State?
You tell me right now if I think I saw
the opening line was like
a 12 point line already between Georgia and Florida State.
If Florida State's that bad quote UN quote that bad
why are they ranked ahead of of Georgia in in
the poll why are they ranked ahead of Ohio State
in the in the I said pull on the in
the rankings the CFP rankings
right now Ohio State and Florida State if they played
each other you want to tell me the Florida State
would be would be a favorite
because that's kind of what that is insinuating to me
and I just, I don't get it.
You're either rewarding teams for winning games or you're not.
I think winning is supposed to matter and
it sounds like it matters to a degree,
but it's not the be all end all and I
just don't think that's right.
So that will continue to be the debate for a
long,
long time. And the reality is we will have,
even though everybody says we won't,
we will have debates on who's going to get in
the playoffs and who is it next year.
And maybe it's not right at the top like it
has been 4 versus 5.
It'll be 12 versus 13.
I I we are still going to have debates on
who should get in and who shouldn't.
Those debates are still going to include high quality teams
who have good resumes
that are deserving of opportunities to play in the postseason.
The good news is teams that are unquestionably good enough
to win a national championship will no longer be excluded.
And it's a shame that for the last nine years
we've had that potential and and yes,
it really feels like this is the first time where
that's been a huge problem.
We got lucky that we didn't have to deal with
that for for too long,
but there's no doubt in my mind that if Ohio
State was in the College Football Playoff,
they could absolutely be competitive against any team in the
country.
And it's a real shame that losing at a certain
time of year matters more than losing
in general.
It it doesn't feel like Ohio State has quite the
same
value placed on their high quality wins over Notre Dame
and Penn State and the way they played at Michigan
than what? Than what the committee probably should have given
it.
So it is what it is and the Buckeyes will
unfortunately lick their wounds here for a little bit and
then they'll try to get to work.
The team is going to travel on the 23rd of
December.
There will be some downtime between with with this sort
of being
time for finals and the end of the semester and
it not being the playoff.
There will be a little bit of downtime for the
team where they won't practice
quite as hard for for a little bit.
Then they will hit the road on the 23rd.
They will get to Dallas.
There will be no media availability for us on Christmas
Eve or on Christmas Day.
I believe on the 26th is when they're going to
start having opportunities to talk to coordinators and some players
all leading up to I believe it's an 8:00 Eastern
Time kickoff on Friday,
December 29th between the Buckeyes and the Missouri Tigers.
And by the way Ryan Day was very complimentary of
Coach Strinkowitz and and said you know we were two
young coaches that have kind of had some parallel paths
crossed crossed with each other once in a while and
and I've got to know each other a little bit
and was complimentary of the way Missouri plays and and
the challenge that's going to be presented to them.
So you never take a chance for granted and I
know Ohio State's going to do everything they can to
try to win that game when they get down to
Dallas here in in a few weeks.
All right. That's probably the best summation I can give
you from the Woody Hayes Athletic Center today.
Not not fun not a great day
and and Ohio State I think is going to try
to
wipe the slate clean as best it can and figure
out a way to make the best of the situation
that they've got
and be grateful for the fact that at least moving
forward now they don't have to worry about a fourteen
playoff
at this point. But plenty of questions to be answered
along the way as to who's going to play in
that game.
We've got all the latest news and info on the
team for you
buckeyesnow.com and we will continue to bring you all that
information as we get it.
Certainly with transfer portals you know becoming a a huge
part of college football and and officially opening on Monday.
We'll follow that information for you.
National signing days coming up here in a couple of
weeks.
There's a ton of news coming down the pipe I'm
sure on that front and we'll cover that for you
as well.
All right. Enjoy your Sunday Ohio State heading to Dallas
to play in the Cotton Bowl where maybe they can
channel some good vibes after having won a couple of
games down there both against TCU in a non bowl
setting in that stadium but then also obviously having beaten
USCA few years ago in the Cotton Bowl.
I'm Brendan Gulick Have a good rest of your weekend.
Thanks for joining us here in Columbus.
We'll see you real soon
buckeyesnow.com.