Major Takeaways From Ryan Day's Press Conference Previewing Penn State

Ohio State's head coach addressed the media as his team is beginning its preparations for a huge home game against Penn State on Saturday night.

Ryan Day and the Buckeyes are getting ready for another night game at The 'Shoe ... only this time, it's against a far tougher opponent than when Akron came to town. Penn State comes to Columbus for one of the biggest games of the week in college football.

Coach Day addressed the media on Tuesday afternoon to preview this week's game. If you're interested in watching his press conference (along with comments from several of his players), you can do so in the video below.

Here are my major takeaways from what he had to say today:

Marcus Crowley "Out For A Long Time"

Ohio State's running back room took a hit last week when Marcus Crowley got injured during the team's week off. Ryan Day didn't specify the nature of the injury, but said he has a pretty long road ahead of him to recover from an injury he suffered during the team's bye week.

Wishing him all the best - he's fun to watch carry the ball. I've always enjoyed how hard he plays.

On a separate injury note, Master Teague is expected to return this week after missing the Indiana game.

Penn State's Defense Has Ohio State's Full Attention

Despite back-to-back losses, Penn State's defense is still among the best in the nation. They are 26th nationally in total defense (324.4 yards per game) and 6th in the country in scoring defense (14.7 points per game). They've caused 13 turnovers in seven games and have recorded 15 sacks and 44 tackles for loss. Their pass defense has been especially stingy, surrendering just 178.0 yards per game.

Ryan Day said they are very aware of certain personnel, specifically naming Tariq Castro-Fields, Joey Porter Jr. and Jaquan Brisker among others. He said they absolutely try to make sure when they're game-planning for a team to know where their best players are on the field, but it still comes down to execution.

As far as what jumps out to Day about the Nittany Lions' defense, he complimented defensive coordinator Brent Pry on how steady that unit has been. He said they've got a very active defensive line, excellent linebackers and a back end of the defense that has played an awful lot of snaps. He knows its going to be a tough challenge.

Assessing Buckeyes' Offensive Progress

Day was asked if his offense is performing the way he thought they would be by this point in the season. He artfully dodged that question, but he's obviously pleased with the way they are executing.

"Every week is a new challenge. Every week is like a whole new season. There are so many different things that come into play. You just don't know how the game is gonna play out."

He also talked about not going into a game with any expectations, because as soon as you do that you get thrown off kilter. He said their focus is to execute one play at a time and obviously they're trying to score as many points as they can.

Developing the Next Wave of Players

Ryan Day has said many times throughout the year and even back this past off-season how important it was going to be for his group to make up for some lost time developing lesser experienced players. The lack of chances to work those players in last year with all of the CoVID-19 challenges really put the Buckeyes in a tough spot. But he said on Tuesday he's been quite happy to see so many of the younger guys getting chances to play the last five weeks after the first team offense and defense have put some distance between themselves and their opponents.

He noted how hard they've been coaching some of those younger players deep in the game, treating it like it's a tight contest and having high expectations for those players.

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