What They Said After Ohio State's Win Over Penn State

The Buckeyes won a "big game," coach Ryan Day said, while James Franklin lamented another Penn State loss.

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin looks up at the scoreboard during the second quarter against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Ohio State coach Ryan Day called it a "big win" over Penn State on Saturday, while Nittany Lions coach James Franklin lamented his team's eighth straight loss to the Buckeyes. Ohio State made a goal-line stop, and then ran out the clock, in a 20-13 victory before the largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history.

Here's what the coaches said afterward.

Penn State coach James Franklin

On the game: First of all, you’ve got to give Ohio State credit. They did a really good job today. We did some things that were good enough to win and other things we did not. We cannot have the ball inside the 5-yard line twice and come out with no points. One turnover, which is very uncharacteristic of us, and then another turnover basically on downs. The pick-six was a huge play in the game,
but we only scored six points on offense and scored seven points on defense against a really really good team. Are they good on defense? Yes. But do we have to find ways to manufacture points and yards? There’s no doubt about it. We didn’t get it done. Give them a ton of credit.  

On whether he considered giving the ball to Tyler Warren at the goal line in the fourth quarter:
Yeah, we gave the ball to the running back [Kaytron Allen], I think three times, threw the ball
on the last one. Yeah, should we? Should we probably have given the ball to Tyler Warren after the plays he made Yeah, I get the question. I get it.  

On Ohio State running 11 consecutive plays on its game-clinching series: They had a championship drive right there at the end. We did not play well in an obvious running situation. Did not handle the fact that the offense did not score in that situation well.

On the team's focus after the loss: We’ve got to do a great job making sure we come in tomorrow, make their corrections, but then Sunday night, we’ve got to flush it and move on to Washington. We can't allow one loss to turn into two. The reality of college football is everything is still ahead of us, and we’ve got to do a great job of making the corrections, eliminating the things that were unforced errors that happened today, and then we’ve got to find a way to get a win next week at home, and
everything is still in front of us. 

On the penalties: Jumping offsides in an obvious third-down situation extended a drive for them, and tackle and standing over a guy unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a third-down stop that extends a
drive. We can't do that. Can't, can't, can't do those things. It happened last week and happened again this week. That on me. We’ve got to be a disciplined football team. We were not disciplined at times
today. 

On his message to fans: I understand their frustration. Guys in the locker room are just as frustrated, if not more. But college football has changed, and we have an opportunity moving forward to right some wrongs from today, and that's what we're going to focus on. I get it. We get an unbelievable crowd here. We get unbelievable support. You don't do that without passion. And there's great things that come from that, and there's hard things that come from that. That's part of the job, and I own it all.  

On Beau Pribula: I think the plan was to get Beau more involved, based on how practice had gone this week with Drew, but we didn't have a whole lot of success when he was in there. So I think that probably played in a part of it. When we didn't have a whole lot of success when he was in there, we got away from him. 

On the significance of this game: There's nobody that's looking in the mirror harder than I am. I will say this, and I've said it before, 99 percent of the programs across college football would die to do what we've been able to do in our time here. But I also understand when you're in a place like Penn State, there's really, really high expectations. When you're in a place like Ohio State, there's really, really high
expectations. I get it. So we've looked at all these things really hard. We'll continue to look at these things really hard. 

On Ohio State's interception late in the second quarter: Drew made a nice throw. We had a chance to
come down with the ball. They called it as an incomplete at first, then they reviewed it, called it as an INT. The guys that are watching on TV have got a better idea of how that whole thing played out. There was a ton of 50/50 calls in this game that you could call in either direction. There's a ton of them in this game. The fumble on the sideline, in the near arm that goes out at the 2-yard line, obviously, and it's called a touchdown (on the field). There's a ton of 50/50 calls that could go
either way, and in that type of game they're critical. Besides that, I don't have a whole lot more for you. But, you know, obviously, turning the ball over in the red zone and getting stopped on downs, two
turnovers inside the five. That's really the story of the game. 

Ohio State coach Ryan Day

On the win: This was a big game for us for a lot of reasons. A top-five team win like this on the road in a tough environment, moving Donnie [Donovan Jackson] over to left tackle. We knew we had to win the rushing yards, the turnover battle was going to be big, and then no negative plays. And that’s what we really focused on, but at the end of the day we had to find a way to get a stop and get that extra first down. So, I think this is going to build us moving forward, and getting this win for our guys is going to go a long way.

On the defense: We had one and then we get the interception by Igbinosun, and going into the end of the half, and then today. It shows that there’s a great toughness, a never give up, give me an inch, I’m going to defend it mentality. You got to give Jim and the entire staff credit on the defense for their preparation going into the game. Penn State does an excellent job of changing formations, motioning, different looks, and you know we found a way to get the stand and when it comes down to the players, coaches can put you in a situation, but the players have to execute, and they did just that.

On quarterback Will Howard: He gives us toughness at the quarterback, running the ball. You saw the run that he had between when the ball was squared out and that was a well-executed play—and Trayveon [Henderson] had a great block there too—and the other guys were getting after people and the play ended the way it did was like taking a shot right to the stomach. But nothing you can do, you got to regroup and keep on. That’s the sign of somebody who is resilient, who’s been through it before, and he willed it to happen. He had a look in his eye all week that he wasn’t going to lose this game, and he just refused to lose, and that mentality helped us win the game.