Coach Ryan Day, Coach Justin Frye and the Offensive Line Spoke to the Media
8/22/2024 2:51:00 PM | Football
On his feeling for the season:
“Coming out of preseason you want to have some of your questions answered for sure. You make assumptions based on what you see in preseason. Once you get into the season you figure out what those things are and the ones that are accurate you keep enhancing and the things you don't like you have to address. I think that's what we have to get done here as we head into the first couple of games of the season. We had an opportunity to build some depth at certain positions which is important. As you said what does the offseason look like? That was one area that we knew we had to build in the off season.”
On what he wants to see from the O Line that he did not see last season:
"We have to play with technique but at the end of the play knock the line of scrimmage back and play with our hair on fire as hard as we possibly can. There's a lot that goes with playing in the offensive line. It's all communication and there is a lot of things that have to get into place. I think Seth has done a nice job of communicating he understands the offense better. Now he takes control up front and brings everybody together which is great. We could list a bunch of other things but to me we've got to move the line of scrimmage. We've got to be just playing with our hair on fire and knocking people back and playing physical and that's to start the game and to end the game."
“I told you guys through the spring coming out felt like we were going to be able to get to eight maybe nine guys that you feel like could go in the game and play for us and so those guys that maybe would have been a little lower and got less reps started getting reps”
On the development of the team:
“I think the maturity and the growth of those guys understanding what they need to do and why they need to do it will pay dividends when we get on the field and start playing in the games.”
On how valuable it is to have older guys on the team:
“The older guys we’ve got on this team it’s crazy. The amount of knowledge that they have, the amount of game knowledge, the amount of just season knowledge. I haven’t played a full season yet and I haven’t played basically more than a half yet, but when you’ve got guys like Donovan and guys like Josh that helps a crazy amount.”
On where his mind shift came from:
“It comes from a lot of things. It comes from watching the film when things are done right. It comes with Coach Day and Coach Kelly reassured me “Hey, you can be a really good football player if you keep going in this path that you’re going”.”
On the impact the O Line had on him winning award:
“Those guys are so awesome. It’s really not a singular award, it really reflects the group. Having three offensive linemen get that award really reflects the kind of culture we have on the O line and the O block. I'm really proud of those guys as well for allowing me to put in that position.
On the cotton bowl:
“Some decisions were made there that the coaches felt were right. All I can really do is prepare and get ready for this season.”
On how he’s been preparing for the season:
“Really working on hand placement and hand striking has been really big for me, being able to work through extension.”
On his relationships through his faith:
“Football’s hard and if you don’t love it, you'd really hate it. So I love the guys around me. They've really brought me in and developed me who I am today. Relinquishing that fear and letting Christ. It’s his plan.”
On his faith:
“Jesus won. I can't describe it, just everything that he's done and my faith. It's a weird feeling that I get, but it's a comforting feeling having that group.”
On navigating the O line’s unanticipated hardships:
“ I mean it's football. People get sick. You got to step up - competitive excellence. You have got to make the play whenever it’s called.“
On his confidence entering his third year:
“I feel like once you get two seasons under your belt, you got a ton of reps against really good players, you start to build confidence in yourself and your abilities. I think me, Tegra and Carson have all kind of shown that through our practice and through our play. We’re starting to have confidence in ourselves and starting to show in the film.”
On his preferred position:
“I’m right but I float around the left, but the last few days I'm playing right. I played left last year but I played right during the spring so I'd say right -right now but once I do a few reps at left I can fall back into it.”
On how he feels coming into Ohio State.
“I love the guys in the room. I can look at these guys when we go out to practice every day and I’m doing it for the love of the guys in the room. Trey Henderson always says you have got to do it for the love of your brother. It might be cliche from a guy just getting here but I actually have a deep feeling of love for the guys in this room and for this program.”
On what he feels about this group coming out of camp.
“I feel really confident that we have guys, 6, 7, 8 guys that can get the job done in this position group. I’m really excited about going forward this year.
On dealing with pre-season rankings/talk online.
“You can’t listen to it. You’re going to have those expectations and I think we’ve done a good job of not thinking about those expectations because if you approach every day like you’re the best in the country. If our best right now doesn’t improve there is going to be a team that’s not as good as us right now that’s improving along all season that’s going to beat us when we play them. So you have to approach it like we’re not the best form of this team that we can be.”
On the O-line playing tougher:
“I would say we're just trying to play hard. I sure hope that we'd improved over the practices but I'm glad that the D Line thinks so. We’re just trying to play hard and execute the scheme. There's a whole lot that we can improve on and just going off of that"
On what the O line can improve:
“Just simplifying it and running off the ball. I know Coach Fry has given us a lot of tools in terms of hand placement and what we can do to gain leverage and displace guys off the line of scrimmage. It's just using what we've learned to execute in game and improve it in practice.
On the criticism the team faces:
“What's been said in our room doesn't have to be said out here. We understand the narrative. We understand what some of you think of us. We just have to execute man. You only report what you see on the field so if we want to change that narrative we have to change what we put on the field. That's what we have to do.”
On how criticism is handled as a team:
“I think we don’t really pay attention to it though. We are not really looking at it as much as maybe other people are on other teams. It really doesn’t bother us.”
On what the toughest thing is about consistency with techniques:
“That’s a great question. I think it just comes with a basis of me going into year three and a half of playing offensive line. I was kind of a newbie coming in here in general. I didn’t really play offensive line until midway through my junior year of high school so it's taken me a long time to just master the technique that’s been shown but I trust in it wholeheartedly and I’m just trying to grind every day and get better.”
On overcoming the illness going around:
“Obviously we had some illness. It’s something we can’t avoid just some random obstacle. I took a lot of extra reps we had a lot of guys sick and you never knew who you were going to have one day. I took advantage of my reps. I’m happy I was able to do well with that and reinforce the coaches with my ability.”
On how he feels now vs. when playing against TTUN:
“Definitely a lot more confident. I've had much more reps. I got back on the side that I'm more comfortable on the left side. I just feel like I've had a whole year at that spring ball and camp. I've had a lot of reps with the ones obviously because of stuff that's been going on during camp. I feel good about myself. A lot better than I did last year.”
On Seth’s leadership:
“He’s really smart and I trust a lot of what Seth says. I know that he has good meaning in that whatever he's saying is probably important.”
