Ryan Day and Ohio State ended their highly anticipated 2025 season with a heartbreaking 24–14 loss to Mario Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes in the Cotton Bowl. Truth be told, nobody had Miami winning this one. It was supposed to be one of the most favorable matchups for Ohio State.

Unfortunately, Ryan Day ended up as the scapegoat for the loss because he decided to take over play-calling duties from Brian Hartline. With the win, Mario Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes advanced to the playoff semifinals.

Coach (Ryan) Day, we will ask you for an opening statement before we go to questions from the floor.

Ryan Day: “Yeah, we’ll just take questions.”

Ryan, you were off for 25 days. Last year, you talked about how the team that played gained momentum and the team with the bye had to create it. How big a factor do you think that was, especially since the first half didn’t look like Ohio State football?

Ryan Day: “I felt like it took us a while to get into the rhythm of the game. I thought we played well coming out of the second half, but by then it would have taken a very efficient second half to win the game, being down 14–0.

I felt like at that point we got into a rhythm, and when we had that drive where we took a shot, and it was incomplete, and then the next play put us way behind the chains, that was the drive we needed to win the game.

When you start the way we did, you put yourself at risk of having to be nearly perfect in the second half to win a game. We put ourselves behind the eight ball.

We worked really hard over the last three weeks leading up to this game to come out of the gates strong, win the first quarter, and win the first half, and be ready to go. I thought we had an excellent plan, and I think the guys bought into it. But at the end of the day, we didn’t get it done. That starts with me and goes down from there.

I take responsibility for not getting the guys ready. We spent an inordinate amount of time putting the plan together to get everybody ready to play in that first half, and we didn’t win the first half. We’ve got to figure out why that was and learn from it moving forward.”

Ryan, you discussed the offensive game plan and the plan that your team put into place. How much does the plan that didn’t work in the first half affect the way that you have to move forward with play-calling, what you need to do with this offensive staff, and what you guys need to do to get better?

Ryan Day: “Fresh off the game, got to evaluate it all. Early on, we had a hard time. Gabe (VanSickle) was struggling a little bit early on in his first big spot, and we were scrambling a little bit.

We lost Austin (Siereveld), and they have an excellent front. I thought the guys battled and got back into a rhythm. I thought we had a good plan going in on how to get the ball out of our hands quickly, but that obviously didn’t work. We took five sacks. We’ve got to get back to it and figure out where we’re going moving forward, but we’ve got to sit down and evaluate all of it.”

Do you have updates on Lorenzo (Styles) and Austin (Siereveld)? And with the offensive line situation, the shuffling and rotating worked for you guys last year. But how difficult was it over the past month to figure out the right side, and then today, having to move around again?

Ryan Day: “As you know, we were in this spot last year when we lost Seth, and we lost Simmons. This is part of playing this time of year. You have to have depth, and you have to perform in those moments. That’s the bottom line. It’s our job as coaches to get them ready and do what we can.

Lorenzo had a shoulder issue, and Austin had a leg contusion. Austin was in tears because he wasn’t able to go back into the game. The decision was made that we weren’t going to put him back in at that point, but he would have done anything he could to get back out there and play. He cares about his teammates and wanted to finish.

We’ve got a team of guys that poured a lot into this program, and for some of them, this will be their last game as Buckeyes. It hurts, and it stings. I want to ensure they know how much we appreciate everything they do and have done for this program. It hurts right now, and it hurts for those guys. They put a lot of work and time into this.

It’s our job as coaches to figure out ways to put them in a position to be successful. At the end of the day, that’s our responsibility, and we’ve got to take a hard look at that and figure out what we need to do to get better.

Lorenzo has been dealing with the shoulder all season.”

(Austin Ward from 97.1 The Fan): Ryan, toward the end of October or early November, you talked about pushing the gas pedal when that time came. I know that may be reading too much into one comment, but was there something about the way this offense was constructed that didn’t allow you to do that the way you envisioned?

Ryan Day: “No, I don’t think so. I think you saw us play with a little bit of tempo today. When you’re not getting first downs early on, you have to make sure you’re getting into the right plays and doing what you need to do to get first downs.

I think some of that did give us a little bit of juice in the second half when we needed it. I thought that gave us an advantage at times in the game, but it wasn’t done nearly well enough. Those are all things we’ll make sure we look at.”

Jake Trotter from ESPN: Ryan, you guys gave up six sacks during the regular season, 10 combined in the Big Ten Championship, and then tonight. What happened with the pass protection, because it clearly impacted the offense?

Ryan Day: “It’s hard to just say one thing. We tried to help out. They have a very good front. We felt it was a slightly different scheme than what we faced the week before against Indiana. Indiana brought a lot of pressure, a lot of movement, twisting, and things. This was a bigger group of guys, hard-charging up front.

We went in with a certain plan, and you could tell right from the first third down that we had a hard time. Being on silent, we didn’t quite get off the ball on that one, and that caused the first sack, and it kind of went from there.

I do think there was a point where we got it under control and were moving the ball pretty well. But the play Scott made on the pick-six was a huge part of the game. He triggered and hit that, and we didn’t quite execute it right on the perimeter. I think Julian’s decision to throw it was the right thing to do at the time, but he made a heck of a play. That early in the game, it flipped the scoreboard quickly and put us in a hole.

At that point, you have to fight your way out of it, and we weren’t able to do that. We wanted to be aggressive. We felt like we had an advantage downfield in the passing game. Jeremiah ended up with 157 downfield. We felt like we could do that and wanted to be aggressive, but we also knew the give-and-take of it. That was part of what we were working through. At the end of the day, it didn’t work.”

Julian’s on that pick-six. What did you see as the play developed? When did you realize what was happening after the ball left your hand?

Ryan Day: “Yeah, after it came out of my hand, I saw him make the play. It was a great play by him, and obviously you can’t have that in that situation.”

Cameron Teague Robinson from The Athletic: Ryan, you shifted some things around with play-calling and how the coaching staff was set up. With the slow start in the first half, did you feel like the staff was in a groove, or were there things you had to iron out that led to the slow start?

Ryan Day: “I’ve got to look at it all and figure out what that was and what that is, because it’s not good enough. We’ve got to look at it all, and we’ve got to do better. That’s the bottom line. Whatever it takes to get better, we’ll do.”

What were your takeaways from the positive plays Julian Sayin and Caleb Downs made (in the second half), and what they did to try to give you a chance?

Ryan Day: “First off, what Caleb Downs has done for Ohio State and does every day. Most of what you see is on the field, but what I see is off the field. He’s a special young man who has done a lot for this program, and I’ll forever be in debt for what he’s done for us, not only his play, but what he stands for off the field and who he is. His family is tremendous. He played his tail off tonight. Nobody hurts more than he does.

Julian is somebody who hasn’t played a lot of football. It’s his first year playing, and he competes. He works at it in the meeting room. What he does in terms of preparation, what we put on his plate, getting us in and out of plays, protection, checks. This guy has a very, very bright future ahead of him. Julian has a chance to be as good as he wants to be. He’s got to learn from this, and that’s a big part of playing quarterback when you look at a lot of the guys who have had success at the highest levels of college football.”

When was the decision made to go with the silent count right from the jump?

Ryan Day: You could tell it was going to be that kind of crowd. Indoors here, we’ve played here before, and it doesn’t take a lot to really echo inside. We felt like that was the right thing to do.”