The most interesting thing I heard after Ohio State beat Texas was Ryan Day saying maybe the national championship run helped prepare his team for a game like this.
I mean, yes, that makes sense that winning will beget winning.
Playing big games provides good experience for the future, but in this case he was talking about the guys who were not playing, or at least not playing much.
Julian Sayin, Caden Curry, Jermaine Mathews Jr., Arvell Reese, Brandon Inniss, Lorenzo Styles Jr. — lots of guys who stepped into larger roles and looked good Saturday.
“When you start a season, you want to set the tone for the season. There's a lot of guys who are stepping into roles for the first time ever. And for these guys to step in and really have great energy about them, I thought they were poised. I thought the moment was not too big for them. And maybe just because of the run that went on last year, and those guys being in those games or even for the guys who weren’t, being a part of it, like a guy like Devin Sanchez who played today, he was with us for those two weeks, and he saw what it was like.
“I don't think those guys batted an eye.”
Playing with poise is obviously big in that type of game because one mistake can be exacerbated.
Sanchez is a true freshman who just got to practice with the team after the first of the year.
If the 2024 team’s winning rubbed off on those guys, that could be big…
Winning a game like this also doesn’t do anything but burnish that credibility Day earned by winning that national title.
I mean, that team was ready to play. They surely had some execution errors, but mental mistakes were kept to a minimum for Ohio State while Texas had multiple false starts and a couple of other crucial penalties.
Day just sounds more confident delivering some of the same coach-speak he already was before last season. Maybe there’s no difference other than perception, but then again often perception is often reality.
Here’s another example: What stuck out to him about Julian Sayin was what he was seeing when he was out there in his first start.
"I was impressed with his poise. He had a good look in his eye, and what he was saying and what he was seeing was exactly what was going on. That's a great sign.”
Day went on to compare that to what he saw early on from C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields and Dwayne Haskins Jr., another example of coach-speak I’m actually more willing to buy after what Day pulled off in December and January…
Lastly, something Matt Patricia said caught my ear: The new defensive coordinator was impressed with how the returning coaches (that would be all of the rest of them on defense) used the spring to identify what each player can do on his own to help the unit.
“Being able to move the defense and those pieces because we know what the skillset of the players that we have are different than maybe what we had last year. And the coaches that were familiar with these guys on the staff, I think the defensive staff, just give them credit for really being able to put that together like that. It was a great job by them.”
That’s pretty good synergy.
(As an aside, Patricia stepping in and being able to work well with the OSU defensive holdovers after Jim Knowles apparently had a hard time managing them for much of his time in Columbus is also… interesting.)
Matt Patricia smiled talking the difference in rules for DBs in college vs the NFL
— #Marcus Hartman (#@marcushartman)
8:47 PM • Aug 1, 2025
I was skeptical of the Patricia hire when it was made because he hadn’t done much when not working for Bill Belichick, and NFL guys often struggle to come up with schemes that are simple enough for college players to grasp.
Seeing how it could work wasn’t hard, though.
Specialization is big in the NFL, as is exploiting matchups, and that is something that lends itself to having a large roster the caliber of Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have a diverse set of skills, and they can go deep without having to thrust too many freshmen onto the field, either, but calling plays in real life is not like video games.
Succeeding in a role is more than just having the requisite size, speed and agility. There are nuances to different positions and different techniques to be used at various times.
On Saturday, we saw the cover guys cover (Mathews and Davison Igbinosun) and the tackling guys tackle (Caleb Downs and linebackers Sonny Styles and Reese, who also lined up at defensive end at times), and the results speak for themselves.
The defensive line may be a work in progress, but I’ll be interested to watch the game again to see how much of Texas’ success running the ball was a matter of winning the line of scrimmage vs. having a numbers advantage against a team more worried about making a new starting quarterback drive his team down the field.
If you want to see more of what Day had to say after the game, check out my YouTube channel, and for more great sportswriting, check out my buddy Matt Brown’s newsletter that focuses on the business of college sports.
