COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State is preparing to head west to face Washington in a season-opener that should test both sides of the ball.
On offense, it’s another chance for a young quarterback to cross another objective off the list in his path to elite status. On defense, it’s a chance for the one potential question mark to show it’s found quality answers.
On this episode of Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis discuss both of those subjects, plus everything else Ryan Day addressed ahead of Saturday’s game.
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Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.
Stephen Means (00:22.157)
Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Stephen Means. That’s the Stefan Kreisnick and that is Andrew Gillis. We talk with Ryan Day, head of Ohio State’s Big Ten opener against Washington on Saturday in Seattle. It’ll be the first time the Buckeyes have been to Seattle since 2007 when Jim Trestle was still the head coach. There are two people, Stefan, currently on Ohio State staff who have played at Husky Stadium before. Do you know who they are?
Stefan Krajisnik (00:48.476)
I do because I woke up on Tuesday and I saw highlights of them dominating against Washington. It was Brian Hartline and James Laurinaitis. They were awesome in that game.
Stephen Means (00:55.609)
There you go.
They were awesome in that game. Andrew, I don’t have a trivia question. No, I do have a trivia question for you today. Do you know who has the longest home winning streak in the Big 10? And do you know how many games it is?
Andrew Gillis (01:16.428)
Washington and
Andrew Gillis (01:22.648)
Morning.
Stephen Means (01:23.919)
Well, if you had the tech should have that part right. 614-350-3315. It’s 22, it’s 22 games that second to Georgia in the country in terms of most straight home games, one.
Both of those are on the line this weekend. Georgia hosting Alabama and Washington hosting Ohio state. Ohio state is nine and three all time against Washington and have won the last four, the last of which was Ryan Day’s final game as the assistant coach in the 2018 season to send urban Meyer off with a win in the Rose bowl. That’s also where Dwayne Haskins broke.
the, well, set the all time passing record. He had already broken it, but it was officially set. This is going to be the new bar 50 touchdown passes and a single season. We’ll get more into Washington as the week continues. But we did talk to Ryan day about some things. And I guess we probably should start with the quarterback situation, right? Cause this is kind of
This is Julian Sands. think it’s probably the one question mark we still have about him, right? Stefan is how is he going to perform in a hostile environment on the road?
Stefan Krajisnik (02:29.684)
Yeah, it’s part of kind of the process of becoming a successful quarterback and you go through these different challenges, whether it’s playing at home in a marquee top five, top three game, whether it’s dominating against an FCS opponent or going through some highs and lows and beating a Mac opponent, right? There’s levels to these steps of becoming a quality quarterback and as we talked about,
at the Woody, maybe even becoming a Heisman caliber quarterback and winning on the road and playing well on the road is an important piece of this. And this is going to be a big test for Julian saying going into a hostile environment where he’s going to be tested. This team is going to be tested and it could be cadence. could be, you know, talent, whatever it is. Ohio, Ohio state is going to be tested in a lot of different ways. And it’s going to be on Julian saying to make sure the Buckeyes come through.
Stephen Means (03:28.421)
Andrew, I feel like we’ve been living in zero to a hundred world with Julian saying right against Texas. It was like, Hey, don’t be mad if he looks like this is his first start. And then the coaching staff went, well, we’re not going to give you the opportunity to be mad because we’re not going to let him do anything. We’re going to let him do anything whatsoever to, Hey, for the next two weeks.
he’s going to be lighting the world on fire and the coach is going, no, no, no, he’s not just going to be lighting the world on fire. He’s going to allow the whole galaxy on fire and complete almost 80 % of his passes. And now there’s what’s middle ground. It feels like this weekend we’re going to get middle ground of what type of quarterback Julian San actually is.
project what that looks like on Saturday, especially since on the other side of line is a quarterback who, I mean, we did a list of quarterbacks that we think have the ability to play outplay Julian saying Daman Williams wasn’t low on anybody’s list.
Andrew Gillis (04:31.808)
Yeah, I think it is about finding a way to ease him into the game and then letting it rip from there. So I think maybe you kind of start with, you know, easy passes. You take the crowd out of it. You know, you get the ball in JJ’s hands. you try and whatever the running back, whatever the running back situation and the running game situation is. And we can talk about that, I’m sure here in a minute, but like, whatever that looks like, I think you want to get that established. think
You want to get him settled and I’m not saying, you know, settle him in for three quarters and then try to win it. And that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, you know, get him involved early, get high completion or high percentage completions in just kind of get him in the game flow, right? Like get him flowing early. And then I think you open it up. and then I think you’ve proven it that, that, you know, you can, you can do that with him because, know, as crazy as it seems,
I mentioned it, Ohio State’s regular season is 25 % over and they already had one of two bye weeks and like that’s in the rear view mirror now. And now they play Washington and the Illinois game is interesting just because of what happened. But Minnesota is not really at the level and Wisconsin. Is Luke Fickle going to be the coach in Wisconsin when they play them like like they’re like this is it like if you want to let it rip.
Like you can’t just keep saying, well, it’s not the right time. It’s not the right moment. So I think this is just kind of what you would do for any quarterback in his first year, making his first couple of starts. You you ease him into it and then it’s all right guys, training wheels are off time to go. And that might be the second drive of the game, the third drive of the game. And you gotta let, you gotta let your best players make plays.
Stephen Means (06:26.136)
What’s a stat line that lets you know that every projection we’ve had of what Julian sand could be what’s that project? The stat line on Saturday that would make you feel comfortable with. And of course, obviously a win, but what’s a stat line that would make you feel comfortable with like Julian sand is exactly what people think. We think he is going to be this year.
Andrew Gillis (06:46.862)
say, you know, 65 % completion percentage or higher. Um, you know, I think you want to get the ball. Like, again, these are good corners is a good defense. So I think, you know, 65 % is, is probably the bare minimum of what I would expect and what I would want from him. Um, you know, no interceptions. I think that that is, that is a big thing. I was going back and I looked, Steven, I’m sure, I mean, you know, this as well. Um, I looked at like CJ Stroud’s game logs and like,
Justin Fields game logs from when they were in college. There really wasn’t like a, whoa, like this guy had a freshman moment game. Now there were moments where it very clearly maybe took some time, but the stat line, like the Nebraska game maybe for Stroud was that, you you threw two picks in that game, his completion percentage was, you know, just above 65%. But really,
Stephen Means (07:29.188)
you
Andrew Gillis (07:44.61)
there weren’t many games where you could look at and go like, that guy was straight up bad. I think zero turnovers is probably the goal. And I mean, that’s a goal every week, but just a high completion percentage. So above 65%, probably thrown for 250, because you’re not really much of a runner. And obviously that depends how much the running game is. But yeah, those are kind of barometers for success that I would look for.
Stephen Means (00:22.157)
Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Stephen Means. That’s the Stefan Kreisnick and that is Andrew Gillis. We talk with Ryan Day, head of Ohio State’s Big Ten opener against Washington on Saturday in Seattle. It’ll be the first time the Buckeyes have been to Seattle since 2007 when Jim Trestle was still the head coach. There are two people, Stefan, currently on Ohio State staff who have played at Husky Stadium before. Do you know who they are?
Stefan Krajisnik (00:48.476)
I do because I woke up on Tuesday and I saw highlights of them dominating against Washington. It was Brian Hartline and James Laurinaitis. They were awesome in that game.
Stephen Means (00:55.609)
There you go.
They were awesome in that game. Andrew, I don’t have a trivia question. No, I do have a trivia question for you today. Do you know who has the longest home winning streak in the Big 10? And do you know how many games it is?
Andrew Gillis (01:16.428)
Washington and
Andrew Gillis (01:22.648)
Morning.
Stephen Means (01:23.919)
Well, if you had the tech should have that part right. 614-350-3315. It’s 22, it’s 22 games that second to Georgia in the country in terms of most straight home games, one.
Both of those are on the line this weekend. Georgia hosting Alabama and Washington hosting Ohio state. Ohio state is nine and three all time against Washington and have won the last four, the last of which was Ryan Day’s final game as the assistant coach in the 2018 season to send urban Meyer off with a win in the Rose bowl. That’s also where Dwayne Haskins broke.
the, well, set the all time passing record. He had already broken it, but it was officially set. This is going to be the new bar 50 touchdown passes and a single season. We’ll get more into Washington as the week continues. But we did talk to Ryan day about some things. And I guess we probably should start with the quarterback situation, right? Cause this is kind of
This is Julian Sands. think it’s probably the one question mark we still have about him, right? Stefan is how is he going to perform in a hostile environment on the road?
Stefan Krajisnik (02:29.684)
Yeah, it’s part of kind of the process of becoming a successful quarterback and you go through these different challenges, whether it’s playing at home in a marquee top five, top three game, whether it’s dominating against an FCS opponent or going through some highs and lows and beating a Mac opponent, right? There’s levels to these steps of becoming a quality quarterback and as we talked about,
at the Woody, maybe even becoming a Heisman caliber quarterback and winning on the road and playing well on the road is an important piece of this. And this is going to be a big test for Julian saying going into a hostile environment where he’s going to be tested. This team is going to be tested and it could be cadence. could be, you know, talent, whatever it is. Ohio, Ohio state is going to be tested in a lot of different ways. And it’s going to be on Julian saying to make sure the Buckeyes come through.
Stephen Means (03:28.421)
Andrew, I feel like we’ve been living in zero to a hundred world with Julian saying right against Texas. It was like, Hey, don’t be mad if he looks like this is his first start. And then the coaching staff went, well, we’re not going to give you the opportunity to be mad because we’re not going to let him do anything. We’re going to let him do anything whatsoever to, Hey, for the next two weeks.
he’s going to be lighting the world on fire and the coach is going, no, no, no, he’s not just going to be lighting the world on fire. He’s going to allow the whole galaxy on fire and complete almost 80 % of his passes. And now there’s what’s middle ground. It feels like this weekend we’re going to get middle ground of what type of quarterback Julian San actually is.
project what that looks like on Saturday, especially since on the other side of line is a quarterback who, I mean, we did a list of quarterbacks that we think have the ability to play outplay Julian saying Daman Williams wasn’t low on anybody’s list.
Andrew Gillis (04:31.808)
Yeah, I think it is about finding a way to ease him into the game and then letting it rip from there. So I think maybe you kind of start with, you know, easy passes. You take the crowd out of it. You know, you get the ball in JJ’s hands. you try and whatever the running back, whatever the running back situation and the running game situation is. And we can talk about that, I’m sure here in a minute, but like, whatever that looks like, I think you want to get that established. think
You want to get him settled and I’m not saying, you know, settle him in for three quarters and then try to win it. And that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, you know, get him involved early, get high completion or high percentage completions in just kind of get him in the game flow, right? Like get him flowing early. And then I think you open it up. and then I think you’ve proven it that, that, you know, you can, you can do that with him because, know, as crazy as it seems,
I mentioned it, Ohio State’s regular season is 25 % over and they already had one of two bye weeks and like that’s in the rear view mirror now. And now they play Washington and the Illinois game is interesting just because of what happened. But Minnesota is not really at the level and Wisconsin. Is Luke Fickle going to be the coach in Wisconsin when they play them like like they’re like this is it like if you want to let it rip.
Like you can’t just keep saying, well, it’s not the right time. It’s not the right moment. So I think this is just kind of what you would do for any quarterback in his first year, making his first couple of starts. You you ease him into it and then it’s all right guys, training wheels are off time to go. And that might be the second drive of the game, the third drive of the game. And you gotta let, you gotta let your best players make plays.
Stephen Means (06:26.136)
What’s a stat line that lets you know that every projection we’ve had of what Julian sand could be what’s that project? The stat line on Saturday that would make you feel comfortable with. And of course, obviously a win, but what’s a stat line that would make you feel comfortable with like Julian sand is exactly what people think. We think he is going to be this year.
Andrew Gillis (06:46.862)
say, you know, 65 % completion percentage or higher. Um, you know, I think you want to get the ball. Like, again, these are good corners is a good defense. So I think, you know, 65 % is, is probably the bare minimum of what I would expect and what I would want from him. Um, you know, no interceptions. I think that that is, that is a big thing. I was going back and I looked, Steven, I’m sure, I mean, you know, this as well. Um, I looked at like CJ Stroud’s game logs and like,
Justin Fields game logs from when they were in college. There really wasn’t like a, whoa, like this guy had a freshman moment game. Now there were moments where it very clearly maybe took some time, but the stat line, like the Nebraska game maybe for Stroud was that, you you threw two picks in that game, his completion percentage was, you know, just above 65%. But really,
Stephen Means (07:29.188)
you
Andrew Gillis (07:44.61)
there weren’t many games where you could look at and go like, that guy was straight up bad. I think zero turnovers is probably the goal. And I mean, that’s a goal every week, but just a high completion percentage. So above 65%, probably thrown for 250, because you’re not really much of a runner. And obviously that depends how much the running game is. But yeah, those are kind of barometers for success that I would look for.