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Ryan Day on Justin Fields’ debut: ‘For a first start, it was well done’
By Dave Holcomb
Published:
Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields was impressive during his first college start, throwing for 234 yards and four touchdowns. He added another 61 yards and another score on the ground.
Four of his five touchdowns came in the first quarter.
Ohio State’s Ryan Day, who was also making a debut as well as Buckeyes head coach, admitted in typical coach fashion that Fields has things to work on but also sounded pleased with his performance.
“Playing with great energy, making good decisions, but more importantly, managing the game. Taking care of the ball. That’s the biggest thing,” Day said during his postgame press conference. “The big plays will come. I didn’t think they would come that fast. They were coming fast and furious early on, but a lot of times today, the defense we were seeing was very different than what we see in practice. It was a three-down front, and they were dropping eight some, so the windows weren’t as clean. He had to scramble sometimes to keep us on schedule.
“For a first start, it was well done.”
Day also spoke about the different packages the Ohio State offense utilized against Florida Atlantic. In the second half, the Buckeyes often deployed three tight ends and even a fullback, which is obviously rather rare in modern college football.
“When you look at college football today, I think it’s important to have a balance,” Day said. “It’s important to be able to line up under center, run the football, play action pass, do some things, and then also run spread and tempo. I think when you can mix those two things, and you are good at both of those things — it’s not easy to do — but I think our quarterbacks can do that. Justin (Fields) can do that.
“It brings a different level of preparation for the defense.”
It sounds as though Ohio State is poised to provide opposing defenses a lot of different looks this season, and Fields is going to be Day’s favorite weapon.