What Ryan Day said heading into Ohio State's crucial showdown vs. MSU

Ohio State has a monstrous matchup with Michigan State on Saturday as it could determine who gets to Indianapolis next month.

Both teams come into it at 9-1 and both have superstar running backs that can change the outcome of the game in an instant.

TreVeyon Henderson and Kenneth Walker III are both in contention for the Doak Walker Award (nation’s best running back) and for the Heisman (nation’s most outstanding player).

Both teams also have strong defenses and Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day spoke on that, plus a lot more during his media availability on Thursday.

Day said the team isn't practicing in pads on Wednesday as they did earlier in the season to try to keep players' healthy.

— Bill Rabinowitz 🗞 (@brdispatch) November 18, 2021

Day said he watched last year's game at home with his son, RJ. Day had COVID and had to miss the game. Day said he was screaming and throwing stuff, even though OSU won easily.

— Bill Rabinowitz 🗞 (@brdispatch) November 18, 2021

Ryan Day says Garrett Wilson had a great week of practice last week – “he didn’t like not playing” against Nebraska – and has had another good week of practice this week.

“He’s had a different look in his eye, and I know he loves playing in big games.”

— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 18, 2021

Ryan Day says he hears from a lot of former Ohio State players who are now in the NFL who say they miss playing for the Buckeyes.

“They like the NFL, they like everything that comes with it, but they miss the camaraderie and brotherhood that comes with college football.”

— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 18, 2021

Ryan Day says parents are so involved in players’ recruitments now that “sometimes you have to recruit the parents more than the young men.”

— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 18, 2021

Ryan Day says Jack Miller will likely be reinstated to the team this afternoon after Ohio State takes “a real hard look” at all the details of what happened.

— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 18, 2021

Day on QB Jack Miller's guilty plea: "We're going to take a real hard look at" but said it looks like he'll be reinstated to the team.

— Bill Rabinowitz 🗞 (@brdispatch) November 18, 2021

Ryan Day said he thinks Ohio State has had the focus it needs to have going into this week’s game.

“You can't win the game on Tuesday or Wednesday, but you certainly lose it if you're not prepared.”

— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 18, 2021

Ryan Day says pass defense might be the most improved element of the Buckeye defense this season: "For the most part, we've done a better job at forcing quarterbacks to get to reads 3 and 4."

However, Day says "not as much last week."

— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) November 18, 2021

Kickoff will be at Noon ET.