Highlights from Ohio State head coach Ryan Day’s pre-Michigan press conference

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with the media today for his weekly press conference to discuss the game this weekend against the Michigan Wolverines. The Game has dominated national media headlines because of the College Football Playoff implications between the No. 2 ranked Buckeyes and No. 3 ranked Wolverines.

Ahead of the biggest regular season game in college football this year, Day touched on several aspects regarding the Wolverines.

On Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter’s defense and the similarities to Mike Macdonald’s from last year:

“Very similar. He’s had a few tweaks here and there, still very good players and they’re playing really hard. It’s one of the best defenses in the country.”

On preparations and expectations surrounding Michigan running back Blake Corum’s availability:

“He’s a great player. We’re going to prepare for him to play, we expect him to play and we’ll do the best we can. They’re a very good offense — they have plenty of running backs, plenty of good players. While he is very, very good, we’ll just continue to prepare for all of them.”

On this game being a “Revenge Game”:

“I think you can’t just get yourself going the week of, you have to build and try to recognize the things you need to get better at and then address them, get them fixed so that when you’re there again, you’re more prepared for the moment. And that’s really the focus of it.”

On the postgame comments from coaches and others last season following Ohio State’s loss in Ann Arbor:

“When you’re playing in a game like this, there’s always going to be back and forth and things said. You see things and read things, and obviously there’s a lot of it you try to ignore. But sometimes it matters who says it too and how much consideration you give it. But at the end of the day, we got beat in that game and we have to figure out why that was. A lot of people have opinions when you lose a game and we had to identify what was real and what wasn’t. But we certainly don’t get caught up in other people’s opinions, we cherish ours and try to make great decisions about how to move forward.”

On the pressure of being 1-1 in the rivalry with the chance to be 1-2, and become the first Ohio State head coach with a losing record to Michigan since John Cooper:

“I think any time you’re here and you’re playing in this game, you’re going to feel it. It doesn’t matter what your record has been. You feel it any time you’re at Ohio State because you know what’s on the line. We’re not going to sit here and start to think about all that. We’re going to focus on having a great week of preparation and playing really, really hard. And then when it’s all said and done, we’ll look back and see where all the tally marks are. To me, this has nothing to do with anything other than this team and just preparing this team to play as hard as we possibly can on Saturday.”

On Jim Harbaugh’s “born on third base comment” from a year ago:

“I’m not going to talk about it right now, maybe there’s another time to hit on it. But like I said, there’s certain things you listen to, there’s certain things you don’t. And any time you’re in a high profile game with a lot of stuff going on, there’s a lot of things said, and there’s a time and a place to talk about that, but it’s not now.”