In the final minutes of Ohio State’s 70-0 win against FCS foe Grambling State, coach Ryan Day had no hesitation.
“We’re just going to keep getting better,” Day said looking back at the shutout victory at Ohio Stadium. “The snaps are the snaps. The scoreboard’s the scoreboard.”
In other words, kneeling to run out the clock was not something Day said he considered. Ahead 63-0, with 5:17 left, third-string quarterback Tavien St. Clair was preparing to lead his second series of the game. Starter Julian Sayin’s day had ended at halftime, backup Lincoln Kienholz took over from there and finally St. Clair got his chance behind center with 9:40 to play.
St. Clair would attempt only two passes over the course of Ohio State’s final 12 snaps, both of which were short incompletions.
“We didn’t want to throw the ball down the field late in the game,” Day said. “We tried to be respectful there, but up until the third quarter, we were trying to get Lincoln some reps because it’s important for us and that’s why we play the game. Once we got Tavien in the game, it was pretty controlled, a couple (passing looks) underneath and just ran it.”
Once Bo Jackson rushed around the right end and fumbled the ball out of bounds at the 2-yard line, the Buckeyes had first and goal and about 70 seconds of game clock left. Sam Dixon then ran up the middle twice and found the end zone on his second carry with 31 seconds to play.
Day said he was fine with that and that he made sure his players knew it.
“I told the guys, when you go in the game, it’s OK to try and score,” he said. “That’s why you’re in the game, is to score points. You’re not in here to just run the game out. We challenge those guys to get it on film and get better. We’ve got to keep playing and trying to get those guys reps.”
Grambling State coach Mickey Joseph did not seem to have any issues with how Ohio State conducted itself.
“Coach Day did a great job, just being respectful with it,” he said. “Those kids were very respectful from Ohio State.”
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at aj****@******ch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Kneel or score? Ohio State’s Ryan Day talks end of game vs Grambling State
