Presser Bullets: Ryan Day Previews Penn State, Says Jaxon Smith-Njigba is

Ohio State hits the road for its second away game of the season this weekend, and James Franklin’s 6-1 Nittany Lions will be waiting for the Buckeyes in Happy Valley.

To preview a battle between ranked Big Ten East opponents, reflect on this past weekend’s blowout win over Iowa and issue several other updates on the season, Ohio State coaches Ryan Day, Jim Knowles and Kevin Wilson held a press conference at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center Tuesday.

Here’s a bullet-point breakdown of everything they had to say:

Ryan Day

• “Every week is different and you try to be the best you can to identify where you can be most successful week in and week out.”
• Day says he spends most of the 48 hours leading up to a game thinking about the possibility that an opponent might do something they haven’t shown on film yet.
• Day says balance “makes a big difference” in the Buckeye offense, and the lack of success on the ground was part of the Ohio State’s offensive struggles against Iowa.
• “There was good and there was bad” on the offensive line on Saturday, but Day says a better defense exposes those more quickly.
• Day says Ohio State’s emphasis on toughness is something it hits on every week. “Our guys understand what a challenge this is gonna be.” Day says “going on the road and winning a game like this is gonna be huge.”
• On the Buckeye defense: “When you can start off the game with an interception like that, I know it can really rattle an offense. … We were attacking all day on defense.”
• On Chip Trayanum playing running back: “We lost TC (Caffey) for the year, so he won’t be available. It’s a long-term issue.” Day says Trayanum approached the staff and said he’d be willing to move to running back.
• Day says Palaie Gaoteote and Teradja Mitchell will have to step up at linebacker with Trayanum moving over.
• Day says Jaxon Smith-Njigba wanted to get back into the game on Saturday, but that Ohio State didn’t want to put him over his pitch count. 
• On Penn State: “No matter when you go into Penn State, it’s gonna be a challenge.” Day says playing in Happy Valley in 2020 wasn’t the same as a typical road matchup with a hostile environment.
• Day says Sean Clifford is “tough,” “accurate,” and that he has “a lot of respect” for the veteran Nittany Lion quarterback.
• “There’s a lot of things we want to clean up coming out of that first quarter” of the Iowa game.
• Day says “I’m not one to flood the quarterback with a bunch of information in-game.”
• On Noah Ruggles: “In that game, we kept the momentum going” with Ruggles’…