"Proud of the way that they responded": Ohio State HC Ryan Day shower praises on his players following the electrifying performance against Tennessee

Ryan Day's Ohio State win convincingly against Tennessee on Saturday in the first round of the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes secured a 42-17 victory over the visiting Volunteers at the Ohio Stadium to advance to the next stage of the playoffs where they face Oregon.

It was a comeback from Ohio State following the disappointing performance against Michigan in regular-season finale. The Buckeyes fell to Michigan for the fourth consecutive year, placing Day under the intense scrutiny of the Columbus fanbase. The coach had a proud reaction to his team's outing on Saturday night.

“I'm proud of our seniors for a lot of reasons, one for the fact that they were able to finish their last game at Ohio Stadium with a win like that,” Day said (tiemstamp 1:13). “And I'm also proud of the way that they responded.”

“I told them in the locker room that in life, you're going to be defined by the way you handle adversity in life as a person, as a man, as a dad. And so to see the way that they responded in this game, you can tell from the jump that they had a look in their eye that they were going to go win this game.”

Ryan Day on the confidence Ohio State started with

Ohio State had an electric start to the game against Tennessee on Saturday night. The Buckeyes scored a touchdown in their very first drive of the game, which lasted five plays for 75 yards. Ryan Day answered a question on the confidence his team entered the game with.

“Just the execution,” Day said when questioned about the brilliant start (timestamp 5:15). “We've talked about that in the last few weeks and some of the press conferences you've been in.”

“I know you've heard us harp on execution, execution, execution; because there's a lot of things coming out of that last game that we just looked at didn't execute very well. And certainly, there are, there are things that we needed to do better in terms of scheme, but we also didn't execute.”

The Buckeyes were high on confidence in the first quarter of the encounter at Ohio Stadium. They scored a touchdown in each of their first three and almost got another on the fourth drive. This was crucial to the win, giving them the momentum early on in the matchup.

After outclassing Tennessee, Ryan Day and his team will face another tough test in the next round of the playoffs. The Buckeyes will come against undefeated Oregon in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. This will be a rematch of the regular season encounter in Eugene where the Ducks sealed a narrow 32-31 victory.