Ryan Day Promises Ohio State Will Use Fiesta Motivation
Ryan Day left a capacity crowd at Value City Arena with a little something to hold onto Thursday night, even though it wasn't what they came to see.
Ohio State's head football coach inspired fans with a two-minute address at halftime of the Buckeyes' 62-59 loss to Minnesota, which tilted on Marcus Carr's three-point field goal with 3.3 seconds left.
Day thanked fans for their support during the season and pledged to use a 29-23 loss to Clemson in the College Football Playoff at the Fiesta Bowl as motivation for 2020.
Here is the transcript of Day's remarks:
"I’d like to thank Buckeye Nation for a lot of things. The first thing I want to thank you for is, when we were at home this year, we had the best damn fans in the land. We felt that.
"We had a lot of noon games this year, and in those noon games, when we came out of that tunnel, that place was rocking. It was rocking early. And then to finish with that Penn State game, we asked you guys to be really loud in that game...that was the loudest I’ve ever heard the ‘Shoe. So, thank you for that.
"The second thing I want to thank you guys for is, when we traveled on the road this year, it was unbelievable. When we were at Indiana, when we were at Northwestern, we took over those stadiums.
"We won the rivalry game in Ann Arbor. We went to Indianapolis and we won the Big Ten Championship. And for that, thank you.
"I’m very proud of this team. To be honest, I’m damn proud of this team. What we did this year, undefeated during the regular season -- again,, to have won that rivalry game in Ann Arbor, won the Big Ten Championship -- I want to give one real loud round of applause for what these guys did this year. Let’s hear it for them."
(Thirty-second ovation)
"But with that being said, and again I want to thank everybody for coming out to Arizona...that game out there in Arizona didn’t sit well with any of us. I just want everybody to know in this room right here, that game did not sit well with us.
"And you have my word, we’re not going to forget about that game. Our guys have already been working hard, working hard with Coach Mick (Marotti), and we’re going to do everything we can to keep that game in the back of our minds so next year we come back even stronger.
"Go Bucks!"
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