Penn State Opponent Preview: Ohio State Expects 'Fierce Competition' at QB

Penn State returns to Ohio State over Halloween weekend, fittingly since Ohio Stadium has been a horror show for the Nittany Lions. Penn State has lost seven of its last games in Ohio, along with eight straight to the Buckeyes dating to 2016.

The Nittany Lions are 3.5-point underdogs, in probably the only regular-season game they won't be favorites, but hope springs this year. As Penn State coach James Franklin said, he has his best combination of personnel and coaching this season. The Nittany Lions have to win one of these, right?

But what about the Buckeyes? Head coach Ryan Day has a new team, albeit one with the two best players in college football in receiver Jeremiah Smith and safety Caleb Downs. He also promised a "fierce competition" at starting quarterback. So here's what Day had to say about Ohio State at the Big Ten Football Media Days.

Ryan Day on the season: We've said it before, we're not defending national champions because we're not defending anything. They can't take the trophy away. We're looking to attack and win a championship with this team. That started in the offseason, and it's continuing in through July. I think we've had a great offseason, but now we need to have a great August as we head into this first game against Texas.

QUESTION: What's the next step for Jeremiah Smith?

RYAN DAY: If you look at him, you've seen him where he's gotten bigger and stronger and faster than he was last year. He was at workouts the other day, and Mick constantly says during our warmups, he's the first guy every time we run through and we're warming up. The first guy every single time. He just sets such a standard. You don't need to motivate Jeremiah.

What he did as a freshman speaks for itself, and like you said, he may not be an older guy, he may not be really vocal in terms of his leadership, but what he does on the field speaks for itself, and the work ethic he's brought into this year has been exceptional. I think that deserves an opportunity to be here today, and that's why he's here.

I think Caleb and Sonny [Styles] also have really taken big steps as leaders because we know guys are in different roles this year. I think all three of them have done a good job.

QUESTION: Speaking of Jeremiah, he had some pretty pointed comments about losing the game last year and vowed to not let that happen again. Just to your point about the way college football has changed, some of the traditions are changing, what does it mean to have a player like Jeremiah reinforce those old customs?

RYAN DAY: Well, he's very, very competitive, and he's not used to losing. We lost the first game against Oregon. I mean, he was angry. He wasn't the only one, and certainly for him, he expects to win every single game. He expects to win every drill that he's in. That's just the way he's wired.

When you ask a question, you're going to get a genuine, authentic response from Jeremiah, and I think the guys feed off of that. When he tells you something, you can believe it. There's no reading between the lines with him. He's going to tell you exactly. He may not be a man of many words, but when he says something, you're listening, and we're all listening, and he's the ultimate competitor.

QUESTION: Defensively you had one of the top teams in the country last year. You kind of turned the page now with Matt Patricia coming in and eight new starters on that side of the ball. Just what is your degree of comfort going into the start of preseason camp about where that's at?

RYAN DAY: A lot of work, but I'm very excited about our defense and what we're doing. We wanted to keep continuity there, and that was one of the reasons it took us a long time and had a thorough process in hiring Matt.

When you look at Tim and Larry and James and Matt Guerrieri, these guys had a huge part of what we did last year on defense. We wanted to keep that continuity. We want to run the Ohio State defense. Matt was willing to embrace that.

Now, Matt has his own background and things that he likes. I think one of the things he does a great job of is putting guys in situations to be successful. You look what he did at the Patriots and his background. He'll have his little different changes, but we want to keep really the structure of what we've done in the past and keep that going.

I'm fired up. I think Matt has done a great job of building relationships already with the current players. When you ask them about that and you ask the recruits about Matt, they just have glowing responses about who he is, the way he connects, his personality. I'm fired up.

There's guys that we have to replace, but when you look at some of the guys that are coming off the edge, when you look at our back end, when you look at our linebackers, you see a lot of potential there, but we have to go do it. That's why August is very important.

QUESTION: Toward the end of spring you called the quarterback competition between Julian [Sayin] and Lincoln {Kienholz]. It was pretty neck and neck after the summer. Where do you see those on two guys competing?

RYAN DAY: Same, because it's hard to make any progress unless you're actually on the field playing football, but I think both guys have gotten stronger. It will be interesting to see once we get done with our summer program with Mick next week, you know, who our "Gold" and who's "Iron" Buckeyes. That will be big for the leadership, but guys have taken leadership roles.

They've been throwing with the wide receivers. I ask those guys all the time, and they like both of them. We're going to put them in as many competitive situations as we possibly can to figure out who handles that the best.

We've got to be on point week one. We can't be messing around. I know that we'll need all of those guys in that room this year. When you look at Will, he was a guy who was an older guy, who was experienced, and he was able to sustain the entire season. That's not always the way it is.

We have to build depth in that room as well. I've got a feeling they'll all play throughout the season, but it will be a fierce competition to be who the starter is.

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