Jan. 14—COLUMBUS — Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles answered questions Tuesday during a news conference about OSU’s national championship game against Notre Dame, its 28-14 victory over Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinals. and a wide range of other topics.
Some thoughts from Kelly:
… ON NOTRE DAME’S PASS DEFENSE: The Fighting Irish’s pass defense, which ranks second nationally behind Ohio State, will be a challenge, Kelly said.
“They’re one of the best pass defenses in the country and it shows. You look at how hard they play and the reason they do it is because they can. They can all cover. It’s not like stay away from that guy and you can throw to that guy They’re trying to keep the quarterback guessing,” he said.
…WHAT DID TEXAS DO TO JEREMIAH SMITH? : Texas held Ohio State’s freshman receiver to 1 catch for 3 yards. He had caught at least three passes in his first 14 games and had 70 catches before last Friday’s game.
“They threw some things at Jeremiah to try to take him away, some bracket coverage and had an inside and outside guy on top. Will (Howard) did a great job diagnosing what they were doing. Carnell (Tate ) had a huge game for us The beauty of what we have here is we have more than one weapon,” Kelly said.
Kelly said Smith showed no signs of being bothered by not having more catches.
“He’s been great. We had practice yesterday and he was flying around, excited about the chance to go play in the national championship,” Kelly said. “He’s always a forward-looking guy, what’s the next step, what’s the next challenge.”
… MONTGOMERY’S FIRST START: Luke Montgomery started at left guard against Texas and played every snap after rotating with Austin Siereveld and Tegra Tshabola at the guard spots in Ohio State’s first two playoff games.
It was the first career start for the sophomore from Findlay.
“I think Luke did a really good job. I think the rotation part was Austin was a little banged up. Those decisions on reps and what we’re going to do with these guys will be based on where their health is when we’ll get to next Sunday and next Monday when we start talking about depth.
“I thought Luke, with his extended shots, did a really, really good job.”
Knowles followed Kelly to the lectern. Some thoughts from him:
… ON RYAN DAY ASSESSING HIS CRITICISM: “I’m happy for our head coach. He’s really a great coach. He would do anything for the team and the players. He works very hard. He doesn’t let none of the “The outside world affects us. I am very happy for him. He deserves all the recognition and support,” Knowles said.
… BURKE INJURY “MINOR”: Starting cornerback Denzel Burke did not play in the second half against Texas because of an unspecified injury.
Knowles said: “It’s a minor thing he’s working on.”
… ALWAYS COUNT ON DEFENSE: Knowles said building a defense everyone can trust is one of his goals at OSU.
“It’s always been a goal since I got here that everyone can look at the defense and no matter what the game situation is, everything will be fine. We want everyone to have that confidence in the defense. I know when an offense has that confidence in the defense, it can be more aggressive,” he said.
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