Ryan Day, Kirby Smart Provide Final Updates Ahead Of Peach Bowl

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart held a joint press conference Friday morning ahead of the Peach Bowl on Saturday, providing final updates as their teams are set to square off at 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

With a clash on the horizon between one of the nation’s best offenses in Ohio State and one of the nation’s best defenses in Georgia, much of the focus was on the impending battle.

“Any time you get to this level of football, you’re going to be playing against complete teams,” Day said. “Georgia’s defense is complete. They have really good players in the back end, very, very talented, highly recruited, and been developed at a high level with tremendous scheme.”

Smart returned the favor, and said Ohio State’s offense – which has talent that “oozes off the tape” – has talented players across the board.

“(Tight end Cade Stover), who I have a lot of respect for, I think is one of the best tight ends we’ve faced all year,” Smart said. “They’ve got a guy that can distribute the ball and get it to them. So it’s a very, very talented team.

“When you’re playing Ohio State, you’ve got to be disruptive,” he continued. “You’ve got to affect the quarterback some kind of way. Because, if you don’t, he’s very accurate. He’s a very accurate passer who knows where he’s going with the ball. When you give them free access with a quarterback like that, they can wear you out.”

The coaches also touched on what preparation has looked like over the past month and how it will look going into Saturday, which Day adding that Ohio State is looking to treat this like a regular game week rather than a drawn-out bowl week.

“We have our walk throughs,” he said. “We have our meetings. We have our night together on Friday. We call it best Fridays in football. It will be a long day, getting ready for this game and (8 p.m.) kickoff…so we try to do the best we can at keeping the routine the same.”

Despite the differences they’ll have on the field in the Peach Bowl, Smart said his team is preparing in a similar fashion.

“We keep it home and treat it like a road game in terms of we would be arriving today,” he said. “We want them to have a mindset of, they arrived today. That’s one of the hardest things psychologically to prepare your team for from being in the same place for six, seven days, sometimes in the same room.”

The coaches were also in agreement on the teams enjoying their time in Atlanta, but that everyone is ready for the game to kick off and for the College Football Playoff to begin.