Peach Bowl: Ryan Day exhorts Buckeyes to play ‘violent’ against Georgia

For No. 4 Ohio State and coach Ryan Day, the game is not only a chance to play the defending national champion for a spot in the National Championship Game but to bounce back from a 45-23 loss to Michigan in November that renewed questions about toughness the Buckeyes heard throughout the offseason and into the regular season.

“We gotta play violent in this game,” Day said Thursday. “We gotta execute at a high level, and that’s what it’s going to come down to. What we’re not going to do is play it close to the vest. We’re going to go and then our guys are going to play that way and have that mentality when they walk in that stadium because we know what the stadium is going to be like. We know the electricity. We know fans will be heavily in Georgia’s favor. It’s going to be a loud environment, all those types of things.”

Here are five things to konw about the game:

1. The teams should be pretty healthy.

For Ohio State, TreVeyon Henderson is out, but fellow running back Miyan Williams and starting right guard Matt Jones are expected to be good to go.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart said he is hopeful right tackle Warren McClendon and receiver Ladd McConkey will be able to play, and it is safe to assume both teams have more than a handful of players who will benefit from a month off to rest and recuperate from a long regular season.

“When you’re into this part of the season, you certainly have a month to get some guys healed up, but that’s college football,” Day said Friday. “You can’t pick up somebody on waivers. You’ve got to develop young players and bring them along.

“This time has been great because bowl practice is very similar to spring practice where you can get young players a lot of reps and a lot of good-on-good work. So you continually use this time, the spring practice, the preseason, to build your depth so that, when you need to fill a guy or fill a spot, you can do that.”

2. Smart does not expect to benefit from his team having played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium before.

“Probably that you know where the scoreboard, the clocks, and all the different stuff is is the biggest thing,” said Smart, whose team opened the season against Oregon in the stadium and beat LSU there for the SEC championship earlier this month. “The field’s the same. There’s not a lot of difference in terms of the diameter and width of the field, but I think it’s more about familiarity of the quarterback knowing the shot clock and the ribbons and the different things.

The biggest difference is both teams are going to practice in there, so they’ll be familiar with it by the time the game starts.”

3. Both quarterbacks are Heisman Trophy semifinalists.

Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud has thrown for more yards and has a better set of receivers to throw to, but Stetson Bennett IV of Georgia has a national championship, an SEC championship and a reputation for playing his best when the lights are brightest.

“They had two different kind of paths,” said Smart, who recruited Stroud when he was a four-star prospect in California three years ago. “C.J. was highly recruited. C.J. got to play relatively early in his career, and they both had success. I have a lot of respect for the way that both of them treat their teammates and make it more about their teammates than themselves.”

The Georgia coach said he admires Stroud’s leadership.

“I think when you play that position, you’d better be a leader,” Smart said. “He was very quiet (as a recruit), very humble, but very talented. He has great vision down the field, and he has great athleticism to take off and run. That’s something he and Stetson both share.”

4. The Georgia offense presents a unique challenge for Jim Knowles’ defense.

The Bulldogs might not have the most dynamic players on the outside, but they have a strong offensive line, multiple running backs capable of doing damage and two elite tight ends in Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington.

The versatility of Bowers, who is the only player in the country who has both run for and caught touchdowns of more than 75 yards, allows offensive coordinator Todd Monken to disguise what he’s doing and change things up without changing personnel.

“It’s a complete offense,” Knowles said. “It’s developed like an NFL offense, and they have a bunch of tools at their disposal. So we need to be sound across the board and really play hard with great effort. It is still football, and that makes a big difference. The effort of the players really makes a big difference.”

5. Georgia’s defensive line presents a major test for the Buckeyes.

Stroud and receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka can be tough for any team to match, but that depends on Stroud having time to throw.

All-American tackle Jalen Carter headlines a Georgia front that wants to make life miserable for Stroud and bottle up the Ohio State running game.

“You see some really good players with really good size, but you also see multiple people that can play,” Day said. “You see really two, sometimes three deep each of the positions inside.

“I think they do a great job with their hands. I think they do a good job with their pad level, and they try to just eat up as many gaps as possible and try to create a mess inside, and they do a good job of that, and they have. They’ve done that against a lot of great teams and a lot of great offenses. We know we’ve got to play our best game up front.”