Here’s everything Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said about Drew Allar and Penn State

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with the media Tuesday afternoon ahead of his Buckeyes’ matchup with James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions Saturday at noon in Columbus, Ohio.

And while the matchups between the two teams have featured plenty of offensive weapons in the past — and will to some extent this year — the Nittany Lion defense was a main point of discussion.

Here’s everything Day said about the Nittany Lions during his press conference.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day

On how much he recruited Penn State QB Drew Allar

“He’s an Ohio kid who had a great career. We already had Quinn Ewers committed to us and then there was a reclassification and at that point he was already committed to Penn State. A lot of respect for him, for his program and certainly being from the state of Ohio, he’s a very good player.”

On what he thinks of Allar now

“I think he’s done a good job in his first year. He’s had poise, he’s a big, strong quarterback who leads the team well and manages the game well and has a good makeup. I think he’s got a bright future ahead of him.”

On how he knows Penn State’s defense is good despite not facing elite offenses

“You know what, they are coming off last year. They’re a very, very good defense. You can see the turnovers they’re creating. They’ve played against some solid teams. It’s not like they haven’t played against anybody. They’ve played against some Big Ten teams and you can just see the 1-on-1 matchups. Coming off last year, these guys have played before. Some veteran guys on that side of the ball. They’re a very good defense.”

On the difficulty of recruiting Allar when he was committed to Penn State

“We were always respectful of the situation. He was always respectful of the situation, he and his family were great. It’s kind of the way it played out. A lot of respect for those guys. ... When you’re committed somewhere and you have a relationship over time, it’s just one of those things where you kind of talk to him and reach out and just see if anything were ever to change, just let us know. But at the same time, he was committed to Penn State and we respected that.”

On Penn State’s pass rush

“This will be the biggest challenge to date. They’re very twitchy, very quick. They get after the quarterback at a high level. Both (defensive) ends are NFL players for sure. They’ve been very productive, disruptive. So our tackles in particular are going to have to do a great job. They’re creative about where they align guys and everything. It’s going to be everybody. They do a lot of moving and do a lot of blitzing so we’ve got to be on our game. It’s been like that against Penn State for a long time.”

On Penn State controlling the ball and how it affects a game plan

“It’s interesting. I think they’ve done a really good job this year. They have a good offense. They have a good offensive line, big and strong. The running backs run hard. But some of those games that they’ve been in with all of the turnovers — I think maybe in the Iowa game that was 90 plays to like the mid-30s, which I’ve never heard that before — they’ve done an unbelievable job of creating turnovers and giving their offense the ball. They’ve kind of held onto the ball and played complementary football there. We’ve gotta look into all of those things. Certainly taking care of the football is going to be of utmost importance here. They’ve done a nice job of that. We’ll have to have contingency plans in place for that.”

On Penn State’s lack of explosive plays on offense

“They’ve had a lot of plays in plus-territory and certainly in the red zone. I think maybe they lead the country in most plays in the red zone. You may not see as many of those types of plays, but certainly you know they have them.”