Ryan Day said the decision to remove Denzel Burke from the Cotton Bowl game was based on feedback from the player and doctors.
The Buckeyes’ Denzel Burke, who has been dealing with what coach Ryan Day called an “upper extremity issue,” will be available against the Fighting Irish on Jan. 20 in the national championship game.
Burke, a four-year starter at cornerback, was limited to 28 snaps in the Cotton Bowl win against Texas and gave way to Jermaine Mathews Jr. for the second half. Day said the decision to remove Burke from the game was based on feedback from the player and doctors.
Day said Mathews has earned the trust of his teammates and coaches.
“He graded out a champion,” Day said. “He’s a very competitive player. He loves the competition. He loves his teammates. He’s a gritty type of guy that loves being a Buckeye, loves his teammates, loves, again, to compete.”
During a press conference on Sunday, Day said his team, going for its first national title since 2014, planned for the possibility of playing an extended season and attempted to put in some safeguards in place if it happened. They were intentional in building their roster and managing pace of play, he said.
“We looked at a lot of different things and metrics about playing this many games, playing our 16th game, what that was going to be like,” Day said. “We knew it was going to be a little bit of a battle of attrition at times. So depth was certainly a critical part of roster management and talent acquisition, but also how we practice, how we play. So we’ve taken all those things into consideration so that we’re still really, really fresh going into the end of the season.”
Leave a Reply