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Welcome back to Bucket Talk.

I'm Stephen Means.

That's Define Christi, and that is Andrew Gillis.

We talked with Ryan Day ahead of Ohio State's ranked game against Illinois. This is the second time this year that they're playing a team who was ranked. They played Texas in week one. Texas is no longer ranked, though, because they stink. Illinois is still ranked, though. And this is also the first time they go on the Champagne with Ryan Day as the head coach. Illinois ranked 17th right now. This will be the first trip to Champaign for Ryan Day as the head coach of Ohio State that they were supposed to play back in 2020, but the game got canceled because of COVID. And it's actually, I think the first time they've played Illinois in general since I think 2017. And Ryan Day even pointed that out. And the reason he pointed that out is, no, he didn't point it out, but somebody else did. Like, Dwayne Haskings had to come in for a couple of snaps for J.T. Barrett that year. And I think he fumbled a snap or something like that. I'll have to factor that. But we did talk with Ryan Day about a bunch of different topics. I guess, Stefan, where do we start? Do we start with the fact that Ryan Day is adamant that Illinois is a top 10 team and you should throw out what happened to them against Indiana?

Or should we start with whether or not Kenyatta Jackson is going to play in this game?

Where do you want to start?

Or other, anywhere.

Where do you want to start about what we learned from Ryan Day today?

I want to start with Ryan Day being Nick Sabin and being absolutely terrified of losing at every given moment of every given day. Okay, so we're picking back up where we were on the Monday pot. Cool. I like this. Yeah. Number one thing is like I wake up every morning and the first thing on my mind is what if we lose a football game? that that cannot happen like that that is where ryan day is like he he literally said that whenever ohio state

gets complimented for how good they are he worries that they're being set up to lose like that is

peak like football coach like the jokes about like peak male body like that is peak football

coach what ryan day was saying there it's you you, you joke about a scene before we got on here. Like essentially all he had to do was just say rat poison and it would have been probably like copy and paste from something Nick Sabin once said like going into a game. And I think this Illinois game is, I don't want to say like Ohio State's being set up or that this is like a trap game,

because I do think Ohio State has known for a while how tough this trip is going to be and how good, you know, this Illinois team can be. Obviously, injuries have have derailed their season a little bit, but they're still, like you said, a top 20 team. You're playing on the road. It's 11 a.m. local. at places, I don't know if it's the toughest place to play, but it's going to be rocking.

It's going to be loud.

At least... said a top 20 team. If you're playing on the road, it's 11 a.m. local.

That place is, I don't know if it's the toughest place to play, but it's going to be rocking. It's going to be loud at least early on in the game. And Ohio State, if they're not playing their best selves or something close to that, could very well lose this game. Now, they are 16.5 point favorites last I checked, they are really good. they are definitely the superior team but I

understand where Ryan Day's talk favorites last I checked, they are really good. They are definitely the superior team. But I understand

where Ryan Day is talking about, you know, the being set up thing because football in every

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