No. 2 Ohio State 40, Buffalo 20

Postgame Quotes

Jordan Hall, senior halfback
On his role and how the team performed
“Wherever they put me I’m going to do what I can to help the team win. It was a good win. We’ll take it but we’re not satisfied with it. We know there’s a lot to work on. We have practice tomorrow, so we’ll get back to work.”
 
Ryan Shazier, junior linebacker
On missing game action
“When something happens on either side of the ball I feel like it’s my fault. When I wasn’t in I was listening to the crowd to tell if something was going on. I was just listening to try to figure out what was happening. I feel like with me not out there it hurts the team.”
 
On playing alongside a fast-paced offense
“I don’t care how quick the offense scores. They could score on one play every time. As long as they’re scoring, I’m all for that.”
 
On the game today
“It feels like a win. We got the victory, that’s all that matters. We need to do a better job. We’re supposedly the preseason No. 2 team in the nation. Today we did a good job but we weren’t playing to our potential.”
 
Michael Bennett, junior defensive lineman
On Ohio State’s first win of the season
“We’re 1-0. I think we’re a little disappointed and we know we have plenty of things to work on. We made a couple mistakes but it’s the first game of the season. You don’t want mistakes. You want to go out and have everyone execute well, but at the end of the day it’s about winning.”
 
On the tempo of the Buckeye offense
“It’s good to see we can play fast. We have to keep going with it though, keep putting up points and stopping them. To see us put up 23 points in the first quarter, that has to feel good.”
 
Corey Brown, senior defensive back
On the game
“It was good we came out fast, but obviously we let them back in the game in the second. The leadership was great on the field. I just think Buffalo caught us a bit off guard. I give them credit.”
 
Curtis Grant, junior linebacker
On his playing time
“To be honest I haven’t played a full game since my senior year in high school. Right now I’m really tired but it felt great to get out there.”
 
On playing with energy
“We learned we can always stick together but we need to push forward more. When the crowd is down we need to bring our energy back. Instead of taking our time we need to keep our foot on the gas pedal.”

BUFFALO POSTGAME QUOTES

Jeff Quinn, Buffalo head coach
On the game today
“I give a lot of credit to Ohio State for coming out and putting us down 23-0 early, but I was proud of the way our kids responded. We were able to outscore them in the second, third and fourth quarters.”

On the play of  linebacker Khalil Mack
“His presence was noticed, without a doubt and against quality opposition. He did a great job, was very active and played a ton of snaps. I could not have been more proud of his play on such a big stage.”

On Ohio State’s two-point conversions
“We always say expect the unexpected. Watching coach Urban Meyer for many years, we knew something was going to happen. It was smart on their part and the formation they used caused some mismatches.”

Khalil Mack, senior linebacker
On being down 23-0 at the end of the first quarter
“That’s part of leadership. You have to calm down and get your team together, especially when the other team has that kind of momentum.”

On the fumble at the two-yard line
“We knew we would fight until the end regardless of what happened, but I really think that would have changed the game. That was a big blow, but we fought back.”

Joe Licata, sophomore quarterback
On the game
“We don’t feel good losing, but there are a lot of positives that came out of this. We are going to study the negatives and be better next week. It was a great learning experience.”