It was cold. And snowy. And players had the flu. And what took place in the dark was set to come to light. And it was just a few plays. And the quarterback was the issue. And it was a few more plays. Yada, yada, yada.
Whether it’s from Ohio State fans or head coach Ryan Day himself, there hasn’t been an excuse that the Buckeye contingent hasn’t liked when it’s come to losing to Michigan football.
Yes, the rivalry had been lopsided from 2001 to 2019, but such has been the nature of The Game. Michigan won a ton in the early years of college football, then OSU figured things out and dominated from the 1952-1968. Then the 10-year war happened. In fact, once Bo Schembechler took over the Wolverines, up until Jim Tressel took over the Buckeyes in 2001, Michigan beat Ohio State, 19-11-2. So, one could say the rivalry is cyclical.
But something funny happened on the way to this decade we currently find ourselves in. What was started to be seen as a birthright south of Monroe Country quickly shifted into Michigan’s favor, as the maize and blue have won three in a row.
When Ryan Day took over the machine from Urban Meyer in 2019, he only knew winning in the rivalry. As the offensive coordinator in 2018, he oversaw the biggest rout in The Game in modern history. In his first year as head coach, it looked quite similar. Behind closed doors, Day proclaimed that the Buckeyes would ‘hang 100’ on Michigan — which may have happened if they had played given how depleted the Wolverines were due to COVID (Michigan canceled the Maryland game the week before, though self-proclaimed ‘Buckeye Nation’ like to don their tinfoil hats when discussing the circumstances that surrounded the cancellation).
To some degree, it had appeared that Day had found some contrition after the string of beatings the past three years. “Well, it’s easy to say that it comes down to a play or two, but that’s not really the case,” Day told reporters at Big Ten media days on Tuesday.
But he can’t help himself. He can’t understand why things haven’t gone his way. He doesn’t get it.
A SiriusXM interview from Big Ten media days surfaced in the ensuing days after his turn with the media at-large, and Day is getting roasted in the comments and the quote tweets. Though he had said at the podium sessions that it wasn’t just a few plays, he went on satellite radio and basically said, well, it was a few plays, and OSU should have won The Game — at least in 2023.
“Every year, you’ve gotta look at it and figure out what it was,” Day said. “You look at the first couple years and you try to identify exactly what was going on in that game — and you make changes. And you look at this game and you try to identify, OK, where were we in that game. And why didn’t we finish it in the fourth quarter in the way that we wanted to?
“So you look at all these different things and you make the decision, OK, how far off are we? Are there major changes that have to be made or not? That was a very good team, but we still should have won the game. And we didn’t.”
Ohio State never led in The Game last year. And the previous two years were blowouts. But last year, despite the game being closer than the previous two iterations, Michigan still led wire-to-wire (there was a brief tie), but it had its arm tied behind its back. Head coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten, and the Wolverines had their offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, Sherrone Moore, pulling triple duty, acting as the interim coach. They also lost their best offensive lineman, Zak Zinter, with the game very much in doubt.
Sometimes, close losses is just how the cookie crumbles. In fact, before Jim Harbaugh took over, Michigan lost most of the recent contests to the Buckeyes by a slim margin. 2016, 2013, 2012, 2006, 2005, 2002, and 2001 were all Wolverine losses by one score. In most of those, Michigan did enough to win — but it didn’t.
That’s how rivalries turn around. Tressel took over in 2001, and won close ones for OSU against Lloyd Carr every year but 2004 and 2007 (Michigan won in 2003).
Additionally, Day doesn’t appear to understand how or why Michigan has won in the past three years. While there have been accusations and open insinuations that it’s all about Connor Stalions and his alleged sign-stealing scheme, the reality is that Michigan won in the trenches.
In 2021, the Wolverines rarely passed in the second half, instead opting to run the ball down the middle with impunity. The defense was aggressive and kept quarterback C.J. Stroud on his toes, but Stroud still had a pretty incredible day, statistically, otherwise. The Michigan defense, led by a current NFL head coach in Mike Macdonald, had the strategy to get the Buckeyes off-kilter enough that they’d find themselves settling for field goals rather than touchdowns.
In 2022, Day got fidgety and kicked surprising punts instead of going for it on fourth-and-short — multiple times. Michigan capitalized, wearing down the Buckeye defensive line. And once they were fatigued, Donovan Edwards scored two 75-plus yard touchdowns as the dagger.
In 2023, Ohio State was better in the trenches for much of the game, but not when it counted. Starting with Blake Corum’s touchdown after Zinter’s injury, Michigan ran all over the Buckeyes on offense, while pressure defensively forced quarterback Kyle McCord into an errant throw, resulting in the game-sealing interception by Rod Moore.
And Day still hasn’t seemingly fixed his problems. His…
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