towards a confrontation with michigan wolverines At the end of November ohio Head coach Ryan Day has been brutally honest about how much the rivalry means to him and how it eats away at him when he's on the back foot.
“Honestly, other than losing my dad and a few other things, it's the worst thing that's happened to my family.” day said In November. “So something like that can never happen again.”
It happened again, and Ohio State has now lost four straight to Michigan.
Ohio State lost to Michigan 13-10 to end the regular season. Despite being a 20.5 point favoritethings got ugly for the program in a hurry. Ohio State finished the regular season with a 10-2 record, but fans were angry and critics forgot about Day, even though the program was still in the College Football Playoff.
“This guy, Ryan Day, if he doesn't win a national championship, he should go” ESPN Stephen A. Smith said last month.
Day hasn't won a national championship yet, but there's no denying Ohio State's turnaround since the loss at Michigan was so impressive. The Buckeyes won three straight in the playoffs. They beat Tennessee 42-17 in the first round, beat Oregon 41-21 in the Rose Bowl, and defeated Texas 28-14 in the Cotton Bowl. And now they 8.5 points betting favorite That's all notre dame cathedral The U.S. Championships will be held Monday night in Atlanta.
Ohio State's new focus can be attributed to how they dug in after the loss at Michigan and fixed the issues that led to that loss.
“I think there are some great stories to be told about what happened behind closed doors, some of the things that were said, some of the personal challenges we had with each other, and the story as a whole. But the only way it's going to be told is if a banner is put on Woody, that's it,” Day said this week. “That's the harsh reality of this game, no one cares what you go through and you have to win the last game to complete the mission. That's it for us. Yes, some of these wins were great wins for us, but what's important to me is winning this last game.”
Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer also spoke about how the loss to Michigan hurt, but gave the team a chance to reflect and rise from the proverbial ashes.
“I can't even explain it. You'll never get over that loss,” Sawyer said. “And to be honest, this is the type of loss that most teams don't recover from. Everybody blames everyone else, the program ends on its own, eggs on itself the next game, and then suddenly it's over. We were going to do that against Tennessee, and I think a lot of people expected that, but what those people didn't understand was as harsh as some of the criticism coming from outside. In our program, it's a family.”
Sawyer said the team took a week to digest and then met after the Michigan game. Sawyer said things “heated up” and “everyone was upset and frustrated” and “anger flared.” There were some difficult questions asked during the meeting, but Sawyer praised Day for being proactive and accepting the grievances. This leaves Sawyer College and Ohio State with several paths forward.
“Option A: You can stay back after getting punched by TTUN (the team from the north) and play as most people expect, since you are already losing. Or option B: You can bounce back. Stand up, lock up, get out, and play our fucking game,” Sawyer said. “We could have quit, which is what everyone knew we wanted…or we could have been, as we know, the best team in the country. We chose option B.
Ohio State didn't overreact or overcorrect after the loss to Michigan. We collectively felt that it was not a schematic thing, but a matter of mentality and execution.
“It's not magic or mystical,” offensive assistant Justin Frye said. “There were adjustments, assignments and communication errors. How do we fix that and clean it up so we can play harder, more physical, with more confidence?”
No team seems to have more confidence than Ohio State at the moment, and a win over Notre Dame in the national championship would finally silence Ryan Day's critics and make him a legend in the eyes of the Buckeye faithful. It will be. It would put Day on the same pedestal as other great Ohio State coaches (Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer) who won national championships with this program, and people would certainly This will be a turn off for him, who has lost four games in four years. Straight to Michigan.
