Buckeyes Come up Short Again Against Michigan

Loser: Ohio State coach Ryan Day Buckeyes coach Ryan Day is 56-7 at Ohio State. He also has now failed to win a Big Ten title for three straight seasons, the longest stretch in a decade. After Saturday, he is also the first Ohio State coach since John Cooper to lose three straight games against Michigan. Worse, Day is 1-6 against AP top 5 opponents. Simply put, Day is a bizarre case study of a coach who has won everything except the games that matter for three full seasons. There are few precedents. But after losing on Saturday and likely missing a second CFP in three years, Day is firmly on the hot seat in Columbus, Ohio. To make matters worse, it was Day's signature offense that failed in key spots. Quarterback Kyle McCord, a former five-star recruit, threw two backbreaking interceptions in the loss. Now, Day will go into next season without the best wide receiving duo in the nation (Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka). Everything is suddenly on the table.

Buckeyes fans aren't happy with Day after another loss to Michigan By Tom Fornelli Great read by Tom. I'd say the first move is to tell McCord to jump in the Portal. Not Day. There are three goals at Ohio State: win national titles, win the Big Ten and beat Michigan. If you accomplish all three, you become a legend. If you only accomplish two of them, you're beloved. If you only accomplish one of them, it better be beating Michigan. Ryan Day hasn't accomplished any of those goals for three years running. That's why a coach who has gone 56-7 as coach of The Ohio State Buckeyes and 40-3 in conference play finds himself on the receiving end of a lot of anger and frustration from the Ohio State fanbase. And none of this should come as a surprise. I said this would be the case last year. The night of last season's 45-23 loss to Michigan, I said on The Cover 3 Podcast reaction show that if Ryan Day and Ohio State failed to beat Michigan for the third straight time and didn't win the Big Ten, he'd be in trouble. The pitchforks, which were already being polished, would finally come out I also said none of it would make sense, but things making sense and the sport of college football don't find themselves in the vicinity of one another too often. While the SEC has developed a reputation of fan derangement (commonly referred to as "passion"), it is not the sole possessor of delusion amongst its constituency. A sane person looks at the situation and points out Ryan Day has lost seven games. Those losses have come to Clemson (2019 CFP semifinal), Alabama (2020 title game), Oregon (2021 regular season), Georgia (2022 CFP semifinal) and the three losses to Michigan. Oregon is the "worst" loss of the bunch, and the Ducks reached the Pac-12 Championship Game that season. That sane person says three playoff appearances and a Rose Bowl in your first four years as coach are incredible accomplishments and points out the Buckeyes were a missed 50-yard field goal away from likely winning a national title last season. A sane person says these things. A college football fan says, "Yeah, but they've lost to Michigan three times in a row, stupid." Neither one is wrong. Day certainly realizes this. It's evident by everything that the Buckeyes have done in 2023. Following last season's loss, Day initially planned to give up play-calling duties to Brian Hartline. It was short-lived, but while Day continued to call plays, there was a noticeable difference in Ohio State's offense this season, and not only because C.J. Stroud was gone. Plenty of detractors felt Ohio State's problem with Michigan was a result of Michigan being the "tougher" team. Ohio State was "soft." Given that Ohio State suddenly played a style of football that looked a lot more like the Michigan teams that have beaten it lately (goodbye style points, hello mashing teams into the dirt), and that Day's reaction to pulling off a great win at Notre Dame earlier this year was to yell at Lou Holtz for questioning his team's toughness, it's clear the talk got to him. It's also a testament to Day's leadership that, despite all of his success, he still felt there were things he had to improve. But it doesn't matter because Ohio State lost to Michigan. Again. The good -- or sane -- news is that, while the pitchforks are out, I don't see Ohio State firing Ryan Day any time soon. Both because the people in charge aren't as insane as the fans and because athletic director Gene Smith is retiring next summer. I'm not sure Smith wants firing Ryan Day and conducting a coaching search to be the coda to what's been an incredibly successful run in Columbus, Ohio.. That doesn't mean Day will be back next year, though. The rumors that he'd leave Ohio State for Texas A&M (because there's no better way to escape the pressure of unrealistic expectations than by taking the Texas A&M job!) or any other school is silly, but if news breaks that Day has accepted an NFL head coaching job this offseason, it won't be much of a surprise. Ohio State is one of the best jobs on the planet for a football coach, but it's also one of the most difficult. Leaving it could be the sanest decision of all.