In retrospect, we should have known Ohio State was in trouble earlier this week. A clip from the weekly coach’s show, “Game Time with Ryan Day,” began making the rounds on the internet because it was a stunning window into the psychology of the Michigan game for the Buckeyes’ current head coach.
“We felt what it’s like to not win this game, and it’s bad,” Day said. “It’s one of the worst things that’s happened to me in my life, quite honestly. Other than losing my father and a few other things, it’s quite honestly for my family the worst thing that’s happened. So we can never have that happen.”
Well, it happened. Again. And the Buckeyes’ 13-10 loss as a 19.5-point favorite — the fourth straight time Day has lost to Michigan — is a result that will probably have big implications on his future and the direction of Ohio State football.
If Day gets fired after the Buckeyes’ season ends, this will be the easiest coaching autopsy we’ve ever seen in college football. And what Day said about the Michigan rivalry will be indicative of the reason: Ohio State simply cared way too much about this game 365 days a year, to the point where it strangled them on the only day when it really mattered.
It’s not that Michigan doesn’t care about The Game, but there’s a different and much healthier relationship with that rivalry in Ann Arbor. Simply put, Michigan can have a good season even if it doesn’t beat Ohio State. But the opposite is not true for Buckeyes fans. It’s all-or-nothing in Columbus, which is way too much pressure to put on one game but is also the reality that the Ohio State coach has to live with.
It’s clearly affected Day, to the point where the entire organization locks up when it sees Michigan across the field. When you hear Day compare losing to Michigan to the death of his father, you almost feel sorry for him. That’s no way to live, man. It’s just a football game.
Now, what Day and his family have experienced the last few years is real. If you talk to folks around the Ohio State program, you’ll hear about threats and random people approaching his wife in public just to say impolite things.
That’s not good either. It’s the symptom of a sick society that takes football way too seriously.
It seems, though, that Day’s reaction to the environment he lives in is to double, triple and quadruple down on showing Ohio State’s fan base how much he cares about beating Michigan. It’s all the “That Team Up North” stuff. It’s the countdown clocks in the Woody Hayes center reminding everyone how many days until they play Michigan again. It’s Day raising the stakes to impossible levels when he calls losing to Michigan one of the worst things that has ever happened to him.
Day doesn’t have to say that stuff. He chooses to because he thinks it connects him — a guy who grew up in New Hampshire and didn’t step foot in Columbus until 2017 — to a fan base that has always looked at him a bit skeptically.
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