Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has to spend all offseason thinking about what the heck happened in Ann Arbor vs. Michigan on Saturday.
For the first time in the Ryan Day era, the Ohio State Buckeyes have lost a conference game.
This was the one they could not afford to drop, as they got pushed around all afternoon by Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines in The Game. With Ohio State previously dropping a home game to the Oregon Ducks in the non-conference, this latest defeat not only knocks the Buckeyes out of contention for the Big Ten, but they have no chance of making the College Football Playoff now.
Day said at the podium afterwards that this loss will hurt for a while.
Ryan Day says the loss to Michigan is "gonna leave a mark for a while.”
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) November 27, 2021
He also said this loss was a failure and that he will have to re-evaluate his coaching staff.
Ryan Day said the Buckeyes will have to “take a real hard look” at why they couldn’t stop the run today.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 27, 2021
Ryan Day press conference: Postgame quotes after Ohio State loss to Michigan
There is no other way to look at this loss for Ohio State other than an indictment of the program. Is Michigan a worthy adversary? Yes, and losing to the Wolverines on the road in The Big House does happen from time to time. What is damning is how the Buckeyes lost on Saturday. They could not stop the run for the life of them. Ohio State was outplayed in game they had to have.
While Day has a long head-coaching career ahead of him, he just did something his predecessor never did before him: Lose to the school up north. The shame in it all is Ohio State had the offensive personnel to go win a national title. Now, the Buckeyes will have to settle for the Rose Bowl, assuming Michigan takes their rightful spot in the College Football Playoff field in January.
Day might still be in shock after this brutal road defeat, but he must adjust accordingly for 2022.
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