ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Ryan Day was walking out of Michigan Stadium on Saturday for the first time in six years as a winning coach when he slowed his pace. He looked up at the throng of Ohio State fans surrounding the tunnel exit, and at the acres of empty blue seats beyond them, and he raised both fists into the snowy sky. He gestured at the fans to keep roaring. He did the O-H-I-O cheer.
After so many miserable moments on the last Saturday of November, Day gave himself permission to soak in this pounding of the hated Wolverines. But he didn’t give himself permission to uncork everything that had been bottled up inside.
“I’ve thought, as you can imagine over the years, after winning this game, what I’d say in this press conference,” Day said. “I’m going to save all those comments because I think the best thing to do is win with humility, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Was that a passing acknowledgment of leftover bitterness from the Connor Stalions spying scandal? A four-year-old grudge from the time Jim Harbaugh took a shot at Day by saying, “Sometimes people are standing on third base, think they hit a triple, but they didn’t”? The Michigan flag plant in Ohio Stadium last year, which set off a melee that didn’t end until the cops had pepper sprayed players from both teams?
Day wasn’t going to say, but he really didn’t have to. The scoreboard did the talking: Ohio State 27, Michigan 9. A four-year losing streak—including three major upsets at the hands of the Wolverines—came full circle in the snow. From a blizzard beatdown loss here in 2021 to the scarlet-and-gray frolic amid the flurries Saturday, it was finally over. The streak had been slain.
“We were going to play in this game really, really hard for the love of our brother,” Day said. “Not for the hatred of our opponent.”
The Ohio State losses spanned the spectrum of misfortune. It started with that 42–27 romp here in 2021 that launched Michigan into its playoff era, going to three straight and winning the last of them. The ’22 game was a second-half whiplash affair, with the Wolverines unleashing big run after big run to rip the game away from the Buckeyes in a shocked Horseshoe. In ’23, with Harbaugh suspended as part of l’affair Stalions, Michigan out-executed Ohio State in a tense battle.
And then there was last year, a full-system failure as 18.5-point favorites against a middling Michigan team. Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly coached an abysmal game, outsmarting themselves and playing into the hands of the Wolverines. That one ended with the home crowd booing the Buckeyes off the field.
At that point, it looked like the rivalry had consumed Day, chewing him up and spitting him out a broken coach. But then Ohio State had the all-time regroup, taking their playoff opportunity and turning it into a slash-and-burn march to the national title. The Buckeyes haven’t lost since.
At one point it seemed like Harbaugh would never win this game as a head coach, losing his first five tries. Then it seemed like Day would never find his way back to the winning side after capturing his first one. But nothing lasts forever in a rivalry of this magnitude, even if it feels like it when you’re losing.
And after Saturday’s result, there is no longer a single “well, actually” detraction that Day has to hear again.
“I think a lot of people had stuff to say about this game when it comes to him,” linebacker Sonny Styles said. “I think he proved the point today.”
Riding a 16-game winning streak with just one of those victories by single digits, Day is currently favored to win a second straight natty. He’s got an absolute wagon of an undefeated, No. 1-ranked team. He’s 82–10 at age 46, and his Ohio State monster may keep rampaging for a long time.
This season’s team is better than last season’s, which lost both coordinators and had 14 players drafted by the NFL. Pending the outcome of a juicy clash for the Big Ten championship in Indianapolis with the only other undefeated team in the country, No. 2 Indiana, the Buckeyes are poised to enter this playoff as prohibitive favorites.
The defense is filthy, leading the nation in points allowed per game, yards allowed per game and yards allowed per play—and that was before holding Michigan to zero touchdowns and just 163 total yards, 80 of which came on the first two possessions.
“We came with it in the second half and whupped ’em,” Styles said.
The offense is better at quarterback, with sophomore Californian Julian Sayin getting a Midwest baptism in his first-ever snow game. He came into the weekend leading the nation in pass efficiency, then added 233 yards and three touchdowns through the air. The highlight was yet another perfectly placed deep ball, a second-quarter bomb to the great Jeremiah Smith that gave Ohio State the lead for good.
Sayin said his coldest game he’d played in prior to Saturday might have been a 50-degree night in high school. But in the middle of this one, in wintry conditions that cling to the memories of those who have watched Michigan and Ohio State battle since the Bo vs. Woody days, he declared to a teammate, “This is pretty cool.”
Next week in Indy, he and Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza might decide who wins the Heisman Trophy. Teammate Caden Curry has already decided, even if he doesn’t have a vote. Asked if Sayin deserves the award, Curry said, “I mean, duh.”
Ohio State still has not trailed in the second half of a game this season, but this game started with some more Michigan devilry. Jordan Marshall broke a run of 36 yards on the first snap to kick-start a field goal drive. Then Sayin misread a coverage and threw an interception on the Buckeyes’ second offensive play, feeding fuel into the Ohio State nightmare furnace. But Michigan could get only three points out of that opportunity as well, taking a 6–0 lead that could have been bigger.
That still was the biggest deficit of the season thus far for Ohio State, and it got 100,000 Michigan fans roaring.
“I’m like, ‘Jeez, O.K., that’s not what we wanted for a start,’ ” Day said. “But I never felt panicked.”
The Buckeyes responded, with Sayin making throws and freshman running back Bo Jackson flashing his star potential. In a game that has long been decided by who can run the ball best, Michigan was held to 100 yards on the ground while Ohio State pounded out 186 behind a punishing offensive line.
“We hand it off, we get seven yards and you see [Michigan] guys getting thrown on the ground,” Sayin said. “It looks like carnage out there. It’s awesome to see.”
The most awesome sight for Ohio State was the Michigan fandom hitting the exits midway through the fourth quarter. The blue emptied out, the scarlet stayed and screamed. The streak is over, the last box checked, and now the Buckeyes can lock in on a repeat national title pursuit.
