For four long years, one truth hovered over Ryan Day’s tenure like a storm cloud: something had to change. After the embarrassment of losing 13–10 to a 6–5 Michigan team in Columbus—a game Ohio State absolutely should never lose—Day hit what felt like rock bottom. The rivalry had become the defining weight on his legacy, and that loss was the heaviest it had ever been.
Then came the meeting.
Not a coaches’ meeting. Not a staff huddle. A players-only meeting—with Ryan Day in the room. And that gathering, as quiet and internal as Ohio State tried to keep it, turned out to be the hinge point of the entire program.
The players got into him. They told him—passionately—what it meant to play on Ohio State’s terms. To play Ohio State’s brand of football, not Michigan’s. Everyone loves to throw around the cliché that “you have to win the rushing battle to win The Game.” But winning the rushing battle doesn’t mean turning around and handing it off up the middle forty times. That’s not who Ohio State is. That’s not who they’ve ever been under Ryan Day.
For Ohio State, dominating The Game starts with letting your playmakers take over through the air. Jeremiah Smith. Carnell Tate. Julian Sayin. Stressing Michigan vertically. Making them uncomfortable. Making them run. Making them panic. That is Ohio State football.
And this year? They finally played like it.
They fed Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate to open things up. They forced Michigan to respect the passing attack, to widen out, to fear every snap. And when Michigan backed off? When they finally had to admit they couldn’t guard the Buckeye receivers straight up?
Ohio State cracked them on the ground.
They didn’t just win the rushing battle—they nearly doubled Michigan’s total (OSU 186 to Michigan’s 100), and 110 of those 186 came in the second half alone. That’s what happens when your opponent has to defend the entire field. That’s what happens when you play your game instead of theirs.
Julian Sayin diced them up. The receivers tortured them. The run game blew the door down late. It was Ohio State at its purest, most dangerous, most authentic self. Buckeye fans could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
And that all traces back to that meeting.
A lot of us in Buckeye Nation have been saying it all year: Ryan Day is moving different. That 13–10 loss didn’t break him—it rebuilt him. It sharpened him. It woke up a version of Ryan Day we’d been waiting to see again.
He could’ve taken the easy route. He could’ve quietly positioned himself for an NFL job—there would’ve been plenty of suitors. He could’ve escaped the pressure cooker. But he didn’t.
He stayed in Columbus.
He dug in.
He got uncomfortable.
And he figured it out.
That loss changed him, and in turn, it changed the trajectory of Ohio State’s program forever. He’s been building something all year long—a foundation, an identity, a mentality. And now, the pieces are lining up exactly the way he envisioned.
Goal #1: Beat Michigan — complete.
Goal #2: Win the Big Ten Championship — next step, and Indiana is no joke.
Goal #3: Go back-to-back national champions for the first time in program history — absolutely in play.
Ryan Day didn’t just survive the pressure. He mastered it. And we, as Buckeye Nation, are damn lucky he chose to stay, to fight, and to build.
The Michigan monkey is off his back.
The swagger is back in the program.
And the dynasty blueprint? It’s unfolding right in front of us.
Now… let’s go take care of business in Indy.
Go Bucks.
