Joel Klatt explains why winning the Cotton Bowl could help a lot for Ryan Day

Ohio State will square off with Missouri in this year’s Cotton Bow Classic in a matchup between two of the nation’s top 10 ranked teams from the college football season.

The Buckeyes are yet to miss a New Year’s Six bowl appearance since its inception, marking their 10th straight appearance in one of the postseason’s most marquee matchups. But unfortunately, Ohio State ended their regular season with their third straight loss to rival Michigan, boxing them out of the Big Ten Championship game and leaving a looming dark cloud over the program yet again.

For three straight years, the Buckeyes’ only regular season loss has come from the Wolverines, but college football analyst Joel Klatt believes that a win over the Tigers could serve as some semblance of reparation for Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.

“Ryan Day coming off that third straight loss to Michigan and only his seventh total loss in his five years as the Buckeyes’ head coach. It has been interesting because going into that game didn’t you sense and feel like there was a lot of pressure on Ryan Day and that if he lost to an acting head coach in Sherrone Moore, if he lost his third straight to Michigan that the claws would be out with Buckeye fans?” Klatt asked.

Ohio State fans care about wins over Michigan more than anything else, which the Buckeyes have not been able to do lately under Day.

He’s been able to check all of the other boxes as a head coach, but still, his downfalls to the Wolverines have come with backlash from fans who want to see change. But following this season’s loss to Michigan, Klatt and others did not hear as much of that same backlash.

“And I’m not suggesting that they weren’t, and I’m not suggesting that this was all unicorns and rainbows in Columbus, but I didn’t sense that the fan base was as adamant about Ryan and wanting to move on as I maybe anticipated them being,” Klatt explained. Now maybe a lot of that vitriol and criticism fell towards Kyle McCord because of the interception in that game and just the overall feeling that he wasn’t up to par against Michigan. Maybe that’s the case and maybe that’s one of the reasons why he’s at Syracuse.”

McCord won the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback job this offseason following a closely contested battle with Devin Brown. But following the season he left Columbus, entering the transfer portal and committing to Syracuse after just one year as Ohio State’s signal caller.

Brown will now take the reigns of the offense for the Cotton Bowl, and according to Klatt, him leading the Buckeyes to a win would still be sizable for Day despite the program not meeting their College Football Playoff expectations or their expectations against their rival up north.

“But Ryan Day, seventh loss in his fifth year as the Buckeyes head coach, winning this one could help in a lot of ways this offseason. You don’t want to lose this one, but obviously it’s so different than the playoff game a year ago, you don’t want the same feeling as losing to Michigan and then losing the playoff last year and then like a bowl game this year,” Klatt concluded.

Ohio State and Mizzou will face off on December 29 at 8:00 p.m. in a Cotton Bowl matchup airing on ESPN.