Ohio State sustained ‘psychological damage’ from Michigan losses

On3’s J.D. PicKell has been talking college football nonstop, preparing fans for the upcoming 2023 season. But recently, the college football expert brought on the newest member of the On3 family Andy Staples to tackle a few topics. One of those topics was the mental state of the Ohio State Buckeyes against the Michigan Wolverines.

“Here’s the deal with Ohio State; it’s very interesting because (there’s) so much psychological damage from those two losses to Michigan,” said Staples. “But if we’re being real here, Ohio State is one defensive stop away from being the national champion, because they would’ve beaten TCU.”

“So where are they really? And where they are is, they’re one of the best teams in the country still. They do need to beat Michigan. Yes. But do they have to beat Michigan to win the national title? I think we learned last year that’s not true. They could’ve won the national title despite having lost to Michigan. It will be much easier starting next year to do that because there’ll be a 12-team playoff, and they’ll have to beat Michigan.”

Despite losing to Michigan in their head-to-head battle and subsequently missing an opportunity to capture the conference title, Ohio State was still one of the final four teams of the regular season, earning a spot in the College Football Playoff. And in the College Football Playoff, the Buckeyes were the better team for the majority of their matchup against Georgia. But they ultimately ended up losing by one point following a missed field goal by kicker Noah Ruggles.

Ohio State proved in 2022 that they are more than capable of competing and winning the national championship. But that does not mean they can overlook their recent troubles against Michigan. Well, more specifically, Ryan Day can’t, according to Staples.

“For Ryan Day’s sake, he needs to beat Michigan. Don’t allow those John Cooper comparisons to fester. Job description is important. Like when you’re in a job, it’s very important for your bosses or your employers, your stakeholders to tell you exactly what the expectations are. So let me tell you what the expectations are for Ryan Day at Ohio State: win the national championship. That’s it. Those are the expectations. And the longer he goes without one, the madder they get. So he needs to put them in position to win a national title.

“You do probably need to beat Michigan because here’s the other thing; if you can’t beat Michigan, look at Penn State right now. Penn State’s dude factor is getting higher. It feels like they could be competitive with those two this year. USC is coming into the league. They’re recruiting really well. You got Luke Fickle at Wisconsin now. Ryan Day’s level of difficulty is going up. So it’s not going to be that easy to dominate, not like it was the first couple of years in the league. Now, it gets more challenging. But, again, if he has them in a position to win a national title every year, he’s fine.”

The quality of opponents has increased in the Big Ten after adding USC and UCLA. And for Ohio State and Day, that makes the automatic qualifying bid for the revamped College Football Playoff of being the Big Ten champion that much more difficult to obtain. Having said all that, as Staples pointed out, the Buckeyes are still a premier program in college football, and as long as Day keeps them in contention for national championships, he should be okay. But fans are still going to want those bragging rights against Michigan.