Rece Davis reveals what Ohio State 'couldn't accept' prior to 2024 Michigan loss

Ohio State is coming to terms with a lot following their latest loss to Michigan on Saturday.

During the ‘College GameDay Podcast’, Rece Davis was even more honest with the Buckeyes about their current issues with the maize & blue. He looked at the prior three years of The Game and noted how much better that Michigan has been as a team over Ohio State – which makes this most recent loss that much worse considering they weren’t this time.

“The thing that the people in Columbus, the fans and, apparently, the people inside the building, could not accept, but was true? For the previous three years, Michigan had a better team. Michigan was better than you,” said Davis. “Maybe not by leaps and bounds, maybe it was only marginal but they were better. They beat you because they were marginally better and they made plays. They escaped this mental prison that they had been in about Ohio State. They escaped it and made plays.”

In turn, Ohio State hasn’t handled that well. They’ve become more and more frustrated with each defeat in this four-game losing streak. That’s although, as Davis noted, they shouldn’t have won all of those either, regardless of what they may think.

“Ohio State, instead, was like as if someone had insulted them personally, like it was their birthright. It’s freakin’ Michigan! It’s not your birthright to beat Michigan!” Davis said. “It’s really not your birthright to beat anybody. But, you know, someone like that? They’ve won more games than anybody in the history of the sport! And yet you’re supposed to beat them every time? And, when you don’t, it somehow consumes you to the point that you are then so bound up in knots that you can’t play to your potential when the situation calls for it? That’s the failure.”

The Buckeyes have another year, and may have another coach altogether by then, before they’ll have a chance to beat the Wolverines for the first time since 2019. Between now and then, though, Davis suggests that they take it down a notch in regards to how they come into The Game.

“This game has become too important to the people inside the building at Ohio State,” said Davis. “I know it has always been important. I understand the whole thing about countdown clocks and, you know, Beat That School Up North. All that stuff is fun and well and good. But it takes masterful managing of the emotions to let that be part of your culture and tradition and part of the thing that drives you yet not let it cross over into the line of consuming you. It has crossed over the line in Columbus.”