Ryan Day addresses whether Ohio State must control emotion entering rivalry game vs. Michigan

Ryan Day knows Ohio State has to control its collective emotions heading into the Michigan game this weekend.

A spot in the Big Ten Championship is on the line, as well as a chance at the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. But if the Buckeyes and Day got too emotional, it could all fall apart.

It’s about trusting in their own preparation because the last three years led to this moment.

“I think again, when you focus on the process and you focus around your team, and you know you’re with your guys in the Woody, it certainly can avoid distractions this week,” Day said. “And I think that’s what we need to do, you know, to say that you know this team and those leaders and these seniors want to win this game. You know, it’d be one of the biggest understatements of all time. So they don’t need any extra motivation.” 

Day and Ohio State lost to Michigan three years in a row after he and his program got the win in 2019, Day’s first season at the helm.

“What they have to do is do a great job of preparing themselves, their mind, their body and soul, to go play the game and then trust their training,” Day said. “And that’s really what it comes down to. All the work that’s been done to get to this point, now you have to go back to, you know, trusting your training, because that’s really how it works. You hear about the Navy SEALs saying, you fall to the level of your training, all the work that’s been done. 

“You’ve seen us talk about our bricks and our foundation and all those things. It’s all leading to this point right here. And so you can’t just all of a sudden turn it on in a few days for one game, it doesn’t work that way.” 

It’s one of the biggest rivalries and sports, so it’s easy to get emotional. Day just wants to stick to the process.

“The way we play is going to be because of how we’ve built our foundation up to this point,” Day said. “And everything in the entire program has been built to win this game. And so now we just have to trust that and go play with confidence, with great energy, with great passion, and playing for your brothers and everybody just doing their job. I think sometimes it’s easy in a game like this to try to do something, you know, extraordinary. The only thing that needs to be extraordinary is their effort. Everything else they do, they just need to do their job.”