Ryan Day not shying away from the pressure entering pivotal matchup vs. Michigan

Ohio State hasn’t often felt more pressure than Michigan when it comes to The Game over the last few seasons. However, you can make the case that the Buckeyes are under the gun the most on Saturday in their game against the Wolverines. There’s already plenty of Big Ten and CFP pressure but, considering last season’s result, Ryan Day’s team is expected to respond in the series. That’s why he wants his players focused on the right things and, if they are, all that pressure will fade away.

Day spoke in depth about the burden of this season’s edition of one of college football’s greatest rivalries in a press conference earlier this week. He says this pressure comes with playing at Ohio State and, because of that, they need to focus on nothing else but the way they prepare for Saturday.

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“I think anytime you’re here and you’re playing in this game? You’re gonna feel it. It doesn’t matter what your records been. You feel it anytime you’re at Ohio State because you know what’s on the line. But we’re not going to sit here and start to think about all that,” said Day. “We’re going to just really focus on having a great week of preparation and playing really, really hard. Then, when it’s all said and done, we’ll look back and kind of see where all the tally marks are.”

“To me, this has nothing to do with anything other than this team. Preparing this team to play as hard as we possibly can on Saturday, and then going from there.”

This is a series that Ohio State has dominated over the last decade. The Buckeyes had won eight straight before last season, including the six of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure. That’s why last season’s loss was so costly. It ended their dominant run in the rivalry and allowed the Wolverines to both win the Big Ten title and make the College Football Playoff.

After a year, the Buckeyes will now look to exact some revenge on their bitter rival. Still, that’s not what they can focus on if they want to win. In Ryan Day’s opinion, the only thing that his team needs to use as fuel is this week’s game plan. Then, on Sunday, they can look back on it from the position they’re hoping to be in afterward.

“I’m just trying to focus on figuring out what the call is for second down, third down, short down yardage, goal line,” Day said. “It’s like what really matters right now? What matters is getting these guys a really good game plan, getting practice organized, and have a really good day. That’s all I’m going to focus on right now. Then we’ll come up for air Saturday afternoon after the game.”