Ryan Day on the pressure to end losing streak to Michigan: 'You've got to win that game'

Ohio State has three main goals to accomplish each season. Simply put, they involve The Game, the Big Ten Championship, and the College Football Playoff. However, with three consecutive losses to Michigan, the Buckeyes have been none too pleased with how their past trio of seasons have been ending.

Ryan Day addressed the losing streak in the series during an appearance on ‘Get Up’ on Tuesday. For him, the weight on that particular matchup doesn’t change at all in a given season. With that said, if you don’t win it and especially don’t win it for some time, it makes the resetting of the clock to another 365 more days that much more brutal.

“Well, you know, it doesn’t change year in and year out. I mean that’s something that we all know and we certainly don’t take very lightly,” said Day. “It’s something we live day in and day out.”

“I think probably one of the biggest, you know, struggles that we have is that, when you lose a game like that, we have to wait a whole ‘nother year to get back into that game,” Day explained.

Through 2020, Ohio State had won eight straight of their own and 17 of 19 going back to 2001. Now, for the first time in over a quarter century, they’ve lost three straight to That Team Up North.

Another loss would mean an entire class of Buckeyes coming and going without a win over Michigan. That, in Day’s mind, is a big rationale as to why several of his players came back for another year.

“For our guys who decided to come back? We’ve got about 12 guys that made the decision to come back,” said Day. “It was one of the big reasons why they decided to come back.”

Although their most significant regular season matchup, though, Day added that Ohio State can’t spend the entire time thinking solely about the Wolverines. November 30th will come soon enough and, when it does, the Buckeyes will need to be ready from what they’ve done from now until they kickoff on that last day of the month.

“What we have to do is build every day and grow every day. Count on the work that we’re doing on a daily basis that’s going to matter as we get to the end of the season. What we can’t do is get too far ahead of ourselves and start to focus too much on that and get distracted,” said Day. “That’s just the bottom line.”

Day knows the job he has to do in Columbus. With that, there’s more involved in that task than any one game.

Still, when it comes to that one specifically, he gets that no other outcome is acceptable. That’s certainly so with him and his team now facing a fourth straight defeat.

“When you come to Ohio State? You’ve got win that game,” Day said.