Forget 'Natty or bust': Beating Michigan is main mission for Ryan Day, Ohio State in 2024

Ryan Day and a trio of Ohio State seniors spent most of Big Ten Media Days embracing the Buckeyes’ “natty or bust” expectations in 2024. 

They talked unfinished business. A sense of urgency. A quest to win a Big Ten Championship. The goal of “leaving a legacy behind.”

“We’re not going to shy away from (the expectations),” Ryan Day said. 

“We want to win the rivalry game, be right in this stadium right here and win this Big Ten championship, and win a National Championship.”

The latter two goals could be accomplished without the first, but make no mistake, Ohio State’s 2024 season won’t considered a true success — no matter if they do ultimately do add some hardware to the trophy case — if the Buckeyes don’t win ‘The Game.’

In an “all-in” season where 12 seniors opted to forgo the NFL Draft and return to school, the ultimate prize of a national title is actually second-fiddle to the team’s burning desire to beat Michigan.

That’s mission No. 1.

“It fuels us every day. I think about it every day,” senior end Jack Sawyer said. 

“We all decided to come back together, we came back to beat the Team Up North, win a national championship, win a Big Ten championship.”

Beat the Team Up North.

“It is something we think about every day,” defensive back Denzel Burke added.

“It’s tough, but at the end of the day we didn’t get the job done. So it’s our job this year just to go with the mentality of just getting the ‘W.’”

We think about it every day.

For those seniors, there’s still another 122 days to stew over the pain of three straight losses to the Wolverines until they can exorcise any sort of demons on Nov. 30. Day insisted that it “can’t be our focus because that’s a distraction from where we are right now,” but it’s crystal clear that a rivalry showdown that’s four months away is on everyone’s mind at OSU.

The stakes for Ryan Day, Ohio State

From Sawyer, Burke, Emeka Egbuka, JT Tuimoloau, TreVeyon Henderson and others all coming back to school, to the portal additions of Quinshon Judkins, Caleb Downs and Will Howard, the Buckeyes have been dutifully crowned the offseason champs. 

But there are no trophies or gold pants (a tradition dating back to 1934 for OSU players who beat Michigan) for such titles. The reality is the Wolverines, even with a new first-year head coach, have become the gold standard of the Big Ten until proven otherwise. 

As is the case this year, Ohio State has been super talented the previous three seasons — and it didn’t win ‘The Game’. The Buckeyes have never lacked motivation or hate for the Team Up North, either — but the lack of results in the recent series is precisely why Day’s 40-0 mark against the rest of the Big Ten means next to nothing for the Scarlett & Gray faithful.

“One of the biggest struggles that we have is that, when you lose a game like that, you have to wait a whole another year to get back into that game. And for our guys who decided to come back, we had 12 guys that made the decision to come back, that was one of the big reasons they decided to come back,” Day said on ESPN’s Get Up. 

“But what we have to do is build every day and grow every day, and 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, that’s just the bottom line. But when you come to Ohio State, you gotta win that game.”

You got to win that game.

Day sure does, but he’s made similar statements before, which is why Paul Finebaum went off on the head coach for essentially repeating remarks he said a year ago after a second-straight loss to the Wolverines.

And yet, that’s not to say that Ryan Day doesn’t get it. The players, too. For all the “natty or bust” talk, the first mission this season is beating Michigan. It’s why Sawyer, a Columbus native, lamented not only letting down his team last season but an entire “city.” It’s what tipped the scales on Egbuka’s decision to return to school.

These Buckeyes want “one more shot” — and if Day doesn’t deliver — no matter all the other wins he’s banked up — it may be his last one. 

For all the talk that the expanded 12-team playoff could lessen the stakes of one of the sport’s best rivalries, the urgency and pressure to win ‘The Game’ has never been more important for Ohio State.

There’s no excuses anymore. 

This year’s game is in The Shoe. The Wolverines are in total transition after seeing Jim Harbaugh bolt for the Los Angeles Chargers and promoting Sheronne Moore to head coach. The early look-ahead lines has Ohio State somewhere around a 10-point favorite. 

All those millions of NIL investments were for this mission. This is why all these seniors came back to school. Day believes it’s time to “leave no doubt.”

Can they? Will they?

“We want perfection. We want to win ‘The Game’ at the end of the season,” Ryan Day said. 

“In particular, last year, what was it that prevented us from finishing off that last drive or getting off of the field on defense? Why didn’t we do that? Well, it’s easy to say that it comes down to a play or two, but that’s not really the case. What we need to do is leave no doubt. No doubt. Don’t leave it to one play, don’t leave it to one call, don’t leave it to one stop. Leave no doubt when you’re on the field.”