Ryan Day has a Michigan problem and Ohio State has a Ryan Day problem

Go back and watch the replays of some of the inexplicable Ohio State losses to Michigan in the mid-1990s. During dead ball moments, the cameraman would zoom in on coach John Cooper’s face and he’d be looking out into the sky with a blank stare on his face. It was just a man, paralyzed with anxiety, completely out of answers. 

In the fourth quarter of Ohio State’s stunning 13-10 loss to Michigan in Ohio Stadium on Saturday, history repeated itself. Michigan was driving down the field in a tie game with the final minutes ticking off the clock. The cameraman panned to Ryan Day. He stood there gazing off into the sky, paralyzed with anxiety and completely out of answers.

This was Ohio State’s most stunning loss to Michigan since 1996. Or 1969. You can form your opinion on how far back you want to go. The point is it’s bad. Really, really bad. This was Day’s fourth consecutive loss to Michigan and each one has to feel worse than the previous one. This one was the worst, especially because Ohio State was a 20-point favorite and playing a five-loss Wolverines team devoid of a functional offense.

There are no inexcusable play-calling gaffes. No personnel issues that need to be addressed through the transfer portal. No assistant coaches who need to be fired. No offseason that needs to go out and be won. There are no more excuses for Day.

The problem is the head coach.

Day has a Michigan problem. And because of it, Ohio State has a Ryan Day problem.

You can spend all afternoon trying to break this game down. Did Ohio State’s offensive line injury issues make it impossible for the Buckeyes to score more than 10 points? Did Ohio State’s defense fail again by letting the predictable Michigan offense run the ball down their throat with the game on the line? Was Will Howard the wrong quarterback to take in the portal? Did Chip Kelly call the worst game of his short Ohio State tenure? All of those are valid questions.

But when you look at who Ohio State is supposed to be — one of college football’s last-remaining super teams — and who the Buckeyes lost to, there is nothing other than poor temperament that can cause something like this. This is a preparation problem from the coach, one who clearly cannot handle the moment. His team picks up off of that energy.

It’s more than the expression on the coach’s face during the game. It’s the tense aura in Ohio Stadium, the confused fans, the players who are probably more bogged down by the pressure of the moment than they are focused on playing football. Being scared and overwhelmed is contagious. You can feel it oozing through the television even if you weren’t in Ohio Stadium.

At least in the previous three seasons, Michigan was good. The Wolverines were viewed as underdogs to the deeply talented Ohio State teams in those games, but when they beat the Buckeyes, they also went on to win the Big Ten. Last year, the Wolverines won the national title. The losses were bad, but they were understandable. What happened in Ohio Stadium on Saturday? Unconscionable.

This wasn’t only the worst Michigan team Ohio State has lost to during the Day era. This is the worst team — regardless of logo — the Buckeyes have fell to under Day’s leadership.

Ohio State fans want Day to be fired. And though it has seemed harsh in the past to suggest that, it’s more than fair to start questioning whether Day has the temperament needed to be successful in this job. Beating Michigan is the job. It doesn’t matter how many recruiting wins you stack up, how many slam-dunk portal additions you grab or how many big-named coaches you hire. If you can’t beat Michigan, you can’t do this job the right way.

Day does so many things right, from talent accumulation to winning the games Ohio State is supposed to win. But on Saturday? It lost another game to Michigan. This time, it wasn’t Michigan being good. This time, it was Ohio State being bad.

How do you fix that? What’s the first thing Day is supposed to do to fix this issue? And if he’s the problem, how does Ohio State remedy that short of firing him?

What does Ohio State do to start putting the pieces back together?

“Fresh off the game right now, obviously extremely disappointed and angry that we didn’t execute well enough,” Day said after the game, defeated. “I’m not there right now. Fresh off the game. As you know, this is not easy to accept and obviously have to take the ownership. I’m the one, ultimately, who makes the final decisions on things and felt like we were in a really good place coming into this game and prepared to play well in this game.” 

Unlike the Cooper era, Ohio State’s season isn’t over. It won’t win the Big Ten Championship — meaning a group of seniors will leave Columbus with no wins over Michigan and no conference titles — but the Buckeyes will make the College Football Playoff and have a chance to redeem themselves on the sport’s largest stage. There is no finality coming to this situation before January.

But who is thinking about competing for a national title in a moment like this? Ohio State, equipped with Quinshon Judkins, TreVeyon Henderson, Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Emeka Egbuka, scored zero points in the second half on its home field. Zero points. The defense has 15 players who will have long NFL careers, but Michigan running back Kalel Mullings broke off a 27-yard run with the game on the line when everyone on planet earth knew that was the only way Michigan could win.

A team this talented not being able to muster a first down with the game on the line in the final minute? That’s beyond breaking down the X’s and O’s. It’s deeper than that.

The program, as a whole, has failed to reach its ceiling under Day’s leadership in any year since he has taken over. It’s confusing because he’s done the hardest part of the job — talent accumulation — well, which is supposed to show up in games like this. Instead, Ohio State is the most under-achieving program in college football when compared to the talent and resources it possesses.

Time and time again, Ohio State just isn’t good enough.

You know who else recruited like crazy? Cooper. Talents like Eddie George, Orlando Pace, Terry Glenn, David Boston, Joey Galloway, Mike Vrabel, Shawn Springs, Andy Katzenmoyer, Antoine Winfield — the list is endless — and it was never good enough. Ohio State repeatedly lost to Michigan and didn’t win national titles.

It feels a lot like looking at the pictures of CJ Stroud on the sideline with Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave. A lot of talent and no titles.

“Everybody wants to win this game in the worst way,” Day said. “Nobody wants to win it more than we do. It’s our No. 1 goal every year. When you don’t do that, there’s disappointment and frustration. I don’t blame anybody for being upset. I’m upset more than anybody. Those players are too, the coaches, and everybody who goes at it. We know what we’re getting ourselves into here.” 

Day isn’t ready to give an answer as to what is going wrong. Maybe it’s as simple as looking in the mirror and admitting the truth to himself.

Something is broken.