What Ohio State coach Ryan Day said about Michigan before playing Wolverines: 'I don't want to get too much into the past'

Ohio State hasn’t beaten Michigan in football in 1,823 days, and that’s weighed heavily on Ryan Day. The Buckeyes’ head coach said in an interview this week that losing three in a row to Michigan by a combined margin of 117-74 has been “one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me in my life, quite honestly.”

In his Tuesday press conference, Day avoided questions about the past, though, instead continually bringing up his team’s preparation this week. Ohio State is projected to win by nearly three touchdowns and is the betting favorite to win the national championship with a 10-1 record, while Michigan has had a disappointing season to this point, sitting at 6-5 ahead of Saturday’s game in Columbus.

“Not to get into too much of it,” Day said of the aforementioned comment he made earlier in the week. “This game is a war, and any time there’s a war, there are consequences and casualties, and then there’s the plunder and the rewards that come with it. That’s what it is.

“As we all say and I said in my [introductory] press conference, the No. 1 job is to win this game, so that’s the focus right now. I don’t want to get too much into the past, because we’re just focused on right now and we’ve worked really hard to get to this point.”

Ohio State has what former Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer, who resigned in disgrace following the 2018 season, called “one of the most talented rosters in the last decade, maybe ever,” which includes a plethora of seniors who opted to stay in college instead of jumping to the NFL.

While Michigan has only two scholarship players that have lost to Ohio State (graduate safety Quinten Johnson and graduate long snapper William Wagner), the Buckeyes don’t have a single player that’s beaten U-M as a member of their current program.

“This is not about me. This is about these seniors that decided to come back,” Day said. “They want to have a pair of gold pants, they want to have hardware. So that’s what motivates me, and I’m excited for them so they can go out there and play this thing, and go win it.”

Day said he won’t have to give those returning players any extra inspiration this week, but that he will continue to harp on how important their preparation is for Saturday’s game against Michigan. Both teams prepare for the rivalry game all year long.

“When you focus on the process, you focus around your team and you’re with the guys in the Woody [Hayes Athletic Center], it certainly can avoid distractions this week, and I think that’s what we need to do,” Day said.

“To say that this team and those leaders and these seniors want to win this game, it’d be one of the biggest understatements of all time. They don’t need any extra motivation; what they have to do is do a great job of preparing themselves — their mind, body and soul — to go play the game. And then trust their training. 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 trusting your training, because that’s really how it works.

“You hear about the Navy Seals say, ‘You fall to the level of your training.’ All the work that’s been done — you hear us talk about our bricks and our foundation and all those things — it’s all leading to this point right here. So you can’t just all of a sudden turn it on for a few days for one game. It doesn’t work that way. The way we play is going to be because of how we’ve built our foundation up to this point.

“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 extraordinary. The only thing that needs to be extraordinary is their effort. Everything else, we just need to do our job.”

Michigan’s dominance in the rivalry and last year’s national championship have made Ohio State fans fume for nearly five calendar years since the last time the Buckeyes were fortunate enough to beat their rival. Day was asked what a win over Michigan would mean to the state.

“I think you know what it means,” he replied. “It means the world. It’s everything here.”

Here’s more of what Day said about Michigan during his Tuesday press conference:

On the three-straight losses to Michigan, how they affect him and if the Buckeyes can channel the motivation from those games on Saturday

What’s happened in the past has really nothing to do with what’s going on right now. The focus has to be on each other, and playing so hard for the love of your teammate — not so much what’s going on across the field. And that’s what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna focus on that this week, because it’s easy to get distracted with everything else. We’ll let the fans and everybody else kinda talk through all those things.

We’re gonna focus on each other, playing really hard for each other, focus on getting ready to go play in this game, so that we can execute at a high, high level, because ultimately that’s all that matters.

On how coaches handle this week and what image they portray to their players

I think when you live it year round, you don’t need to put any extra emphasis on it this week. Our guys know, especially with a veteran team, so what you do is everything that you’ve done leading up to this point has to be about winning this game. So we put a big emphasis on the situations — winning the situations.

We’ve been training all year for this moment, and now we just need to go do it again. And that’s the idea, so that you’re not all of a sudden putting more emphasis or more pressure on the guys. I mean, they know what’s at stake. So focus on the process, focus on what we’ve done up to this point, the foundation that’s been built, and then go play with our hair on fire.

On how Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale’s scheme is different than what the Wolverines ran the previous three seasons

Very similar. A little bit more pressure. But he’s got his own flavor to it. Similar to what they’ve done in the past. Same philosophy, in terms of the structure of the coverages, but a little bit more aggressive in terms of pressure.

On the importance of Ohio State winning the rushing battle against Michigan

It’s how you control the gamae on both sides of the ball, so that’s something that has to be done. You just look historically that, that’s how you win the game. 

But that’s not the only thing. There’s a lot that comes with it. Like every game we go into, we’ll work hard to do what we think best helps us win the game.

But the team who runs the ball and the team who stops the run is going to win the game.

On if he has a strong sense that Ohio State will finally be able to establish the run against Michigan

We don’t have a choice. We have to, to win the game. We’ll always do what we think is best, but it comes down to everybody executing at a high level, and physicality. Our running backs gotta get down hill and find those hidden yards. Our offensive line has to get movement up front and handle their front. They have a good front, there’s no question about that. But that’s not gonna change our attack. We gotta do what we’ve done and trust our preparation and go get it. So yeah, the team who runs the ball is going to control the game.

On if he has to manage the emotions of his team at this point in the week

At this point in the week, you’re putting the plan together, and you really try to make sure you’re focusing on the process right now. You can really only control what you can control, and every time you start getting focused on things that don’t matter, you gotta get right back into your work. And that was the message to the guys on Sunday. So that’s it: We’re gonna really focus on the process, the same process that we’ve been working on all year.

Everything that we do in the offseason, every decision that’s made in terms of the coaching staff, the roster, how we practice, schematics is all working towards this moment right here. So let’s just go to work, trust the process and focus on what we’re going to get done today.

On how Ohio State has taught the transfer newcomers about the rivalry

In the recruiting process, when they commit you make sure that’s the No. 1 goal. Understand that for everybody in the program, that is the No. 1 goal when you come here is to win this game. And that needs to be embraced, and then you go on from there.

We live it every day of the year, in our workouts, the way that we structure everything. And then just the fact that if you know, you know. If you don’t know, you don’t know. So lean on the guys around you that have been in the game before — players, coaches, everybody else in the building.

On new starting center Carson Hinzman and new starting left guard Austin Siereveld, how they fared against Indiana last week

You just go off what you see in practice, on the film. Two guys that now are getting more and more reps under their belt. Obviously, Carson has from last year, but now Austin as well. 

I think they both had a good week of practice last week, and I thought they had great energy out there, gave great effort. When they did miss, they swung and missed pretty hard, and it’ll be that way this week. We got a big challenge with the two inside guys and the front that they have. But they’ll be up for it, and we’ll have a good plan.