Ohio State loses its cool after losing to Michigan (again) — ‘Classless’
To “The Victors” go the spoils in the Michigan – Ohio State rivalry, and that means being able to celebrate on another team’s field. We remember watching former OSU coach Jim Tressel conduct the Buckeyes’ band in the postgame on the Michigan Stadium turf, pulling up a ladder, climbing to the top with a huge senatorial grin on his face.
It was hard to watch, but that’s what the Michigan players did back in the day, understanding they had their chance to prevent it with their play on the field. Saturday, the 2024 Ohio State team — many of whom returned solely for their chance to beat Michigan — had their opportunity, too. But they lost (again), 13-10, and instead of heading to the locker room, they rushed back to prevent the Wolverines from planting a flag at midfield.
There was a scuffle, followed by pepper spray from overzealous security — one sprayed Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham in the face even though he wasn’t doing anything – and it took several minutes to finally clear the field.
“For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game,” Kalel Mullings, U-M’s workhorse Saturday (32 carries, 116 yards), said. “It’s just bad for the sport … bad for college football.
“But at the end of the day, some people, they’ve got to learn how to lose. You can’t be fighting and stuff just because you lost a game. All that fighting, we had 60 minutes, four quarters to do all that fighting, and now people want to talk and fight. That’s wrong. That’s bad for the game. Classless, in my opinion. People have got to be better.”
Including, apparently, head coach Ryan Day. Day said he didn’t have a clear view of the fight or know the details of it, but knew the gist of what happened.
“These guys were trying to plant a flag on our field, and our guys weren’t going to let that happen,” Day said. “Certainly, we’re embarrassed by the fact we lost. But there are prideful guys on this team that weren’t just going to let that happen.”
But again, they probably should have. And had they showed the toughness during the game they showed after, maybe they’d have had a better result (though probably not. Michigan won in the trenches — again — against a Day-coached team).
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Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, meanwhile, was asked if there was such a thing as “losing with grace.”
“I’m not … you know, we didn’t lose,” he said with a grin. “We won, so I’m not sure … There were emotions on both sides. Our guys … I did see they had the flag. Our guys were waving it around, and their guys charged us. Emotions on both sides. It can’t happen. Rivalry games get heated, especially this one. It’s the biggest one in the country, so we’ve got to handle that better.
“Those were the officers that were around [making people]. They were just trying to control everything, security trying to control everything. They got both sides, trying to make sure to take care of them. We’ve got to do a better job handling that as a group, address it in the locker room, address it again. Both sides.”
But it’s going to happen, he noted, when teams don’t like each other. After four straight Michigan wins in the series, it’s safe to say it’s gone to another level.
“A heated rivalry. It’s one that we all talk about — we talk about it, they talk about it,” Moore said. “I walk into my office, the first thing I see is, ‘What are we doing to beat Ohio State today?’ It’s something we think about 365 [days a year]. I’m excited we won the game and proud of our guys.”
