Michigan Stadium (Ann Arbor, Mich.) — The several thousand Ohio State fans who infiltrated the Big House on Saturday and stayed until the fourth quarter clock expired were inching ever closer to the playing surface, giddily replacing their maize-and-blue counterparts in the first few rows with each passing minute.
Those in the end zone, who gathered along the southern side of the stadium, waited patiently for players to join them in Lambeau Leap-style celebrations, which droves of Buckeyes did with glee, caked in snow from the angels they’d left on the turf. Meanwhile, those on the sideline, who congregated above an entrance to the Lloyd Carr Tunnel, readied themselves for the long-awaited arrival of a polarizing coach.
By the time Ryan Day strode toward them following his team’s 27-9 thumping of Michigan, the Ohio State faithful regaled him with enough warmth and adoration to thaw his frigid extremities on an afternoon when precipitation was flying sideways. A smile stretched across Day’s face as he lifted his arms to form the letters O-H-I-O, one for every year of a losing streak to his archrival now snapped.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day celebrates after a 27-9 victory against the Michigan Wolverines. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
“To tell you that the last four years have been easy is not true,” Day said following the game. “I take the responsibility of being the head coach at Ohio State very, very seriously. So does my family. So do the players. So do the coaches. When you don’t accomplish those things, you take it personally. … But to win this game, you know, it’s just a great moment. It’s one of those moments that you want to just grab on for a while and just enjoy it because to see the joy in everybody’s face is really what this thing is all about, you know?”
The joyful faces were waiting for Day up the tunnel along the left-hand side, eager to greet the man who brought Ohio State its first national championship in a decade earlier this year but who would never appease a segment of the fan base until he reclaimed the rivalry with Michigan, which entered the weekend still enjoying its first four-game winning streak against the Buckeyes since 1988-91.
To certain Buckeye fans, it didn’t matter that Day had technically already beaten the Wolverines five years ago, in 2019, thumping former coach Jim Harbaugh by 29 points. That was pre-COVID, pre-transfer portal, pre-NIL and pre-revenue sharing, a lifetime ago in the rapidly changing landscape of college football. And to them, the agony of four straight losses since then — including last year’s unfathomable collapse when Ohio State was favored at home by nearly three touchdowns — will always trump the memory of an ancient triumph with players largely recruited by Day’s predecessor and former boss, Urban Meyer.
So it was easy to see why Day reveled in this one, a comprehensive victory that closed what many considered to be the final gap on an already stunning résumé in just seven seasons with the Buckeyes. He arrived in Ann Arbor on Saturday with two Big Ten titles, one national title and four College Football Playoff appearances to his name. He claimed the second-best winning percentage (.890) of any coach in the sport’s history behind Walter Camp (.924), who presided over fewer career games than Day, and is one of only three active coaches to win a national championship alongside Kirby Smart at Georgia (x2) and Dabo Swinney at Clemson (x2). Day could retire tomorrow and still be remembered as one of the best in his generation.
And yet, despite those incredible accolades, Day has endured unthinkable anguish while occupying a job that drove Meyer to an early, health-related retirement. The thoughts and feelings he experienced across four consecutive losses to Michigan — a run exacerbated by the Wolverines’ march to an undefeated national championship in 2023, one year before Day finally earned his first ring — welled within him during a cathartic postgame news conference in a cramped room at Michigan Stadium, his face still wet with snow.
Ryan Day gets emotional after Ohio State’s victory over Michigan
Saturday’s victory began to distance Day from infamous Ohio State coach John Cooper, whose Buckeye teams were mostly great in the 1990s but almost never beat Michigan, and kept him away from John W. Wilce, the last coach to lose five straight to the Wolverines nearly 100 years ago.
“I’ve thought,” Day said, “as you can imagine over the years, after winning this game, what I would say in this press conference. And I’m gonna save all those comments because I think the best thing you can do is win with humility, and that’s what we’re gonna do. I think it speaks to our program. It speaks to what it means to be a Buckeye. We wanted to take this rivalry game back this year, and so the way that our guys played certainly spoke to that. They played with great passion and great physicality. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t get in and finish a couple of those drives early, or else the scoreboard would have looked even differently than it [did].”
Though Day refrained from transforming his postgame remarks into a bully pulpit, it wasn’t difficult to imagine some of the things he probably wanted to say — particularly within the context of this rivalry.
He might have referred back to Harbaugh’s pointed jab about being “born on third base,” following Michigan’s own streak-breaking win over Ohio State in 2021. He might have shared some thoughts on Connor Stalions, the architect of the Wolverines’ sign-stealing scandal that some within the program still believe influenced games during the Buckeyes’ losing skid. He might have offered a few words to the Ohio State fans who verbally abused and threatened Day’s wife and children after earlier losses to the Wolverines, prompting the family to hire round-the-clock security at their home. He might have discussed last year’s flag-planting fiasco at Ohio Stadium that resulted in a pepper spray-laden brawl.
But Day stayed away from all that, opting instead to make one comment after another about the effort his team put forth in pummeling Michigan this particular year. An early 6-0 deficit for the Buckeyes gave way to a veritable butt kicking by Ohio State over the final three quarters as the talent disparity between these two rosters was obvious to everyone in the crowd of 111,373.
Ohio State’s offense mounted four scoring drives of 10-plus plays that drained more than 26 combined minutes off the clock. The defense kept Michigan out of the end zone for the first time in this rivalry since 2007 and limited quarterback Bryce Underwood to a season-low 63 passing yards. Day’s team won the third-down battle, the sack battle, the red zone battle and the rushing battle — a harbinger in the last 24 matchups between Michigan and Ohio State — all while outgaining the Buckeyes by 256 total yards and dominating both lines of scrimmage.
Bo Jackson #25 of the Ohio State Buckeyes runs with the ball against the Michigan Wolverines. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)
There wasn’t much more Day could have asked from his team.
“So happy for him,” Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles said. “Coach Day is an amazing leader. He’s an amazing coach. A lot of people have stuff to say about this game when it comes to him, and I think he proved a point today.”
He proved a point in enemy territory and was treated to a hero’s welcome on his way up the Lloyd Carr Tunnel. For the first time in a long time, Day had pried the gnarly Wolverine off his back.
A spot in the Big Ten Championship game awaits.
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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