You might want to avoid your favorite Ohio State football fan today. Some of us know a couple and chances are they’re a bit perturbed.
The hometown COLUMBUS DISPATCH’s Joey Kaufman did his best to bite his lip and be succinct in his reporting of what went down in Ohio Stadium yesterday afternoon:
There is a real Michigan problem
The charitable view of the Buckeyes’ losing streak in The Game had been that Ohio State’s setbacks were owed as much to the ascendance of their archrivals.
Jim Harbaugh rebuilt the Wolverines in the aftermath of a 2020 debacle, culminating last season with them winning their first outright national championship since 1948.
In each of the previous three meetings, the Wolverines were at least No. 5 in the College Football Playoff rankings, creating matchups of equal Big Ten heavyweights.
But Saturday Ohio State was not facing an opponent in that weight class. Harbaugh left for the NFL in January, the roster turned over with 13 players taken in the draft and the Wolverines fell off in a 5-5 start to this season. It wasn’t until last weekend that Michigan even clinched bowl eligibility, mired in a transition under Sherrone Moore who was promoted to replace Harbaugh at the helm of the program.
The tenor of the rivalry hardly changed, though. The Buckeyes suffered a fourth straight loss as coach Ryan Day’s record in the series fell to 1-4.
But the more zealotic types like BUCKEYE WIRE’s Nathan Beighle was a lot less matter-of-fact:
Ohio State football had a nearly flawless season until today. Sure, it had a loss on the road to the No. 1 team in the country, Oregon, on its resume, but that was easy to look over given the Ducks dominance.
The Buckeyes welcomed their rival to Ohio Stadium and closed as a near three-score favorite. It was time for Ryan Day to finally get back at Michigan after having lost the most important game on the Ohio State schedule for the last few seasons.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened, and the Buckeyes lost a grueling 13-10 physical contest. The Wolverines drove and kicked a field goal with under two minutes to go to seal the win.
And Beighle’s work, dropped minutes after the final gun, also listed a host of real-time social media reactions from Buckeye Nation that were even less kind:
— I will not watch another down of Ohio State football with this dude coaching the team. If he spent as much time preparing for Michigan as he did dying his stupid looking fucking beard we’d be 4-0 against them.
— Quite possibly the most talented Ohio State football team of all time. Ryan Day and Chip Kelly completely shit the bed. Time to fire both of them. Now.
— Michigan tried to plant the flag again at midfield after beating Ohio State. Jack Sawyer ripped it off and threw it. If Ohio State would’ve brought this same intensity to the game maybe they would’ve won! Fire Ryan Day.
The facts remain that no matter how emotionally charged losing to the team some actually can’t use the letter M to reference was, this year in particular it was not a fatal blow. And to his credit, Kaufman’s final point reflected a shred more rationalization than a lot of his readers were capable of:
Ohio State could conceivably win the national championship in seven weeks.
The loss to the Wolverines eliminated the Buckeyes from reaching the Big Ten championship game, but did not dislodge them in the College Football Playoff race.
The likelihood is that the Buckeyes, who were No. 2 in the selection committee rankings last week, will be playing in a first-round game on Dec. 20 or 21.
And he certainly showed more restraint than, say, the Columbus police, as CNN’s Kevin Dotson detailed:
An ugly brawl after the final whistle marred Michigan’s shocking upset win over rival Ohio State, who entered the game at the No. 2 team in the nation.
It took several minutes for stadium security and police to separate the two teams, with pepper spray being dispersed to get the situation under control, according to multiple media reports.
The television broadcast showed players wiping their eyes and coughing in the aftermath of the brawl.
It took the nuanced and distanced experience of THE ATHLETIC’s Bruce Feldman to perhaps put all of this into more matter-of-fact context in the opinion expressed in that publication’s THE PULSE newsletter this morning:
Bruce, there are many who think Ryan Day needs to win a title to keep his job, which is a wild sentence to type (for a 66-10 coach). Do you buy it?
Bruce: Well, he’s making over $10 million per year and the school pumped $20 million into its roster in large part because Michigan had surpassed the Buckeyes and won a national title. He’s got better resources than any coach in his league by a wide margin. I think Day is still a really good coach, and I wouldn’t be shocked if they still ended up winning a national title this year. But if they don’t, that intense pressure on him will only get more suffocating. I’ll pose a question: If Day can’t rally the Buckeyes in the Playoff, does he still want this job? Is it worth it to him and his family given how hot the temperature is around there now?
Good question. And if I know the mindset of those who insist the Wolverines’ state is spelled *-i-c-h-i-g-a-n, I suspect I know the answer.
In an era where the Big 10 is in actuality the Big 18 and traditional rivalry games elsewhere have been eliminated or reduced to sporadic early-season battles (ask anyone in Oregon about “The Civil War”, for example), immature and overly emotional reactions to a sluggish performance are strong indications that this may be a fan base unworthy of actually winning even a single post-season game for.
So ya know, with Miami potentially out of the mix and aside from Oregon, I’m actually gonna pull for the Buckeyes. A rematch with Oregon in January would actually be incredible for ratings and interest, and given what went down in Eugene earlier this year I’d love to see what might happen on a neutral field.
And if somehow Day should emerge victorious, I assure you I and Ducks nation won’t be calling for Dan Henning’s scalp. And I honestly would love it if in the press conference that would follow Day were to announce his intent to resign and as part of his buyout demands lower his asking price and insist that no parade be held in downtown Columbus, or anywhere else in the state of Ohio, for the ingrates that would somehow see that win as a consolation prize.
So until then, Buckeyes fans, I’m sympatico with you. Somehow has to teach you what REALLY matters in today’s game.
Courage…