Michigan loss stings, but OSU vows to learn from it
When Ohio State coach Ryan Day spoke with reporters Sunday for the first time since the humbling loss to Michigan, the sting from that defeat had not faded much.
It probably won’t for a long time. “The rivalry game is the rivalry game for a reason, and it means a lot to a lot of people,” Day said. “When you don’t win it, there’s a tremendous amount of pain, and nobody knows that more than the players and the coaches here.
“(It’s) hard to swallow. You can’t just move on after one day. It just doesn’t work that way. Like I said in the postgame press conference, it’s going to leave a mark, and we knew that. It’s going to hurt for a while.”
It wasn’t just that the Buckeyes lost for the first time in a decade to the Wolverines, or that it paved the way for Michigan to win the Big Ten and qualify for the College Football Playoff instead of Ohio State.
The way that Michigan dominated the Buckeyes in the trenches was a blow to Buckeye pride.
“Our goal every game is to win the line of scrimmage,” Day said. “It’s to run the football and be physical and play great defense.”
None of that happened against Michigan. Day said the game taught the Buckeyes some hard lessons. Such as?
“Well, I think there’s some things that we’ll get into down the road, but immediately we’ve got to obviously do a better job stopping the run and running the football,” Day said. “That’s the No. 1 thing that that you recognize. We weren’t able to get some stops in the second half. I think if we had, it would have been a different game.”
Two days after the game, Wolverines offensive coordinator Josh Gattis gloated about his unit running for 297 yards.
“They’re a finesse team,” Gattis said about the Buckeyes. “They’re not a tough team.”
Asked about that comment, Day clearly did not want to give it any more oxygen.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t really think much about that at all,” he said.
But he is thinking about how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Day did nothing to douse speculation that he’s contemplating a staff shakeup, saying only that his focus for now is on recruiting and preparing for Utah in the Rose Bowl.
The Utes pride themselves on their toughness, and they twice manhandled an Oregon team that had its way with Ohio State in September.
The Buckeyes had some light workouts last week and will resume practice in earnest late this week.
“We had a lot of guys sick here the last couple weeks, and so we’re getting those guys healthy again,” Day said.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud said after the Michigan game that he was ill. Day acknowledged that illnesses affecting other players were “real,” but said it didn’t affect the game plan.
“It sounds like loser’s lament when something like that comes up, so it’s not even really worth talking about,” Day said. “It was significant in the game, but that doesn’t really matter.”
What matters now is how the Buckeyes respond to their disappointment. They made the College Football Playoff in the first two years of Day’s tenure at OSU. Not to see their name in the top four on Sunday was a new, unwanted experience.
“That’s our goal as we head into every year,” Day said of the CFP, “and so, yeah, it’s been a tough week for us. But you can only feel sorry for yourself for so long. You’ve got to move on. You’ve got to get back to work, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Bill Rabinowitz covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at brabinowitz@dispatch.com or on Twitter @brdispatch.