The Large Image: This Was the Win Ryan Day Has Spent 4 Years Chasing

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 told reporters 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.

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].”

Although Day shunned remodeling his postgame remarks right into a bully pulpit, it wasn’t troublesome to think about a few of the issues he in all probability needed to say — notably inside the context of this rivalry. 

He may need referred again to Harbaugh’s pointed jab about being “born on third base,” following Michigan’s personal streak-breaking win over Ohio State in 2021. He may need shared some ideas on Connor Stalions, the architect of the Wolverines’ sign-stealing scandal that some inside the program nonetheless imagine influenced video games through the Buckeyes’ dropping skid. He may need provided just a few phrases to the Ohio State followers who verbally abused and threatened Day’s spouse and kids after earlier losses to the Wolverines, prompting the household to rent round the clock safety at their house. He may need mentioned final yr’s flag-planting fiasco at Ohio Stadium that resulted in a pepper spray-laden brawl.

However Day stayed away from all that, opting as an alternative to make one remark after one other in regards to the effort his group put forth in pummeling Michigan this explicit yr. An early 6-0 deficit for the Buckeyes gave solution to a veritable butt kicking by Ohio State over the ultimate three quarters because the expertise disparity between these two rosters was apparent to everybody within the crowd of 111,373. 

Ohio State’s offense mounted 4 scoring drives of 10-plus performs that drained greater than 26 mixed minutes off the clock. The protection saved Michigan out of the tip zone for the primary time on this rivalry since 2007 and restricted quarterback Bryce Underwood to a season-low 63 passing yards. Day’s group gained the third-down battle, the sack battle, the purple zone battle and the dashing battle — a harbinger within the final 24 matchups between Michigan and Ohio State — all whereas outgaining the Buckeyes by 256 whole yards and dominating each traces of scrimmage.

Bo Jackson #25 of the Ohio State Buckeyes runs with the ball towards the Michigan Wolverines. (Photograph by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Photographs)

There wasn’t rather more Day might have requested from his group.

“So glad for him,” Ohio State linebacker Sonny Types stated after the sport. “Coach Day is an incredible chief. He’s an incredible coach. Lots of people have stuff to say about this sport in terms of him, and I believe he proved a degree as we speak.”

He proved a degree in enemy territory and was handled to a hero’s welcome on his manner up the Lloyd Carr Tunnel. For the primary time in a very long time, Day had pried the gnarly Wolverine off his again. 

A spot within the Large Ten Championship sport awaits.

Michael Cohen covers school soccer and school basketball for FOX Sports activities. Observe him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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