Ryan Day took a ton off himself when Ohio State won the College Football Playoff. Still, as we all know at this point, there remains one thing left to do for the Buckeyes’ head coach. On ‘Josh Pate’s College Football Show’ on Sunday, Josh Pate noted the ‘unique pressure’ being felt in Columbus. He knows […]
Ryan Day took a ton off himself when Ohio State won the College Football Playoff. Still, as we all know at this point, there remains one thing left to do for the Buckeyes’ head coach.
On ‘Josh Pate’s College Football Show’ on Sunday, Josh Pate noted the ‘unique pressure’ being felt in Columbus. He knows that, even after winning a national title in January, so much is still on Ohio State for what they haven’t done in the final week of their regular seasons the past four years in The Game, having not secured a win over Michigan since back in 2019, to the point that it almost, in a way, seemingly devalues what was a championship season last year for the Buckeyes.
“Have you ever thought to yourself, ‘Wow, that head coach, man. He just won the national championship but there’s a lot of pressure on him this year’? No one ever says that, but yet it’s kind of the case with Ryan Day,” said Pate.
“It’s not the case that he needs to win another national title. No, there’s this whole other season that’s baked into Ohio State’s world that most of you don’t worry about. Even though you guys play rivalry games, no one has he dynamic in their life right now that Ryan Day and Ohio State do as it relates to Michigan, even coming off a national championship last year,” said Pate. “There’s a, ‘yeah, but’. There’s not an asterisk next to the validity of the title. There’s not that. There’s an asterisk next to it in the sense that everyone congratulates you and then says, ‘Got to beat Michigan, though’ – and they’re not smiling when you chuckle at them. They’re just dead serious. They should be – ‘You got to beat Michigan, though.'”
By now, we all know the recent storyline in The Game. Ohio State has not won in this rivalry during this decade as, after the first one was cancelled, Michigan has won four straight times for their longest winning streak in the series since 1988-1991. They lost the first three as top-five matchups with the first two by double-digits to start before losing a close one by six. Then, last year, the Wolverines pulled an all-time upset by coming into Columbus and winning 13-10, leading to a postgame, midfield scuffle. That’s four consecutive losses, where they were seen as just as good of a team if not a large favorite, for the Buckeyes over That Team Up North, which also has cost them chances at being in either the Big Ten Championship or the CFP.
Now, coming into this year’s game, Day still should feel some pressure, despite now having a national title on his resumé. Little else may matter this fall for them if Ohio State doesn’t end this losing streak. That’s with his record currently standing at 2-4 against Michigan and with the Wolverines’ program only getting better as this year’s game also goes back to Ann Arbor.
“We’re going on half a decade. This is entering a fifth year now. You can’t lose to them,” said Pate. “They’ve got Bryce Underwood up there. They’ve got folks willing to spend. The NCAA cloud is in the rearview mirror now, so all the message board fodder has to rid itself of that and refocus on what we should be focused on, which is the game on the field – The Game on the field. It’s a long way away. It’s several months away, but everything builds to that, you know.”
“Ohio State, correct me if I’m wrong – I think they’ve been favored in like, every one of these games the past four years and they’re 0-4. So, it won’t matter. Ohio State can beat Texas by 20 this Saturday. They can go into Washington and win and they can go to Illinois and win, beat Penn State. And it doesn’t matter if the futures market has Ohio State -20, Ohio State -22. That’s what they had last year. They got beat!” Pate said. “So it will not matter until the dust settles, four full quarters have been played at least and there’s a bigger number on that scoreboard for the scarlet & grey than there is for the maize & blue.”
Day likely preserved the perception of himself, if not his job, by going on from that upset loss in the season finale to win the national title. That said, because of that accomplishment, everything for Ohio State is now on ending what’d be nearly a six-year skid against Michigan, which is an odd amount of pressure felt by a program that’s currently the defending champions.
“That is a very weird kind of pressure that only exists in college football,” Pate said.
Category: General Sports
