Ohio State head coach Ryan Day made his priorities very clear when he was first announced as Urban Meyer’s successor in Columbus.
“Win the rivalry game and then win every game after that,” Day said, in that order, at his 2018 introduction.
It was a great quip, for sure, but there’s no mistaking the truth behind it. Michigan may represent the game, but it’s not the last game of the year. It’s not the Big Ten championship or the College Football Playoff.
That mentality has put Day and Ohio State in a fascinating position on Saturday after Michigan — a three-touchdown underdog — handed the No. 2 Buckeyes a fourth consecutive defeat in the rivalry game, 13-10.
The problem with institutions telling their fan bases that beating one single team is more important than anything else is that, after long enough, they start to internalize it.
So now what?
Put extremely simply: Ohio State must decide if a four-game losing streak to Michigan is more important than any of Day’s accomplishments. If the answer is yes, the next question is can Ohio State do any better than its current head coach?
Ohio State, with it’s $20 million dollar roster, is 10-2 and almost certainly heading to the College Football Playoff for the fourth time under Day. Was that money well spent if it doesn’t come with a victory over The Team Up North?
How then to square the Buckeyes’ primal need to beat Michigan with the reality of modern college football? A College Football Playoff appearance is worth significantly more than a single win over Michigan. The extra cash dolled out to participants cannot be understated on the eve of revenue sharing in college sports.
Those are the metrics that are supposed to matter. Yet earlier this week, Day upped the pressure on The Game when he said losing to the Wolverines was comparable to the death of his father. Senior Buckeyes talked about the pain of having never beat the Wolverines. It all makes for a wildly uncomfortable situation.
The current coaching market is thin, and while fans are already demanding Mike Vrabel come home, there’s no guarantee he will — or even that it would provide an upgrade. There’s certainly no guarantee Ohio State will have another run of playoff appearances like Day has provided.
These hypotheticals don’t cool off Day’s seat any, of course, but this is the discussion happening among Ohio State boosters and officials.
If the lasting imagine in Columbus is the Buckeyes’ coach standing still as his players brawl after another Michigan loss, it’ll reinforce the idea that Ohio State must “win the rivalry game and then win every game after that.” It’ll also overshadow everything else Day’s done for the school — all the titles, the elite recruit wins and the players he’s sent to the NFL.
Day has beaten Michigan before, and while it seems like an eternity since the Buckeyes won this game, Ohio State was 17-3 over the Wolverines for the first 20 years of this century.
So now we’re left to wonder how Ohio State navigates the rich pain of remaining one of the sport’s elite programs who still can’t seem to satisfy its fan base.
Will a single Saturday in November outweigh banners that hang forever? We’ll find out soon enough.
