Ryan Day wants Ohio State to dominate Michigan, but simply winning is good enough | Oller

Not often does a coach put himself on the hot seat, or in Ryan Day’s case a warmer seat , but that is kind of what the Ohio State coach just did.

When discussing last year’s Michigan game during this week’s Big Ten media session in Indianapolis, Day added another bullet point to his presentation on what the Buckeyes need to do in 2024.

“It’s easy to say it comes down to a play or two but that’s not really the case,” Day said of last year’s 30-24 loss in Ann Arbor. “What we need to do is leave no doubt. No doubt. Don’t leave it to one play. Don’t leave it to one call. Don’t leave it to one stop. Leave no doubt when you leave the field.”

In other words, win big, or at least enough to not allow one or two plays or “events” to spell the difference. That sounds good. Fans love hearing it, but history reveals it is not realistic to expect the Buckeyes to blow out Michigan to the point that a couple of negative plays don’t decide the game. As often as not, The Game is decided by a slip (Shawn Springs in 1996) or fourth-quarter interception (Ray Griffin in 1975.)

More Ohio State football news: 5 Ohio State football preseason camp position battles to watch from quarterback to punter

Ohio State's last season

Last season was no different. Two critical “misses” doomed OSU at the Big House. First, the Buckeyes’ touted defense could not get off the field when it mattered most. Leading 27-24 with 8:05 remaining, the Wolverines ran seven minutes off the clock before kicking a 37-yard field goal for a 30-24 lead.

The second gaffe occurred with 25 seconds left when UM cornerback Will Johnson intercepted Kyle McCord at the Michigan 37 to give the Wolverines their third consecutive win in the rivalry. On the play, Ohio State left guard Donovan Jackson stepped on the foot of center Carson Hinzman and stumbled, allowing Jaylen Harrell to hit McCord just as he was releasing the ball on a pass intended for Marvin Harrison Jr.

There were other miscues, but the fourth-quarter defensive failure and offensive “whoopsie” are remembered most because they came at crunch time.

Day doesn’t think it should come down to that, which means OSU needs to dominate early and often so Michigan can’t eke out a win at the end. That is asking a lot, considering there have been 41 one-score games in 118 meetings, not counting ties, with the Buckeyes winning 20 of those.

Ohio State fans were spoiled by the Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer eras, when OSU won 16 of 18 against Michigan, and nine by double digits. Day’s first and only win against the Maize and Blue was a 56-27 rout in 2019.

Buckeye Nation expects similar results today, but the majority of Michigan teams from this century were flawed to the point of barely being able to compete. Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke set the program back, and it took Jim Harbaugh half a decade and Connor Stalions to put things back in order.

I know what Day is getting at – don’t leave anything to chance – and it’s never bad to aim high when setting goals, but it feels like he is adding unnecessary stress by putting out there that The Game should not come down to one play. Sure, Woody Hayes was famous for running up the score on Michigan in 1968, but during the Ten-Year War against Bo Schembechler (1969-1978), the average margin of victory in the series was eight points. And a handful of those outcomes came down to a single play.

The 'i' in Script Ohio: Archie Griffin to dot the 'i' in Script Ohio for Ohio State's season opener against Akron

Two highly-ranked teams should turn in a close game. It’s not wrong for Day to want to crush Michigan, but he already has enough crushing pressure on him to set expectations even higher.

"What was it that prevented us from finishing off that last drive and getting off the field on defense?" Day said Tuesday. "We're not going to get into all the things we’ve done to try to address that, to get that fixed, but we have. We worked hard on that and feel good about where we are going into the season."

The Game hangs out there like a slow train coming down the tracks. Winning big is nice, but just winning is enough.

roller@dispatch.com

@rollerCD

Get more Ohio State football news by listening to our podcasts

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ryan Day wants Ohio State to dominate Michigan, but simply winning is good enough | Oller