Ryan Day: “we must win this game”

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COVER PHOTO: Head coach Ryan Day prepares to lead his team onto the field before their game against Iowa on Oct. 5. The Buckeyes won, 35-7. Picture by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.

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Ohio State may be coming off of a devastating 13-10 home loss to Michigan on Nov. 30, a loss that kept them out of the Big Ten championship game.

But the loss to the unranked Wolverines (7-5, 5-4 Big Ten) wasn’t enough to dissuade the College Football Playoff committee from not only keeping the Buckeyes out of the playoff but dropping them below being the No. 8 seed, which would have meant they would’ve packed their bags for another school’s home field.

Instead, the committee anointed the Scarlet and Gray (10-2, 7-2) with the 8 seed in the inaugural 12-team FBS playoff and because of that seed, they’ll be hosting the 9th-seeded Tennessee Volunteers in a first-ever home playoff game.

However, OSU head coach Ryan Day’s fourth-straight winless game against the Maize and Blue highlighted his team’s flaws - especially the run game - and even though their other loss was by a single point on the road to the only unbeaten team in all of FBS (Oregon), two losses and a non-appearance in the Big Ten title game were enough to slip OSU to the final spot needed for them to host a first-round playoff game.

Day got a reprieve from the committee, though, and said his guys are excited for the game.

“We’re fired up (and) we’re obviously excited about playing in the first-ever playoff game in Ohio Stadium,” he said. “Ohio Stadium has been around a long time, over a hundred years (and) there have been a lot of great games but never a playoff game like this.”

Indeed, the stakes are high for the Buckeyes for a few different reasons.

No. 1: Their last loss was in Ohio Stadium the weekend before to their arch-rival - who was unranked, very beatable at 6-5 and without second-team All-Big Ten cornerback Will Johnson (media) and tight end Colston Loveland (unanimous).

No. 2: Their next game is against an SEC team that their only prior meeting with was nearly 30 years ago in a 1996 Citrus bowl loss and Ohio State’s postseason record against the SEC is checkered at best. Even almost 30 years later, revenge would be sweet.

No. 3: If Ryan Day loses in the unique opportunity of hosting an SEC team in December - something Buckeye Nation has absolutely been clamoring for - and fails to right the ship after suffering a loss to a woefully undermatched Michigan team, his reputation in Columbus will probably take a bigger hit than that of John Cooper, who was summarily booted from his head coaching position with the Buckeyes after going 2-10-1 against TTUN and lost more than one-third of OSU’s total postseason defeats at the hands of the SEC.

The current comparison for Day amongst some of those inside and outside of Buckeye Nation is to that of Cooper.

Needless to say, Day has some serious nay-sayers to prove wrong and admitted that this past week wasn’t exactly pleasant for he and his team after suffering their fourth loss in a row and bringing his record to 1-4 against That Team Up North.

“Last week was not fun for anybody,” he said. “But we have a new target and know that the national championship is on the table and all of our focus is moving forward.”

The comparisons between Day and Cooper may be the same in the respect of their TTUN and postseason record but that’s where the comparisons stop.

Cooper approached it with a blasé demeanor and even said that Michigan was “just another game”. Day, however, is on the opposite end of the spectrum where he seems to pound it into his players’ and coaching staff’s skulls that they MUST accomplish their goals or else the season is a failure. He’s stated this on more than one occasion. In fact, he reiterated several times on Sunday the importance of beating the Volunteers.

“Getting this first win will be critical in building momentum into the teeth of the playoffs. When you look at tournament play, you look at playoff plays, we all know that that first game is very, very important.”

That statement was within the first minute of his 33-plus minute press conference. It almost sounds like he’s planning on what they’ll be doing for the next game instead of truly taking it one game at a time.

That kind of attitude can get the guys wound up tighter than a drum and play not to lose rather than go out with confidence and win.

All week before The Game, Day emphasized how important it was to run the ball and pointed to past history as his measuring stick.

Day so badly wanted his guys to shed the “soft” narrative that he was insistent at not only trying to pound the rock against Michigan’s nationally fourth-rated rushing defense but smash it into the teeth of a defensive line featuring two stout tackles in Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham, both of whom are being tabbed as potential first round picks in the NFL draft.

Quinshon Judkins led the Buckeyes with 12 carries for 46 yards while TreVeyon Henderson had 10 runs for 21 yards. Quarterback Will Howard finished with four totes for 10 yards. No one scored a rushing touchdown.

Although, it wasn’t just a failure on offense but was their demise on defense, too.

Ohio State's rushing defense went into the game one step ahead of Michigan’s, sitting as the third-best in the NCAA at 90 yards per game. The Wolverines had allowed 94 per game.

But the Scarlet and Gray’s inability to stifle Michigan at key moments allowed UM to stay afloat, especially in the fourth quarter, controlling the ball for over 13 minutes.

Two critical moments came on third down on the Wolverines’ game-winning drive, the first before the two-minute timeout.

With six yards to go for a first down at the OSU 44, Michigan running back Kalel Mullings rushed off the right tackle but the Buckeyes stuffed him for no gain.

Or so they thought.

Instead, Mullings caught some arm tackles and proceeded to come out of the scrum for a 27-yard gain.

Three plays later, UM was facing third-and-2 at OSU’s 9. Day called a timeout to rally his troops for the stop. But for whatever reason, his defense was woefully ill-prepared as 12 men took the field and were subsequently flagged for a 5-yard illegal substitution and gave Michigan a first down.

Dominic Zvada went on to kick the eventual game-winning, 21-yard field goal with 45 seconds left.

The Buckeyes had no timeouts and Howard was only able to complete one of his four passes for one yard on their final, feeble drive of the game.

Unfortunately, the New Hampshire native-Day’s assertion was correct that the team who rushed the best would win.

Final stats on the ground: Michigan - 172, OSU - 77.

It is the most OSU has allowed in a single game all year while their offensive output was second-least to Nebraska.

But as hell-bent as Day was wanting to run against the Wolverines, he seems to have learned his lesson?

“I’ve definitely been spending some time with the offense and we’ll look at it and see whatever makes the most sense to win this game,” he said. “We’ll do whatever it takes.”

The Vols’ rush defense has been pretty stout, allowing an SEC second-best 99 yards per game. The Buckeyes average 169 yards and two touchdowns per game on the ground.

But what’s one area that OSU could expose Tennessee’s possible defensive vulnerabilities? Yep, you guessed it: through the air.

The Volunteers haven’t been awful or even sub-par. In fact, they’ve been REALLY good, sitting ninth nationally in pass efficiency defense (110.51).

But compared to allowing the run, the Vols have been somewhat susceptible to giving up some yards through the air. Four games they’ve allowed over 200 yards, including 347 and two touchdowns in their 31-17 loss at Georgia.

The Buckeyes currently rank 38th in the country at 254 passing yards per game and 29 touchdowns.

But if they’re going to have a shot at making it into the quarterfinal in a rematch versus Oregon, all the Buckeyes have to do is stop Tennessee’s nationally ninth-ranked rushing offense that hasn’t been held to under 100 yards all year long, bowling over defenses at 232 yards and 2.6 touchdowns per game.

Ohio State’s rushing defense is still ranked as the fifth-best in the land at 94 yards per game but was exposed against Michigan’s 69th-ranked running attack that had been averaging 159 a game going into The Game.

Including all current 16 SEC teams, the Buckeyes have won only three times in postseason play. Two wins came against Texas A&M in the 1987 Cotton Bowl and 1999 Sugar Bowl when the Aggies were part of the Big 8 and Big 12, respectively. Their third win came on Jan. 1, 2015 against top-ranked Alabama in the first-ever FBS playoff.

Their victory against Arkansas in the 2011 Sugar Bowl, which technically at the time was the school’s first-ever, was wiped from the books due to the sanctions of Tattoo-Gate.

Kickoff is set for Saturday, Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. and will be simulcast on ABC and ESPN.