Hayes: Michigan has motivated Ryan Day and Ohio State to go all-in on 2024
There’s something so satisfying about the symmetry of it all, the maize and blue desperation quietly morphing into scarlet and gray obsession.
We’ve gone full circle in the Big Ten, and now that Nick Saban is gone, it’s the best theater in college football.
Ohio State has pushed all the chips to the middle of the table this offseason, a month of change that leaves no doubt: It’s now or never in Columbus.
If Ohio State coach Ryan Day can’t solve the Michigan question now, that sparkling record against everyone but Michigan isn’t going to matter.
More to the point: There’s no sense continuing to throw good money after bad.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It wasn’t that long ago that Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh stood at Big Ten Media Days in 2021 and summarily exposed the elephant in the room.
“I’m here before you, enthusiastic as I ever am,” Harbaugh said. “Even more to have at it, to win the championship, to beat Ohio (State) and our rival Michigan State. That’s what we want to do, and we’re going to do it — or die trying.”
At that point, Harbaugh was 0-for-Ohio State since he arrived at his alma mater in 2015. He wasn’t much better against Michigan State.
And he absolutely was at a make or break moment, a 7th year of promising to return Michigan to the top of the Big Ten.
Day is now 1-3 vs. Michigan, and has lost 3 straight by a combined score of 117-74. Ohio State hasn’t won the Big Ten since the pandemic season of 2020, when the teams didn’t play The Game because Michigan couldn’t field a healthy team.
Since that season, and since Harbaugh declaration of win or die trying, Michigan hasn’t lost The Game and won the national title in 2023. Ohio State missed the Playoff in 2021 and 2023.
Even when the Buckeyes made the Playoff in 2022, it ended in a disastrous 4th quarter that ended when kicker Noah Ruggles missed from 50 yards to win the game.
In 2023, Ohio State lost 1 regular-season game — to Michigan — and didn’t advance to the Playoff, throwing Day into a deeper hole with a rabid fan base.
Now think about the steps Day has taken since the Buckeyes lost to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl, since a season of so much hope ended with more big game failure, and since the the Ohio State collectives doubled down in 2024.
Ladies and gentlemen, check out Day’s “Or Die Trying” month:
— Hired Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, giving up control of the offense. A brilliant move.
O’Brien was an elite coach at Penn State and in the NFL with the Texans (4 division titles in 6 seasons), and knows how to develop quarterbacks. Alabama fans complain that O’Brien told QB Jalen Milroe he may want to consider a different position but conveniently forget how Heisman winner Bryce Young raved about O’Brien.
But by hiring O’Brien, Day demoted the most popular coach on the staff (OC/WR coach Brian Hartline to co-OC/WR coach), who just so happens to be one of the top 10 recruiters in the nation.
— Landed a commitment from Ole Miss RB Quinshon Judkins, 3 days before star TB TreVeyon Henderson announced he was staying for his senior season.
Judkins rushed for 2,725 yards the past 2 seasons, and is an alpha (see: the contentious exit from Ole Miss). Will he be happy with a Trevor Etienne workload, getting 12-14 touches a game while sharing time with Henderson?
Better yet, does Henderson — in his final season, and staring at a clear money season for the 2025 NFL Draft — accept a diminished role? The dynamics of that shared position will be fascinating and potentially volatile.
— Landed a commitment from Alabama S Caleb Downs. Ohio State adds the best player on the Alabama defense, and one of the top 10 defensive players in college football.
If that’s not enough, Day added 2 quarterbacks — Kansas State starter Will Howard, and former Alabama 5-star signee Julian Sayin — after he said prior to the bowl game that Ohio State wasn’t going to add quarterbacks to the roster.
He also added a starting center (Seth McLaughlin, Alabama) and tight end (Will Kacmarek, Ohio), all while losing 19 to the portal — including some critical pieces to 1 of the 3 most talented rosters in college football.
All of this while Michigan, now the unquestioned standard in the Big Ten, is on the verge of losing Harbaugh to the NFL.
We’re 2 months from seeing the first stages of Ohio State’s all-in moment at spring practice, the delicate assimilation of new coaches and players and systems and personalities.
The Ohio State collectives spent considerable capital landing 5 impact players, and Day spent considerable political capital going all in.
The only question: Is it good money after bad?