Ryan Day, Ohio State will face scrutiny as Michigan stakes claim

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mike Sainristil was five weeks old the last time Michigan won in Ohio Stadium.

Now a senior for the Wolverines, the violin player from Haiti (by way of Massachusetts) did not grow up in college football’s most storied rivalry, but he has embraced it and everything it entails since arriving in Ann Arbor. So much so that after the final whistle of his team’s 45-23 blowout win over Ohio State, Sainristil took a Block M flag, shuffled to a gathering throng of teammates at the logo on the 50-yard line, and unleashed, with all due respect to Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield in 2017, the most powerful flag planting the historic stadium’s compacted turf had ever witnessed. 

Statement made — flag planted for emphasis. This was Michigan’s show now. It sure is the Wolverines’ conference, soon to be official two years running.

“I knew our team was focused and determined, as they have been all season,” said a visibly excited Jim Harbaugh afterward. “This is the locker room of heroes. I talked about it last night, we can’t have one or two heroes; we need a whole team of them. It was a great team win.”

Ohio State coach Ryan Day did not see Sainristil’s gallop to midfield, but he will for sure feel the symbolism that comes from somebody coming into his house and claiming it for that school up north. It was the program’s first Big Ten loss at home since 2015 — breaking a 29-game conference winning streak at the ‘Shoe — and first to Michigan at the venue since 2000.

The loss dropped the Buckeyes’ boss to a remarkable 45-5 as a head coach and 31-2 in league play.

Yet it is the number two in the latter column that will stick in the minds of many around the Big Ten, as Saturday potentially signaled a changing-of-the-guard moment on Saturday and a reason why any doubts that OSU fans had about Day have now turned into full-blown worry that he might not be the guy to lead the group back to the promised land.

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Normally that would mean bringing a national title back to Ohio, a championship standard his predecessors were measured against. After witnessing Harbaugh reel off two straight in the series for the first time in two decades though, it may start with the basics of trying to figure out how to win the Big Ten first.

“It wasn’t just one area, it was a missed tackle on the first play, and then we got beat on the second play,” remarked a fairly despondent Day. “I thought we played hard, I thought we were fighting out there, but in the end, we came up short.

“We’ll figure out what’s next. I don’t know exactly what is next right now, but that’s life at Ohio State. I certainly know what this game means to everybody and when you lose, it all comes back to me, being the head coach, and that’s what probably hurts the most.”

It feels a long time since Day took over for Urban Meyer and started his tenure with two straight College Football Playoff trips — and a national championship game appearance to boot. Back then, Day was looking like a lock to bring at least one shiny gold trophy home, given the easy path the conference tends to offer up and the amount of resources poured into the football program on a yearly basis.

Taking the over on national titles for Day felt like a decent bet.

Now? Given Day’s age — now a much older and greyer 43 — even Buckeye Guy might pass on such a wager, as the fan base starts to ponder if they might have less of a Meyer successor running the show, and more of a scarlet-and-grey version of Larry Coker or perhaps Mark Helfrich with nicer hair.

Harbaugh alluded to as much last November, tweaking his opposite number by claiming some coaches — i.e. Day — are born on third base. Now, those pointed comments may have been even more on the mark than when first made. 

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Is it too much to be discussing a coach who wins 90% of his games in such a manner? No, it’s just the expectations you deal with at one of the sport’s behemoths when you lose to your rival in such a manner.  

Day failed to provide many answers as the sun set on Saturday evening about what will get fixed over the coming weeks and months around the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. A coach will always defer to watching the film in such a setting, but he looked genuinely at a loss for words at what transpired after a three-point halftime lead turned into a faint memory, just as the chilly air around town turned toasty amid otherwise sunny conditions.

Last year’s cathartic 42-27 Michigan victory amid the snowy conditions at the Big House resulted in Day quickly moving to bring in Oklahoma State’s Jim Knowles as the team’s new defensive coordinator, paying him just a shade under $2 million per year to help shore up tackling and limit big plays.

For part of this season, he did. Then Saturday rolled around for the game Knowles was specifically brought in to win. All his unit did was allow four touchdown plays of at least 69 yards. 

“You just have to take responsibility. Obviously the players are hurting much more than me,” said Knowles. “I’m crushed but they’re young men who put their heart and soul into it. They’re the ones that I have to be able to look in the eye and talk about all those things that you said. Scheme, technique, fundamentals, everything that goes into it has to fall on my shoulders.”

Day’s decision-making didn’t help.

After the Wolverines quieted the crowd in taking a 24-20 lead, Ohio State squandered good field position around midfield midway through the third quarter thanks to penalties. While they had gotten chunks back after facing a first-and-35, Day opted to punt in Michigan territory instead of going for it on fourth-and-5, and it resulted in Jesse Mirco’s punt sailing into the end zone for a touchback.

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The Wolverines proceeded to score touchdowns on three of their next four drives, putting a stranglehold on a game and conference of which they can now claim ownership.

“It just happened so fast,” said quarterback C.J. Stroud, who likely played his final game at home as the NFL Draft comes calling next spring. “Going through what I went through last year after the game, it was tough and it was a hard pill to swallow for 365 days. It’s going to be tough again, but I think this program is tough, I think the coaches are tough, I think the players are tough.”

The results have proven otherwise, at least against Harbaugh’s team.

Michigan was the tougher side in 2021 and again on Saturday, not just in the trenches but every time the big moment called for an answer. The Wolverines rose up and gave one, the Buckeyes simply did not. 

Now the questions will come for Day just as they once did for Harbaugh, who he was in a similar position not long ago. With those questions come doubts. Can he finally win The Game after coming up short so often?

Stroud is correct that it all happened so quickly. Ohio State was rolling and once lorded over the Big Ten from its deluxe penthouse full of five-star recruits and lengthy lists of draft picks. The Buckeyes’ competition was much more Alabama, Georgia and Clemson, not the team in their own division.

Now they’ve been shown the door to the stairwell, and it will be extra painful for Day and the Buckeyes to move forward after the Wolverines hit them with it on the way out twice in a row. 

Sainristil’s celebration at midfield was simply an emotional exclamation point that drove it home. 

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Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

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