Ohio State: Will HC Ryan Day recover from third straight loss to Michigan?

College Football

Published Jun. 5, 2024 2:13 p.m. ET

Head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes won their first 11 games of the 2023 college football season, but it was an irrelevant feat in Columbus after they lost to the Michigan Wolverines in Week 13. The loss ended Ohio State’s College Football Playoff aspirations and marked its third consecutive loss to Michigan.

After what was arguably their most grueling loss to the Wolverines in recent memory, can Day & Co. recover in 2024?

On the latest edition of “The No. 1 College Football Show with RJ Young,” host RJ Young explained why he expects Day and the Buckeyes to bounce back next season.

“The defense is still the defense, and the defense was really great at Ohio State last year. It’s just we couldn’t start talking about it in a real way because we were still trying to figure out why they couldn’t run the ball and why it was just Marvin Harrison Jr.-or-bust for them, knowing what the wide receiver room is like. And it’s really about the offensive line, which I don’t think was that great running the ball. I think they’ll be better this year; I don’t know if they’ll be great,” Young said. “You add Caleb Downs to an already pretty stacked defense. You get guys coming back because they haven’t won a Big Ten Championship; they don’t have a set of gold pants; they don’t have a National Championship.

“You have a generation of players at Ohio State right now that is playing for it all, so in that way, Ryan Day and his team are both playing for their futures … you want to be that team that finally beat Michigan. I’m sure Ryan Day does not want it on his résumé that he went out with losses to Michigan.”

After beating Michigan in eight consecutive matchups, Ohio State lost to its archival, 42-27, at The Big House in 2021. It then lost at home to Michigan in 2022, with the Wolverines pulling away in the fourth quarter to win 45-23. This past season, Ohio State lost in The Big House once more, 30-24.

In last season’s edition of The Game, Michigan devoured the game clock in the fourth quarter with a 13-play, 7:00 minute drive, leaving Ohio State with no timeouts and just 1:05 to put together a game-winning touchdown drive; Buckeyes quarterback Kyle McCord was intercepted on the fourth play of the ensuing drive.

Michigan went on to win the Big Ten Championship Game and crack the College Football Playoff for a third consecutive season and then win the College Football Playoff National Championship. The Wolverines are now steered by former offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, who was promoted to head coach after Jim Harbaugh left Ann Arbor for the Los Angeles Chargers.

On the other hand, Ohio State went on to lose to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl, 14-3, finishing 11-2 for a third consecutive season. The Buckeyes haven’t won the Big Ten since 2020 and are 1-3 against the Wolverines under Day.

Ohio State’s offense averaged 269.1 passing yards (second in the Big Ten), 138.8 rushing yards (eighth), 407.9 total yards (first) and 30.5 points (third) per game. Defensively, it surrendered just 147.4 passing yards (first), 112.5 rushing yards (fifth), 259.9 total yards (third) and 11.0 points (second) per game.

Hit or Miss: Can Ryan Day recover from another loss to Michigan?

While the likes of Devin Brown, Air Noland and Alabama transfer Julian Sayin are in the mix to start, Kansas State transfer Will Howard is expected to be Ohio State’s quarterback when it opens the 2024 season against Akron on Aug. 31. In what was his first season as Kansas State’s full-time signal-caller (2023), Howard totaled 2,643 passing yards, 24 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 140.1 passer rating, while completing 61.3% of his passes. He also ran for 351 yards and nine touchdowns.

Running back Quinshon Judkins — who transferred to Ohio State from Ole Miss, where he averaged 1,362.5 rushing yards and 15.5 rushing touchdowns per season on 5.0 yards per carry in his freshman and sophomore seasons — will boost Ohio State’s running game, forming a potent one-two punch with a healthy TreVeyon Henderson. Meanwhile, the loss of Harrison, a two-time All-American, to the NFL draft could be aided by the return of senior Emeka Egbuka and the arrival of five-star recruit Jeremiah Smith.

Ohio State hosts Michigan on Nov. 30 next season on “Big Noon Saturday.”

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