Ryan Day says he isn’t motivated by losses to Michigan football

Ryan Day is a good football coach. Michigan football fans love to mock him, but outside of his 1-3 record against the Wolverines, he’s been a successful head coach.

Day just hasn’t met the ridiculous standards of Ohio State football fans. But really, there is just one standard at Ohio State: Beat Michigan.

Just like at Michigan. When you beat Ohio State, everything else seems to fall into place. But if you can’t beat your rival, it wears on your program. It happened to Michigan for years but now the pressure is on Ohio State.

Many have said it’s “beat Michigan or bust” for Day. That’s especially true after building what Urban Meyer called the best team he’s ever seen. Basically, it’s being set up for Day to beat Michigan, or else.

But according to Day, the recent results against Michigan don’t motivate him. The last three losses have “stung” according to what he told Joel Klatt on Big Noon conversations, but the Ohio State coach said there is no extra motivation to beat Michigan which is a lot different than “We’re going to beat Ohio or die trying,” as Jim Harbaugh famously said before beating Ohio State three straight times by an average of 14 points.

Ryan Day says Michigan football losses aren’t motivating

“I don’t think any year you’re more or less motivated,” Ryan Day said. “I think every year, every team is a little bit different. But, to say that those games haven’t stung — of course, they have. Those are bad weeks in Columbus when you don’t win that game.”

Day says weird stuff like calling out Lou Holtz, saying his team had “one bad half in two years” when Michigan outscored OSU 28-14 in 2021 in the second half as well as 28-3 in the second half in 2022 — so which was the bad half, Ryan?

Tell me again how you were a play away from “achieving all your goals” the last three years when that is demonstrably not true — unless beating Michigan isn’t one of Ohio State’s goals anymore.

It should be for Day because his job probably depends on it. So it’s weird for him to say the past three years haven’t given him any extra motivation. Maybe acting like ‘The Game’ doesn’t matter that much will work out for him this time.

All I know is that Jim Harbaugh didn’t put enough emphasis on ‘The Game’ early in his career. At least not as much as Urban Meyer and it showed. When that changed, so did the tenor of the rivalry.

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