Time to Put Michigan Loss Aside, Ohio State Turns Focus to Setting the Tone in CFP

The Buckeyes average just 6.3 points in the first quarter, but need a quick start against the Volunteers whose fans will pack Ohio Stadium.

Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day is surrounded by players before a game this season. / Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The words over the door to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center identify the entryway as the Brian and Mandi Yeager Atrium. Except red tape covers the “M” in Mandi and in Atrium. Sixteen days later, The Debacle in the Shoe still is literally imprinted on the Ohio State Buckeyes.

It has become standard operating procedure on this massive campus to slap a red-tape X on every public letter “M” leading into the annual rivalry game against the Michigan Wolverines. The 13th letter in the alphabet is eradicated for a week. But now, after a fourth straight loss in the series, Ohio State really needs to rip off the Band-Aid—or, more accurately, the red tape—and move on with life.

Because it has indeed gone on. A post-apocalyptic existence is at hand, and it just might end gloriously.

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Ohio State has a College Football Playoff berth and a national championship quest that starts Saturday night in Ohio Stadium against the Tennessee Volunteers. There is fresh motivation and fresh hope—if only the Buckeyes can stop reliving that 13–10 loss to the Wolverines on Nov. 30 as a three-touchdown favorite.

“That game, it sucked,” quarterback Will Howard said Monday at a news conference that was ostensibly to preview the playoff game but was just as much a postmortem on the Michigan loss. “It was terrible for all of us. But we can’t let it beat us twice.”

Taking the red Xs off the Ms at the football complex might prove that they’re past it. And while they’re at it, changing the wording on the 2024 season schedule that hangs in the team meeting room. It lists 11 opponents by school name, then comes the 12th on Nov. 30: “TUN.” Short for “Team Up North,” as the Buckeyes refer to Michigan. Let it go.

Great college rivalries breed a level of irrational behavior that can be fun and funny. But here at Ohio State, they might have taken it a bit too far for their own good. If everything about Michigan is completely intolerable—right down to words and letters—then losing to the Wolverines is intolerable as well. 

Doing it four straight times? Unimaginably intolerable.

Which is why Howard and Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, in particular, got one question after another Monday rehashing the full-system failure against the Wolverines. This was the media’s first interview with Kelly since that game, so the questions for him were understandable. But the dwelling on the details illustrated that a lot of people aren’t over it.

(For the record, Kelly acknowledged that the game plan and play-calling—a run-heavy approach between the tackles which largely played into Michigan’s defensive strength—was not good enough. “I’ve got to do a better job putting [Howard] in position to make plays,” Kelly said.) 

But the beauty of a 12-team playoff for the 10–2 Buckeyes is that even choking in epic fashion against the team they hate most is only a flesh wound, not a mortal one. The season didn’t end on Nov. 30.

“You’ve got to work the issues out,” Howard said. “We came in here and we talked, we hashed some things out, and it brought us together. We talked about how we’re going to finish the right way. Keeping everything in front of us is what we’re clinging to. We don’t get a chance to play them again, but we still can win the whole thing.

“We can’t go out any other way than winning it all. That’s the way I see it.”

To do that requires four straight wins, something the Ohio State that played the first 11 games of the season seems capable of doing. So now, to paraphrase new college football coach Bill Belichick, they’re on to Tennessee.

“I’m excited for our players, and I’m excited for our fans to get back together Saturday in the Shoe for a historic event,” head coach Ryan Day said. “For everyone to get back together is exciting.”

We’ll see what the excitement level is in the Shoe on Saturday night. 

When things are going well in Buckeye Nation, it’s one of the great home field advantages in the sport. Ask playoff team Indiana how difficult it was lining up and getting plays called and executed with 100,000 people roaring at you on Nov. 23.

But the last time this Ohio State team was in that stadium in front of those fans, it was booed off the field. And it’s believed that Tennessee fans have done yeoman’s work in the ticket-buying market for this game. If the atmosphere turns toxic, that home field advantage could boomerang and become a disadvantage.

Thus the start of the game could be immensely important in setting a tone for the night. And the Buckeyes have not been a fast-starting team offensively, averaging just 6.3 points in the first quarter. In the past three games, Ohio State has scored just three total first-quarter points.

But Tennessee hasn’t been great early in games very often since September. The exception was a 10–0 start at the Georgia Bulldogs, but even with that factored in, the Volunteers have scored only 24 first-quarter points in their last eight games, while giving up 30.

“We need to get some early wins to build confidence in the game,” Day said.

In its history under Day, Ohio State has played extremely well in a couple of playoff games. The Buckeyes routed the Clemson Tigers in 2020 in the semifinals, 49–28, and also pushed repeat champion Georgia to the brink of elimination in the semis in ’22. In the latter game, Ohio State was able to flush an embarrassing home loss to Michigan from its system and follow it with its best performance of the season. 

Emeka Egbuka was the leading receiver for Ohio State in that game against Georgia—he’s still around. Lathan Ransom was the leading tackler—he’s still around. There is carryover at a number of other positions. The liberating effect of getting away from the Wolverines and starting over could be a message from veteran Buckeyes to their teammates.

“When you win a game, it’s thrilling. When you lose a game, it’s heartbreaking. … Ultimately, that’s behind us. It doesn’t do us any good moving backward,” Day said.

“I think this team is prepared to go play in the playoff. They’re resilient and they’re tough and they’re mature and they care about Ohio State University. They’re going to play their tails off Saturday night.”

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