Ohio State-Michigan: Buckeyes want to get a win for Ryan Day

“Well, I think when you live it year-round, you don’t need to put any extra emphasis on it this week,” said Day, who is 1-3 against the Wolverines as a head coach. “Our guys know — especially with a veteran team. So what you do is everything that you’ve done leading up to this point has to be about winning this game.”

When Day was done speaking, though, his players left no doubt they have extra motivation to beat the Wolverines on Saturday in the 120th edition of The Game.

Aside from wanting to get their own set of gold pants (necklace charms that go to Ohio State players who beat the Wolverines), these Buckeyes who could all be in the NFL this season want to get the monkey off their coach’s back.

“I think that no one deserves this win more than he does,” senior defensive end Jack Sawyer said. “To see what him and his family have gone through in the last three years falling short to them, it made my decision even more clear to come back. And he’s a guy who gave me an opportunity to play here, so I thought that I owed it to him to come back and get this win for him. So that’s what we plan to do Saturday.”

Senior receiver Emeka Egbuka and linebacker Cody Simon agreed.

So did quarterback Will Howard, who wasn’t even around for the losses but said he sees the pain in the faces of those who were.

“Coach Day took a chance on me when he didn’t have to,” said Howard, who transferred to Ohio State from Kansas State in January after reports the Buckeyes were interested in various other signal-callers in the portal. “And, you know, there was some kickback I bet when I first committed here, and he believed in me, man. And I owe that guy a lot. And I want to get this done for him.”

Day did not go into detail about personal attacks he or his family might have faced, but he did confirm enduring some challenging moments from the fan base after Michigan broke an eight-game losing streak to the Buckeyes in 2021 then triumphed again the last two seasons.

“Yeah, I would say not to get into too much of it, it’s just this game is a war,” Day said. “Anytime there’s a war, there’s consequences and casualties, and then there’s the plunder and the rewards that come with it. That’s what it is. And I just think that that’s really what it comes down to.

“We’ve worked really hard to get to this point. I think I’m excited with the fact our guys are here now because when you go through the offseason and you talk about this game, it’s just like, ‘All right, well, how many times are we going to talk about this? We got to get to this game and go play it.’

“We’re finally here right now, so that’ll be the focus.”