Ohio State is sitting at the top of the mountain right now, but every Buckeye knows that all their momentum could derail if they don’t change one particular narrative this year. Ryan Day got in the good books of his naysayers with a dominant natty run last season, but even then, that loss to Michigan at Columbus hasn’t escaped the program. For Day, it’s 4 straight losses. This is the perfect season for revenge. Julian Sayin and Caleb Downs sat down recently to talk football on Downs 2 Business, and when the topic of Michigan came up, you could feel the shift in energy.

The question came up naturally. Michigan is ranked again after beating Michigan State; they’re sitting at 6-2, and the game’s coming up late November in Ann Arbor. It’s impossible not to think about it, especially when you consider what’s happened over the last four years. One of them gave you the politically correct answer. The other? He cut straight through the noise and made it abundantly clear which game he’s had circled on his calendar since the day he stepped foot on campus.

Caleb Downs kept things professional when asked how much he’s looking forward to that game. “Yeah, in the back of the mind. Definitely not thinking about that right now,” Downs said. “I mean, really, just go handle business like it’s no different. Just go out and play like you play any other game, and go do what we supposed to do. Do your job. I feel like yeah, at some point, you get into it too much to where it enables you to play at your highest level if you’re really just thinking this, I got to do something different for this game. Just got to go out and do what we do.”

That’s the textbook answer. It’s what coaches want to hear. And it’s how you’re supposed to approach a rivalry game when you’re the No. 1 team in the country, sitting at 7-0 with Penn State coming to Columbus this weekend.​

Julian Sayin sees it differently, though, and he’s not hiding it. “That’s the way I think you’ve got to think about it,” he agreed when Downs talked about staying focused on the job. “We know how much it means to the state and like how important the rivalry is, but got to go out and just focus on doing your job.”

But then, when asked what the priority is for Ohio State right now, Julian Sayin laid it out plain as day. “It’s to win this game coming up on Saturday. Beat Penn State. And then we want to win all those games and then beat the team up North for sure.” There it is. “Beat the team up North.” 

That’s a quarterback who knows exactly what’s at stake and isn’t afraid to say it out loud. Julian Sayin could’ve stopped at “win all those games,” but he specifically earmarked Michigan as the target. For a team that’s won the last four meetings and that stunning 13-10 upset last year in Columbus, you better believe those words carry weight in Ann Arbor.​

Ryan Day is 1-4 against Michigan since taking over as Ohio State’s head coach, and that losing streak has been the one black mark on an otherwise incredible run. Day is 76-6 against everyone else, he just won a national championship last season, and Ohio State’s dominating opponents this year by an average score of 36.4 to 5.9. But none of that matters in Columbus if you can’t beat Michigan. 

Day himself said before last year’s game that losing to Michigan was “one of the worst things that’s happened to me in my life, quite honestly. Other than losing my father and a few other things, it’s quite honestly for my family, the worst thing that’s happened.” That’s the pain that doesn’t go away with time. And Day, Downs, Sayin, and every person in that building are planning for revenge this time around.

Day’s obsessive response to Michigan heartbreak

The loss to Michigan, Day’s fourth straight in the rivalry, could’ve ended his career in Columbus, and he knew it. What happened next was either going to save his job or seal his fate. And Ryan Day didn’t waste a single second feeling sorry for himself. His wife, Nina, watched him transform into someone she’d only seen once before, back in 2020 when Ohio State was preparing to face Clemson in the CFP semifinals.

“He became maniacal. It was every second of every day. Even in the middle of the night, he would be up typing notes,” Nina told reporters. While his family dealt with death threats, his 16-year-old son RJ was getting targeted by unhinged fans telling Day to “follow in his father’s footsteps” and end his life, Ryan buried himself completely in game planning and preparation. It was survival mode, pure and simple.​

Ohio State strength coach Mick Marotti said there was never any doubt in Day’s mind that the team would turn things around, calling him “a pro” who knew exactly what needed to happen. Day himself admitted that the losses to Michigan ranked among the worst moments of his entire 45 years on earth, right up there with losing his father to suicide when he was eight years old. 

He told his team that no great accomplishments are ever achieved without going through adversity and that the story of their season was yet to be told. The turnaround he orchestrated is still hard to believe. Ohio State entered the College Football Playoff as the No. 8 seed and proceeded to demolish Tennessee, Oregon, and Texas before beating Notre Dame 34-23 in the national championship game. It was the program’s first title in a decade and one of the most remarkable coaching recoveries in college football history.