The celebration should have been volcanic. The Ohio State Buckeyes had just snapped a 2,191-day drought against their most bitter rival and punctured the Michigan Wolverines’ four-year streak in the rivalry. Yet instead of erupting into Columbus nightlife, the No. 1 OSU found themselves strapped into airplane seats grounded beside their head coach, Ryan Day.

“The plane had a delay getting into Ann Arbor,” Ryan Day told reporters on November 30. “And then once we got there, we just had a little bit of an issue with the de-icing and then clearing the runway to take off. So, yeah, we were delayed.” 

The result was a return to Columbus around 11 p.m., but late enough to force every Buckeye to sit with the weight of the win rather than sprint toward celebration. And that delay, the HC Day insists, changed everything.

“Our guys are pretty good,” he added. “They don’t just go running on the streets, but after last night’s game, who knows what could have happened. So, I guess it was a blessing in disguise.”

Instead, what happened was that the crew had a bonding time with each other. Ryan Day’s players rested, recovered, and arrived the next day with “a bunch of energy.” Still, the win itself deserved a celebration of far greater magnitude.

Ohio State had secured its moment with cold-blooded execution. QB Julian Sayin’s 50-yard strike to Carnell Tate split the blizzard and Michigan’s secondary, which spiked the lead to 24-9 and effectively ended the contest. Jeremiah Smith’s return from injury produced a fourth-down, 35-yard touchdown. Freshman Bo Jackson, now the engine of the Buckeyes’ backfield, logged 117 yards on 22 carries, stamping his fourth 100-yard performance in five weeks. Those plays call for celebration. 

Ohio State held Michigan to nine points, the Wolverines’ lowest total in The Game since 2010, and became the first team since Notre Dame in 2014 to keep them out of the end zone entirely. Michigan’s offense mustered only three field goals, swallowed by a Buckeye defense that has refused to allow more than 16 points to anyone this season. For the seventh time this year, an opponent failed to reach double digits. And the larger season numbers reveal something even more staggering.

With the 27-9 win, Ohio State has now beaten 11 straight opponents by at least 18 points. The Buckeyes have outscored opponents 444-93, allowing fewer than 300 yards in eleven consecutive games. Their lone close contest is a 14-7 survival against Texas in Week 1. Since then, Ohio State has played football with the cruelty of a machine and the polish of a champion. No defense in the country has been more suffocating. But for the head coach, it’s the last win that carried the most weight.

What winning The Game means for Ryan Day

For Ryan Day, the victory carried a weight far beyond the scoreboard. Michigan entered the weekend riding its first four-game streak over Ohio State since 1988-91, and the pressure on the HC was suffocating. After four consecutive losses to the Wolverines, Buckeye Nation’s patience thinned to its last thread. This time, though, order returned to the rivalry as Ohio State seized control and finally halted the slide in a series Michigan still leads 62-52-6.

To many fans, Ryan Day’s 2019 demolition of then HC Jim Harbaugh had become ancient history, an artifact from a pre-COVID, pre-NIL, pre-portal era that no longer counted. The sting of four straight failures, including last year’s collapse as a heavy home favorite, overshadowed everything else on his resume. That is why Saturday’s win mattered so deeply. It closed the emotional gap between his undeniable success and the one blemish critics refused to overlook.

And with this emphatic performance, Ryan Day began to separate himself from the ghosts of John Cooper and John W. Wilce, coaches forever defined by their Michigan struggles. Instead, he moved closer to the elite company he statistically already shares – two Big Ten titles, a national championship, four CFP berths, and the second-best winning percentage in the sport’s history. 

“I think the best thing you can do is win with humility,” he said.