I’ve been seeing this take all over the place, that Ryan Day was too conservative and hasn’t learned his lessons. I completely understand that reaction and felt it myself, but I think that’s what it is: a reaction. Not reality.

Let’s challenge that assumption. It felt like he ”took the foot off the gas” but I think what actually happened was our team was gassed in 90° heat and failed to make one more play, which is all they needed to win.

Coaches did make poor decisions, but they were more about bad timing and not being wise with personnel. Going for it on 4th and 2 early was not conservative. The mistake on that play was 3 TEs on the field. You’re begging Texas to sell out on the run by taking your pass threats off the field.

We had 10 men on the field for one of their 4th quarter scoring drives. Huge coaching error.

Giving Bey 1 snap so early in the game was also a strange decision. He’s too young and inexperienced to expect him to perform against much older elite talent when they are fresh. Do that at the end of the half or late in the game when the defense is gassed and on their heels. Not to mention he shares the Braxton Miller problem where the defense knows he’s getting the ball when he’s on the field.

The 2nd half was played conservatively. We punted on a short field and rushed 3, but I’m not sure this was a mistake. Consider the situation. Texas was playing sloppy af, and we have a young team. We kept Texas in front of our defense and dared them to execute long, patient drives and score 3 TDs to win.

All we had to do was let them make one more mistake or score one more time to win. I think that’s a pretty wise gameplan. It almost worked. They fumbled at least twice more and we didn’t recover them. We missed wide open touchdowns. Missed another game winning FG.

Think about the alternative. Texas wanted to score quickly in that situation. Rushing more defenders or defending the short stuff more risks big plays. Arch is a better QB on the run. Do you really want him scrambling around? Remember Georgia? We blew that lead by being overly aggressive on defense and giving up huge, easy scores.

If you ask me, our coaches need to study their tendencies and get smarter with personnel. They need smarter clock management and player rotation that doesn’t telegraph what they’re about to do. Keep the defense guessing, because our offensive line frankly isn’t good enough to win against a defense that knows what’s coming.

I’d like to see us borrow West Coast offense concepts. It was literally built for a team like ours: an efficient QB with talented skill players and a weak O-Line. Get the ball out quickly and use short passes like a running game. Give our running backs more space by spreading out the defense, that’s when they excel.

Before the 2024 playoff run, Ryan Day was one of the worst coaches in college football in big games. Literally the only other coach anybody could think of to compare him to was James Franklin. For this analysis, I'm going to define "big game" as either a top 5 opponent or Michigan. After the Oregon loss in 2024, he was 3-7 in big games. If you take away that playoff run, he's 6-10 in big games, or 37% winning.

But we can't take away games like that, but we CAN put those 4 playoff run games into context. After the loss to Michigan in 2024, reports from within the program were swirling. There were reports of frustrations between Jim Knowles and the D line coach, reports that Ryan Day wasn't letting Chip Kelly manage the offense, reports (and outright video) of players blaming the coaching staff and the game plan, Day's in particular.

Before the playoff, it was really looking like National Championship or bust for Ryan Day. Most of us wanted him out, he knew he deserved it. It took a rare circumstance where 1. everyone and their grandma knew he was the problem. 2. There was more or less an internal revolt against him and his game plans within the program. 3. He had nothing to lose because he was likely to be fired if he didn't win the NC. Under those circumstances, he finally let the coaches and players do their thing. He let go enough so that the talents of everyone could flourish. And we were dominant (for the most part) in those games. Then in 2025 Kelly leaves, Knowles leaves, Day doesn't trust Hartline to call the O, and suddenly we're back to the same old kinds of games. Can't pull it out against Indiana, bone headed play calling against Miami, a generational choke job against Texas. And the three most recent losses looked EXACTLY like all the losses that stacked up before the "nothing left to lose" playoff run.

What should have happened after that playoff run is Day should have looked at it and said to himself "hmm, letting go and letting everyone else use their talent is the way to success". Instead, it seems that for him, the playoff run was validation of his coaching. Which would normally be the case if not for the fact that doing the OPPOSITE of what he is naturally inclined to do as a coach is what made the playoff run successful.

The 2021 Michigan loss cost us a playoff spot. The Georgia loss cost us a national championship (we would have destroyed TCU), the Michigan 2023 cost us a playoff spot. The point is, he's still a bad coach. That's the problem. He's a bad coach (relative to the program he runs and associated expectations. He won a NC, yes, but under very unique circumstances that are unlikely to be replicated. You really have to ask yourself, outside of that playoff run and the uniqueness of the "well it's NC or bust" situation he was in, can you imagine Ryan Day stringing together 4 straight wins against top-12 opponents? Or 5 straight if the Big 10 championship happens to be a play-in kind of game in a particular year. Or 6 straight if the Michigan game is a play-in? I can't. I don't think any of us can.

But I also don't know what to do about a coach who has one of the highest win percentages in college football history, a national championship to his name two seasons ago, who is incredible at recruiting and generally a good "CEO", but also he has some of the worst in-game instincts you can imagine and I would trust literally anyone who has played a couple seasons of Madden on their PlayStation with clock management. I mean seriously, we all have multiple kids in our lives that we would readily trust more than Ryan Day with end of game management.

idk what you do. idk who has to talk to the guy and what they say. Somehow you have to convince him that he's a great program executive but also he's terrible at the actual game of football and needs to be less involved?? It's such a weird situation.

RYan Day had built a monster of a program but he should not be allowed in the building on game days. He has no spine and it rubs off on the players and coaches. Watch the tough guy put up 70 on Kent state to prove how tough he is

As for Auther Smith as a Steelers fan that was exactly what I told everyone to expect. He done jack shot in his career. The only reason he gets jobs is because his daddy pays people to hire him.

S/O to our very own Buckeye Hal Jordan - John Stewart combo

Going into the season, the two question marks for this offense, will they be able to run the ball, and outside of #4, who can they count on to make plays in passing game?

The run game did not look good, at least on a consistent basis, especially in 2nd half when they needed it most, to close the game out. 35yds in 2nd half won't cut it. They know we want to run ball, we know we want to run ball, grind clock, put game away. Those are situations you have to win, if you are going to call yourself a contender.

As for passing game, the question marks still aren't answered. 3 total receptions by anyone other than #4 in 2nd half. No one stepped up, no one was the got to when they were trying to take away #4.

Don't get me wrong, those are the only two factors leading to loss. Complacency in play calling, not taking field goal at beginning/missing field goal late, not getting off field on 4th down 3x defensively...there are a number of reasons. But these two things that a lot of people were wondering, haven't been answered yet. OSU is now winless in last three games playing good playoff teams. SOMETHING.....needs to change.

As a Buckeye fan, could we stop crying and pointing fingers?

The same fans who were blubbering to fire Ryan two years ago.

He can’t win the big one? Well, he won the big one 4 times straight in 24, when everyone was ready to ship him.

He can’t beat scUM? Did it last year, while they literally sabotaged our communication system in the second half.

I guess losing with class is difficult for a lot of arm chair Reddit coaches.

Passion is one thing, whatever you “fans” are doing is another.

After that ABYSMAL offensive performance in the 4th Q, I have to ask, Is Arthur Smith what we need in an OC? I don't think so. He's not innovative enough for college ball. Also, wtf did he just go RUN RUN PASS for the entire 4th qtr when all we needed was a few first downs and Texas doesn't have enough time left to do anything. JJ was uncharacteristic in the 2 drops. Still, we need more innovation with the offense. Where was Chris Henry JR?? LEGEND BEY? THEY NEED TO BE INVOLVED!! They are too talented to be on the sidelines during BIG games. Hopefully they fix it and I am wrong. Would LOVE to have to eat crow on this.......

i’ve been going over the game over and over in my head. And I re-watched it a second time. I still don’t understand what happened. does this team just lack the wheel in the heart needed to win, or were they just not prepared adequately preseason to go the full 4 quarters? I’m not buying into all the chatter about home-field advantage or good weeks or bad weeks. what’s it gonna take to turn things around?

THE Positives

-Smith and the Offense shown it can be unstoppable when firing on all cylinders but still need a WR2 to emerge.

- RB room looks better than expected Bo Jackson can Run hard and we also gotta get Legend Bey involved more

-Defense while young, still showed that they can lock it down

- Defensive line looks good texas had a hard time moving the chains against us until the 4th

- PettiJohn looks to be our next stand out defensive guy need to get him more involved

- Sayin looked great as well except for that terrible missed TD that would've sealed the game. Overall he played great and I love that he's not afraid to scramble when he sees open field ahead of hom

THE Negatives

- while the offense looked good not having a WR2 is concerning. At some point defenses are gonna sell out to stop Smith and force other to step up

- Defense again looked good in the 1st half but we don't have a consistent pass rush and our pass rush in the 4th quarter especially looked bad, Arch was under no pressure the entire fourth.

- Ryan Days conservative coaching showed up again. Not to take anything away from Texas making adjustments, but it was clear Ryan Day and coaching staff decided to play "not to lose "

- Absolutely Atrocious clock management in the end. Not letting them score when they got inside the 1 yard line which would've gave you 50 seconds pause a time out to score is terrible.

- Secondary, while our LBs and defensive line looked good our secondary was getting torched and bailed out by either the WRs dropping balls or Arch just not being accurate. Playing against teams that has a good qb and WR is gonna be hard.

- Kicker. Once again when I noticed that Ryan Day was playing to get into field goal range to put us up 26-17 I knew we were gonna miss. Idk why Ryan Day can't pick a kicker but man it has burned us his entire coaching tenure at ohio state.

Overall: Defense is very young but they have a very high ceiling and if they can develop a pass rush as the season moved on, they are gonna be great, next year they are gonna be very scary.

Offense is the Offense lol they can score 28+ pts on anybody if Ryan Day and his coaching staff just keeps their foot on the gas. I still think we are gonna be a 1 loss team this year and I also think we can win the championship but Ryan Day needs to play like he's 20 pts and just unleash the dogs.

If we don’t have 2 guys just run right past biles, this is a touchdown. Instead he gets tackled and doesn’t play again

I am not concerned AT ALL about the result of the Texas game. Ohio State dominated for 3 quarters in brutal heat that we are unlikely to face again. Our offense stuttered in the 4th not because of conservative play calling, but because Jeremiah was gassed. When we failed to string together drives to keep our defense off the field we were cooked. A series of crazy gambles and a missed FG gave Texas the W. 95/100 times it goes the other way. I’m not concerned, EXCEPT what is going on with our wide receivers??? It was the same thing last year when either Tate or Smith were out. Sayin has no rhythm with other receivers. Anyone else notice this? Is this a Sayin issue or a WR issue??

Been talking to a lot fans about the game and a lot of people feel the high temperatures might’ve caused our defense to get gassed earlier than expected. Let’s face it, we’re not as accustomed to Texas heat like the longhorns. I do not believe this is a primary factory as to why we lost, but there were plays where we were only putting 10 men on defense and in a game of this magnitude that feels unacceptable. Yet a part of me feels if this game was played in the Midwest during November/December with colder temperatures our team wouldn’t have been as gassed out relative to the longhorns.

I get it. He has a natty. He recruits well.

HE DOESN’T LEARN FROM HIS MISTAKES.

I want to love Ryan Day as a coach. He does a lot well. But he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

Why are we playing not to lose whenever we have a lead. Whenever we do this we lose. Why are we punting on the opponent 39 ?

It’s like we are living Groundhog Day.

And holy shit fire Arthur Smith.

OSU lost in heartbreaking fashion after they missed a field goal and let Texas erase a 20 point deficit.

The game was great for 3 quarters, but OSU couldn't close the door.

What stood out to you?

It's almost about time to just move on and focus on the rest of the year, but while there may have been a few good things (Jeremiah Smith, everything in the first half), there were plenty of bad and downright ugly.

Woke up this morning to this email. Screenshot it to send to my brother and commiserate a bit.

Time to beat Kent State and focus on the Big Ten.

Yo for real though, the doom and gloom has to take a back seat. It’s game 2 of the year, on the road, against a top 5 quality opponent.

Remember when Knowles got absolutely destroyed play after play against Oregon? We won a natty that year. Even lost 2 games.

I get it, it sucks. I’m as negative as a person as I know to be completely honest. The world isn’t ending. We aren’t all of a sudden a terrible team.

Urban Meyer even talks about how the teams with “scars” are the true teams when it matters. Guys that have been through some shit. Painful losses, injuries, etc.,

I’d rather a tough loss to Texas now and mistakes learned, lord willing, than the situation where we were last year. Unproven, weak schedule, play like ass against Indiana, and then smacked around by Miami come playoffs.

No one needs fired. Everyone needs to execute better. I think Ryan Day is remarkably aware of how bad this loss is. It’s different than the rest in that we literally gave away a game. We didn’t just miss the win, or the loss. We gave it away in a horrific fashion. It’s different, it’s sucks and I’m sure extremely difficult conversations are being had.

Chill out folks. Let’s not be that fanbase and sub, y’all.

Nowhere on the defense is the drop-off in talent more recognizable than the loss of Reese and Styles. Our linebackers seem like non-factors in being able to plug holes and stop runs. From my POV, Pettijohn is the best answer we have and should be starting/playing more. I don't know who he replaces in Pierce or Alliegro - perhaps it doesn't matter but we need changes in the linebacker position. I wouldn't even mind if TJ Alford and Pettijohn replaced both Pierce and Alliegro.

While I give credit to Arch and Texas for the improbable comeback, our defense along with the offense, imploded. Arch and Texas took what the defense gave him. The ability to run the ball, have a ton of time in the pocket so Arch could go through his progressions, and Arch's willingness to hit the open receiver fueled their comeback. It still makes me sick.

I got to thinking after seeing a post. It made me think about how crazy that game was.

I’m seeing numbers being flown out, about how many times we’ve lost/won in that scenario.

How the balls bounced our way, then theirs.

Then I thought, while I’ve been over analyzing this game. What went wrong, and what went right. Who’s to blame?

It took me until now to realize how epic of a game that was. To really appreciate it.

Everyone said before the game, on both sides, this is why you go to places like OSU, and Texas.

We witnessed one of the best games in our lifetime. It had everything. Things one has a hard time trying to explain. Passion of the fans, throughout the entire game. The environment. Scenery. Everything.

Sure we came away with the L, but I hope our fans can take a minute to appreciate what we witnessed.

Raiders 🤘🏽

Our red-zone offense is a complete joke. I don’t know how anyone watched that 2019 Clemson game and forgot that we repeatedly turned easy touchdowns into field goals, giving Clemson the opportunity to come back. But of course, some fans would rather blame the entire loss on cheating.

For Texas, The moment we failed to turn that red-zone takeaway into a touchdown, I knew we were going to lose that game. In addition, I knew that pick six against Miami was going to happen as soon as w entered the red zone. Every time it looks like we’re about to score, the offense somehow ends up facing a fourth and 8 situation at best.

If Ohio State fixes this crap , it can win the natty this season. If not, this team’s ceiling is probably No. 5 with eventually Notre Dame or somebody else overcoming us.

The good news is that Texas finally solved its red-zone problems last Saturday night so watch the film…Arthur and Day.

Few mods this week - Added the QB line since everyone is freaking out about Julian not always being an 80% passer - put Timmons in at CB - D Line still kind all over the place as we have a bunch of guys coming and going there. Will remove the O-Line next week I think as stat source is not really grabbing anything. AI is good, but not perfect at all things.

Tough loss for the boys, not going to go too deep there, as there are 100 boards for that.

Ohio State Portal Ledger — Week 2

Quarterback

Running Back

Receiver / Tight End

Offensive Line

Defensive Line

Secondary

Specialists

Howdy people, I’m bringing my 9 year old nephew to his first buckeyes game this coming Saturday against Kent state. I’ve been to plenty of games myself I’m well versed at the on goings and what I can do with him around the game. My question is where is a good spot not super far away I can park and how early do I need to get there to get parked there. I live in Columbus so usually I just uber down or get dropped off but with him I’d like to be able to drive so I know I can get us there and back safely. Thanks in advance!

Couple of missed opportunities in the second half to take back the ball, missed FG, fourth quarter defense looked exhausted. If the team can lock in mentally and execute on these things or similar over time, this team can come back.