Ohio State has to wake up from this big-game ‘Groundhog Day’

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In life, I think that it is exceedingly healthy to turn every stumble, every setback, every failure into an opportunity to learn and grow. After all, once it’s over, those negatives are in the past, and there’s nothing you can do about them. But at some point, if the same stumbles, setbacks, and failures keep happening over and over again, you have to start wondering whether the lesson is actually being learned.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but last night the Ohio State Buckeyes got out to a commanding lead, and instead of continuing the aggressive game plan that put them in that position, they went ultra-conservative, hoping to run out the clock and preserve the victory. From there, the lack of creativity and intensity allowed OSU’s opponent to get back into the game. Ohio State’s special teams faltered when they needed them most; the offense couldn’t extend drives, meaning that the defense was on the field for an inordinate amount of time and eventually looked like a shell of what it had earlier in the game; OSU squandered trips into the red zone; they quit going to the playmakers that got them that lead; there were inexplicable clock and game management blunders; and eventually all hell broke loose. Sometimes, by sheer force of talent, the Buckeyes overcome this insanity and still hold on to win… but sometimes they don’t.

We’ve seen versions of this very script play out against Michigan multiple times, against Georgia, against Clemson, against Notre Dame, against Indiana, against Miami. Different games, different circumstances, different mistakes — but far too often, when Ohio State reaches the most stressful moments of its biggest games, Day’s instinct has been to retreat rather than attack.

Despite all of the 10+-win seasons, the 2025 national title, the blowouts against middling to bad teams, this is Buckeye fans’ version of “Groundhog Day.” We are forced to live this same scenario on repeat again until somehow Ryan Day finally stops seeing his shadow and crawling back into his hole whenever the pressure rises.

While it is never explicitly stated in the movie, director Harold Ramis said that Phil Connors lived that increasingly maddening day in Punxsutawney roughly 12,400 times, the equivalent of about 34 years. It took Bill Murray’s character over a third of a century to learn to stop trying to manipulate the day for his own benefit and instead genuinely become a better, more selfless person. I don’t know about you, but after all of the stupidity he tried early in the movie, I would hope it wouldn’t take me that long to do the right thing.

Obviously, Phil Connors’ moral journey is not the same thing as Ryan Day’s in-game decision-making, but at some point, I have to hope that the Buckeyes’ head coach will decide that losing (and even winning) this way has become too painful and that something has to change.

The nature of college football is that players, coordinators, and position coaches come and go. The head coach is therefore responsible for being the program’s anchor, keeping it moored to an identity and philosophy that players and fans can count on year in and year out.

Day has done a remarkable and enviable job of building the Buckeyes into arguably the preeminent program in college football. They are always at the center of the national championship conversation; they never lose games to lesser opponents; they recruit as well as anyone in the country; the roster is stacked with quality human beings you are proud to have representing your institution; few programs prepare players better for the NFL; and yet it still feels like Ohio State has not fully capitalized on everything Day has built.

Now don’t get me wrong, despite the fact that every Buckeye fan (and I assume every fan of every major program) enters each season expecting to win the national title, no one legitimately expects them to win the College Football Playoff every year. But we are now in Year 8 of Day’s tenure in Columbus, and while we are all obviously giddy and grateful for the one title he brought to Buckeye Nation, it feels like there have been one, two, maybe even three left on the table.

Ohio State had four seasons of arguably the best quarterback play in program history between Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud and never won a title. There have been multiple marquee games in which a single made field goal might have changed everything, and more times than I dare to count when Day — and by extension his team — retreated into a turtle shell, seemingly content to hang on to whatever lead they had and hope for the best.

In many ways, Ryan Day has come to signify greatness in college football. His overall record, his integrity as a leader of young men, and his unwavering dedication to success are all things Buckeye fans should be proud of. But to whom much is given, much is expected. Never losing to Purdue, Northwestern, Nebraska, or Maryland only gets you so far when your own conservative instincts keep surfacing against Michigan, Texas, Indiana, and Miami.

So, here we are again, staring down the same problems that have haunted the Buckeyes numerous times before, and I want to believe this latest collapse will finally be the one to shock Day out of his worst in-game coaching impulses. While I have been critical of Day’s decision-making over the years, I have also been very open about how my faith in the program and my belief in him as a human being and a leader continually convince me that this time he might finally figure out how to break free from this vicious cycle that has us seemingly repeating the same day over and over again.

But, oh no, I just had a thought… maybe it’s not Ryan Day who is stuck in a never-ending time loop designed to teach him a lesson… maybe it’s me who has to finally accept reality in order to break free from this painful pattern.

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