Big Bear Nolan's Blog

Entering the 2024 College Football Playoff, Head Coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes were under a lot of fire. The team fell to Michigan for the fourth straight season which caused the Buckeyes to miss the Big Ten Championship for the fourth straight season. The 2024 loss was also worse because Michigan was an Unranked 7-5 team and yet still could not beat them. What followed was one of the best runs in CFP history where OSU had to run through three top-5 teams to win the National Championship. The Buckeyes carried the momentum through the 2025 season with an unbeaten regular season that also included a win over the Wolverines, but stumbled in the Big Ten Championship and CFP game to the two National Championship teams in Indiana and Miami. So heading into this year after the disappointment of 2025, is this upcoming season another prove it year for Coach Day?

Notable Buckeyes scores under Day since 2021:

(Rankings were where OSU played the opponent at the time which you can view here)

• 2021
  • W 45-31 at Minnesota
  • L 35-28 vs No. 12 Oregon
  • W 33-24 vs No. 20 Penn State
  • W 59-31 vs No. 19 Purdue
  • W 56-7 vs No. 7 Michigan State
  • L 42-27 vs No. 5 Michigan
    • Win vs No. 11 Utah in Rose Bowl
• 2022
  • W 21-10 vs No. 5 Notre Dame
  • W 54-10 vs Iowa
  • W 44-31 at No. 13 Penn State
  • L 45-23 vs No. 3 Michigan
    • Loss vs No. 1 Georgia in Peach Bowl CFP Semifinal
• 2023
  • W 17-14 at No. 9 Notre Dame
  • W 20-12 vs No. 7 Penn State
  • W 24-10 at Wisconsin
  • L 30-24 at No. 3 Michigan
    • Loss vs No. 9 Missouri in Cotton Bowl
• 2024
  • L 32-31 at No. 3 Oregon
  • W 21-17 vs Nebraska
  • W 20-13 at No. 3 Penn State
  • W 38-15 vs No. 5 Indiana
  • L 13-10 vs Michigan
    • CFP run
      • W 42-17 vs No. 7 Tennessee (CFB 1st round)
      • W 41-21 vs No. 1 Oregon (Rose Bowl CFB quarterfinal)
      • W 28-14 vs No. 3 Texas (Cotton Bowl CFB semis)
      • W 34-23 vs No. 5 Notre Dame (National Championship
• 2025
  • W 14-7 vs No. 1 Texas
  • W 24-6 at Washington
  • W 42-3 vs Minnesota
  • W 34-16 at No. 17 Illinois
  • W 34-0 at Wisconsin
  • W 38-14 vs Penn State
  • W 27-9 at No. 15 Michigan
    • Postseason
      • L 13-10 vs No. 2 Indiana (Big Ten Championship)
      • L 24-14 vs No. 10 Miami (Cotton Bowl CFB quarterfinal)

This is the notable timeframe in Day’s tenure as the Ohio State head coach. Something I noticed when making this list is while they have showed that they can clearly beat anyone, hence why Ohio State won the 2024 natty. Some of these schedules were kinda soft. Now some of these seasons, teams like when they played Wisconsin in 2022 and 2023 were ranked No. 18 and No. 19 in the preseason AP poll both of those years. But were unranked when the Buckeyes played them, and Penn State last season was predicted to be another matchup between top 5 teams and maybe No. 1 vs No. 2. But instead a disappointing season for PSU made it a 3-5 unranked team at No. 1 Ohio State. You can’t blame those teams underperforming on the Buckeyes but where you can point to the schedules is exactly what happened in 2024 and 2025. Part of the reason why the Buckeyes were ready for the CFP run in 2024 was because they were tested with games like the two games at Oregon and Penn State and you could see that with how they played. In 2025 yes they beat Texas who at the time was No. 1 and finished well, but that wasn’t the same Texas team week one so really, Ohio State didn’t really have the same competition that they had in 2024. And when it was time for the big tests against Indiana and Miami, you could see they didn’t know how to punch back.

This season, Ryan Day is not only coming into it off the stench of the 2025 ending. But he also has to do a lot of reloading with all the talent that the Buckeyes lost in the NFL Draft, which was highlighted by players like WR Carnell Tate, CB Caleb Downs, and LB Arvell Reese. This season is also a tricky schedule where the Buckeyes host Illinois, Oregon and Michigan. But have to go on the road to Texas, Iowa, Indiana, USC, and Nebraska. Im not saying they will be awful, but this is definitely a test for Ryan Day and his Buckeyes this season.