Mailbox: Do Ohio State football, Ryan Day need to ‘chill’ when it comes to Michigan?
On Ohio State football
To the editor: For full disclosure, I am a supporter of coach Day. I hope that he stays at OSU for as long as he wishes because he is a very good coach. Nevertheless, in paraphrasing an adage in athletics, it reminds us that if a team beats you once, do not let that loss beat you twice. As such, it encourages losing coaches to take lessons from the loss, get better and move on. This is not what has been happening at Ohio State for the past four years. Coach Day’s obsession with the Michigan game is so over the top (and for so long) that it creates excruciating unsustainable pressure for everyone, including coaches, players and fans. When the game finally gets here, everyone is overly anxious. The coaches get super conservative, players play tight and fans get angry, and this leads to another deflating loss.
An example of this obsession is his reference to (The Game) as a war. Equating an athletic contest to the tragedy where brave men and women lost their lives in service to our country is both absurd and insulting. I am certain he does not mean it that way, but while “The Game” is important, it is not war and he should know better. We probably have the best talent in the nation, and as the big game approaches if I were coach Day I would simply reinforce that with the talent that we have and with how hard we have prepared, if we go out there and give our best effort, we will take the results. I would wager that out of the last four games we would have won at least three of them. We just need to chill a little bit, play loose and let our talent take over. It starts with the coach.
Mailbox: Do Ohio State football, Ryan Day need to ‘chill’ when it comes to Michigan?
Have more comments, questions? Reach out to me at [email protected]. Letters are lightly edited for clarity.
On Ohio State football
To the editor: For full disclosure, I am a supporter of coach Day. I hope that he stays at OSU for as long as he wishes because he is a very good coach. Nevertheless, in paraphrasing an adage in athletics, it reminds us that if a team beats you once, do not let that loss beat you twice. As such, it encourages losing coaches to take lessons from the loss, get better and move on. This is not what has been happening at Ohio State for the past four years. Coach Day’s obsession with the Michigan game is so over the top (and for so long) that it creates excruciating unsustainable pressure for everyone, including coaches, players and fans. When the game finally gets here, everyone is overly anxious. The coaches get super conservative, players play tight and fans get angry, and this leads to another deflating loss.
An example of this obsession is his reference to (The Game) as a war. Equating an athletic contest to the tragedy where brave men and women lost their lives in service to our country is both absurd and insulting. I am certain he does not mean it that way, but while “The Game” is important, it is not war and he should know better. We probably have the best talent in the nation, and as the big game approaches if I were coach Day I would simply reinforce that with the talent that we have and with how hard we have prepared, if we go out there and give our best effort, we will take the results. I would wager that out of the last four games we would have won at least three of them. We just need to chill a little bit, play loose and let our talent take over. It starts with the coach.
Al Bianco, Etna
To Al: Any coach who compares football to war should be immediately required to sit down with veterans and hear their stories of actual life-and-death carnage. A reality check might be good for those stressed-out coaches.
To Brian: Michael Arace suggested that Buckeye fans suffer from a psychosis, a delusion about having the Buckeyes be perfect every season, winning championships, et al. I was born in Columbus, following the likes of Hop Cassady and Jim Herbstreit in The Dispatch, met my wife at OSU in ’67, married her in ’68. We won the national championship that year with a bunch of sophs.
We thought we were going to win again until the loss at the Big House in ’69. Since 1968, 56 years, we’ve won two more. There has been so much havoc. The Rose Bowl losses in the ’70s, all of the Citrus Bowl losses, Sparty in ’98, the missed field goal vs Georgia, a receiver turning the wrong way against Clemson. These are heartbreakers when so much of your identity is with the university and the football team. My license plate in Florida for 30 years was 4OHIOST.
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