Ohio State football: I hope Ryan Day is right

I hope Ryan Day is right. I hope he has a good read on his Ohio State football team and the statement he made about them playing in the Rose Bowl is accurate,

"“These guys are gonna want to finish this thing the right way. They have a lot of pride in themselves and the team.”"

I hope he’s right because if he is not it is going to be a long day for Buckeye Nation. Ohio State’s opponent on New Year’s Day is a run-heavy team with an adequate quarterback and an effective defensive end\linebacker pass-rush duo. Sound familiar?

Michigan and Utah both rely on the run-Michigan is a 60-40 split, while Utah is 57-43. Although both are run-heavy, they are very balanced in their run/pass yardage totals and both starting quarterbacks complete a similar percentage of passes.

Utah’s Mika Tafua and Devin Lloyd may not quite be on the same level as Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo, but they’ve still combined for 17 ½ sacks and a whopping 35 tackles-for-loss (that’s eight more TFL’s than the Michigan pair).

There are a few differences between the Wolverines and Utes. Michigan throws the ball down the field much more than Utah-the Utes’ longest completion is just 49 yards. However, their quarterback, Cameron Rising, is far more of a runner than Michigan’s Cade McNamara.

The sophomore transfer from Texas has rushed for 463 yards this season. The interior of the Utes defensive line is not as big as Michigan and their linebackers are more similar in size to Ohio State’s (235 and 228 pounds).

When I think of how Michigan’s offensive and defensive lines manhandled the Buckeyes, the similarities between the Wolverines and Utes give me cause for concern. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not chewing my fingernails and losing sleep over how the Buckeyes match up with Utah, because I can promise they haven’t seen anything like C.J. Stroud and that group of receivers (even if one chooses to not play). Make no mistake though, the Buckeyes have their work cut out for them.

The Ohio State football program has not lost a Rose Bowl in 37 years. I really hope Ryan Day is right and this team wants to go out a winner, because Utah isn’t going to try to just end that streak, they’re going to Pasadena to hammer a college football elite and make a name for themselves.