The Ohio State football team dominated Michigan for the first five years that Jim Harbaugh coached the team. He was winless against the Buckeyes and couldn’t find a way to beat them. Apparently, the only way he thought he could do so was by cheating.
The Big Ten disciplined Harbaugh for the elaborate sign-stealing scandal that has taken place over the past two-plus seasons. TTUN has beaten the Buckeyes in the last two seasons. Coincidence? I think not. Ohio State was clearly the dominant team in the rivalry and then all of a sudden TTUN blows them out two years in a row? Suspicious.
There were several legacies that were affected by the cheating scandals on Ohio State’s side of things. There were players and coaches who were chided for not beating the Wolverines in each of the last two seasons. How they are remembered by fans was affected by the cheating scandal.
There are three Ohio State football members who were most affected by the cheating scandal. Without the sign-stealing, who knows if Ohio State would have lost those games? We’ll never know. But the number one player who was affected was C.J. Stroud.
1. C.J. Stroud
No player was more affected than former Buckeye quarterback C.J. Stroud. Stroud was chastised by Ohio State football fans for going 0-2 as a starter against Michigan. Buckeye fans called him a loser in big games after falling to TTUN in consecutive years and also losing to Georgia.
Stroud didn’t have his best game against Michigan in either matchup. But now that we know Michigan was stealing Ohio State’s signals, can we blame him? They knew every play that the Ohio State Buckeyes were going to run when he was on the field.
There’s no way that Stroud would have been able to overcome the extreme advantage that Mixhigan’s defense had over him and the rest of the offense. It would be hard for Stroud to throw for a lot of yards and lead the team on touchdown-scoring drives if Michigan knew what was coming.
Ohio State football fans should re-visit how Stroud is remembered, especially with how he’s doing in the NFL right now. He had just one true bad game where there wasn’t cheating going on and that was against Oregon in Stroud’s second-ever start.
The next Ohio State football member whose legacy is most affected by this cheating is the current head coach.
2. Ryan Day
Ohio State football fans have really come down hard on Ryan Day’s performance against Michigan in the last two seasons. The Buckeyes have gotten blown out in both scenarios, losing by double-digits both in Ann Arbor and in the Shoe last season.
Now that we know that Michigan has gotten caught for cheating in each of the last two seasons, we should re-evaluate how we think of Day. He has the highest winning percentage of any college football coach in the game right now and has made a National Championship Game.
There’s a really good chance that Day would have two more Big Ten Championships if Michigan had not cheated in the last two seasons. That’s something that certainly affects Day’s legacy right now and moving forward. He should be considered as one of the best coaches in the country.
Now, Day still has to beat TTUN this year. Now that Jim Harbaugh won’t be coaching in The Game this year and that they won’t have Ohio State’s signs for this one, he really has no excuse to lose to them. Even though the game is on the road, the Buckeyes are the number-one team in the country.
If Day does beat Michigan this year though, his legacy will change immediately. Beating Michigan will mean they will almost certainly win the Big Ten and earn another berth in the College Football Playoff. That would be the third time for Day.
The final person who was most affected by the scandal is no longer on staff with the Buckeyes.
3, Kerry Coombs
Kerry Coombs was the defensive coordinator for the Ohio State football team up until 2021. That was until 2021 came along. He was fired following the season after the Buckeyes lost to Michigan and allowed 42 points in that game. It was a bad performance to end a season of bad performances.
Ryan Day made the decision to fire Coombs after that. Would Coombs have been spared had Michigan not cheated and won that game? It’s quite possible. There’s a shot that Coombs would have been the DC for the Buckeyes after that game because Ohio State would have made the CFP.
Instead, he was let go and is now coaching with Cincinnati. Ohio State football fans love the man that Coombs was, but that Michigan game was the final straw for him in fans’ eyes. He needed to go, and he was let go by Day. Day then hired Jim Knowles as his replacement.
Could Coombs have been fired anyway considering the defense was so bad all year in both 2020 and 2021? Possibly. The performance in the Michigan game sealed it. His death warrant was signed once the clock ticked down to zero in the Shoe that afternoon.
It’s a shame that Coombs didn’t get a chance to coach a fair game in that matchup. Perhaps it would have bought him another year to change things in 2022. He, Stroud, and Day, were unfairly affected by the cheating that Michigan did. Now, fans must re-think how their legacies were made.