Ohio State Football: Confidence level against Michigan
By Eric Boggs
Coaching staff Confidence Level – 7
After the past two games against Michigan, I was starting to believe that Jim Harbaugh and his staff were just better than Ryan Day and his staff. But after learning about the advanced sign-stealing scheme that Harbaugh’s staff was partaking in, I believe Day and his staff have received a bad rap the past couple of seasons. That being said, this game can go a long way proving in and disproving the narrative that either fanbase is currently propagating.
If Day and the Buckeyes come away from this game with a loss without Harbaugh even being on the sideline, there are literally no excuses that Buckeye fans can point toward to excuse this loss for Day. This feels like a must-win game for this coaching staff.
If you didn’t like the Cooper 2.0 monicker that many fans had placed on Day a year ago, imagine how bad it is going to get for him this season if he loses three times in a row to that dreaded team from Ann Arbor, and this time without their head coach! The noise in and around Columbus for Day and his coaching staff might become unbearable.
Day admitted it himself when he took over as head coach, that his first job was to win The Game. He has only done that once, that being in his first season as head coach in 2019. The following year, Harbaugh and the Blue avoided even playing in the game due to COVID-19, which I’m positive Day would have destroyed them. Remember, that was the season when Day famously told his team that they were going to hang 100 on them.
Since then, Michigan has been able to hang that much on the Buckeyes defense in two games. There is no way this coaching staff is going to let that happen against a team that is missing their head coach on the sideline, their linebackers coach, and their secret sign-stealing weapon. It’s the advantage to Ohio State this weekend when it comes to the coaching staff, with my confidence level being a 7.