Ohio State doesn't lose very often. It loses to Big Ten opponents even less often, especially outside of Michigan. When they lose, it's a big deal. They rarely get an opportunity to get payback as soon as they are on Saturday. How has Ohio State done in these spots, and how has Ryan Day done in these spots compared to his predecessors?
Jim Tressel almost never lost to the same team twice in a row at Ohio State. He lost three Big Ten games in his first season in 2001, and got all three of them back on the way to a national title in 2002. 2003 was his one and only loss against Michigan.
They also lost to Wisconsin that season, and then lost to the Badgers again in 2004. They are the only Big Ten team to beat Jim Tressel twice in a row when he was at Ohio State. '04 was a down year, as the Buckeyes also lost to Iowa, Northwestern, and Purdue.
Iowa and Northwestern never beat Tressel again, and Purdue wouldn't do so until 2009. The Buckeyes crushed the Boilermakers 49-0 in Ohio Stadium in 2010. In 2005, they lost two heartbreakers against Texas and Penn State. In 2006, they beat those teams by 17 and 22 points, respectively.
He lost to Illinois in 2007 and then never lost to them again. The other team that beat Tressell twice in a row was when USC swept Ohio State in a home-and-home in 2008 and '09. Penn State also beat Ohio State in 2008, but the Buckeyes got them back the next year. Tressel's final loss was in Madison in 2010, and Luke Fickell upset the 12th-ranked Badgers in Ohio Stadium in 2011.
Urban Meyer was also really tough to beat twice in a row. He became the head coach of the Buckeyes in 2012, coming off of a season in which the Buckeyes lost five Big Ten games. In his first season, the Buckeyes went 12-0 and beat all five teams that they lost to the year before.
He lost to Michigan State in the 2013 Big Ten Championship Game, and then went to East Lansing and knocked off the eighth-ranked Spartans by double digits the next season. The only other Big Ten team to get Meyer was Penn State in 2016. In 2017, Ohio State came back from 18 points down to beat the second-ranked Nittany Lions in Ohio Stadium. The only team to beat Urban Meyer twice in a row was Clemson. They beat the Buckeyes in the 2013 Orange Bowl, and then again in the CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl in 2016.
Ryan Day, however, has not quite had the same success, but he has still had his moments. He was responsible for Ohio State's third straight loss to Clemson in the 2019 CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl, but he got his chance for redemption in the 2020 CFP semifinal at the Sugar Bowl, and the Buckeyes blew the Tigers off the field.
He lost to Oregon at home in 2021. He didn't get his chance to avenge that loss until the Ducks joined the Big Ten and the Buckeyes went to Eugene in 2024, where Oregon was able to get Ohio State for the second time in a row.
However, Day was able to follow that up by doing what no other Ohio State coach has ever done. He avenged a loss in-season, as Ohio State beat the breaks off of Oregon in the CFP quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl. He was also able to avenge Urban Meyer's losses to Iowa and Purdue, beating the Boilermakers in 2021 and the Hawkeyes in 2022, both at Ohio Stadium.
While he hasn't been nearly as good as the guys who came before him, Ryan Day has been okay at getting revenge for losses, with one big exception. He lost the biggest game on the schedule, against the team up north, four years in a row from 2021-24. It has been more than fair to question whether or not Day was overcome by the emotions of trying to get back at the Wolverines during those years.
After Ryan Day's first career loss to Clemson in 2019, the final score of that game was displayed inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center for the next year. When the Buckeyes got a chance to get back at the Tigers, they harnessed that emotion for good.
They haven't played into the revenge factor much since then, and they aren't doing it this week either, at least publicly. In his media availability this week, Day said, "We can learn from the past, and some of the guys who played in that game can learn about all the reasons why we came up short. That’s fine, and that’s good, but the focus has to be on right now, and that’s it".
I'm sure that if Ohio State comes away with a win in Bloomington on Saturday, there will be reference to last year's game, and revenge, and things of that nature, but they are downplaying it publicly. Behind closed doors, everyone in the Woody should be thinking about how they had a Big Ten title stolen from them by the Hoosiers. They need to play with that emotion to come away with a win over a very talented and very well-coached Hoosier team on the road.
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