Ohio State Football: Buckeye fans react to Cotton Bowl loss

For a second straight season, Ryan Day has won the first 11 regular season games only to lose to That Team Up North and then followed that up with a loss in a Bowl Game. This scenario isn’t the first time this has happened to the Ohio State football team.

If this sounds like a broken record, it’s because it is. John Cooper, who coached at Ohio State between the years of 1988-2000 famously had both a poor record against TTUN and in bowl games. Cooper’s 1995 team also went 11-0 during the regular season and got as high as #2 in the AP rankings before losing to Xichigan and then to the SEC’s Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl. Watching the end of this season felt like déjà vu.

After losing to the eventual Big Ten Champions in Ann Arbor at the end of last month, it was expected that many of Ohio State’s players would opt out. That didn’t happen outside of Marvin Harrison Jr. and of course, Kyle McCord who decided to transfer. That changed the expectations of Buckeye Nation, who wanted to see the Buckeyes rally around first-time starting quarterback Devin Brown. One injury and only one field goal later, those expectations turned into a lot of anger from a fanbase whose patience in Day is running out.

The OHIO Podcast took a look at some of the fan’s comments following the Cotton Bowl loss in their most recent video.

There is indeed a lot of blame to go around after losing the final two games of the year for a second consecutive season. No doubt Day will have to address obvious deficiencies on his coaching staff as well as a willingness to attack the transfer portal with more enthusiasm to make up the difference for obvious holes on the roster, which may include going after a transfer quarterback.

This is going to be the most important off-season in Day’s career. If he doesn’t hit home runs, he could once again be stuck on third base and that’s just not good enough.