Three things Ohio State football must do different in 2024

2. The Ohio State football team needs to get mentally tougher

After losing for a third consecutive season to their rivals, it's clear that the Buckeyes have to change their mentaility. The edge that the Ohio State football program had under Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer has been lost under Day and his staff. That's the biggest issue in the rivalry.

Urban would make sure that his team lived and breathed the rivalry. He made sure that his players hated TTUN so much that by the time the game rolled around they wanted to rip their heads off. He also made sure that they worked on game plans for The Game year-round.

It's abundantly clear that things are not the same under Ryan Day. He needs to take a page out of his predecessor's book and make his team mentally tough again. He needs to make them live and breathe The Game every single day. The team takes after him and he seems soft.

Another thing that would get his team's attention is trimming the fat on the coaching staff. We've already talked about getting rid of Frye. Parker Fleming has absolutely no reason to be on staff. The special teams have gotten actively worse under his direction and he needs to hit the road.

Until the Buckeyes are able to handle adversity better and actually mentally grind against Michigan, they won't beat them. This will be Day's last chance to fix that mentality before he's looking for a new job himself. He needs to dig deep and fix the culture immediately.

The final thing that needs to change is how the players respond to criticism around them.