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Vo. 1, No. 14
This week in Ohio State football, Ryan Day already seems to be overthinking the Michigan game.
Yes, I know Rutgers is coming to Columbus on Saturday.
The Scarlet Knights even have a shot to become bowl eligible, so it’s not like they are a total pushover, but The Game is still The Game.
It’s always there, lurking in the shadows.
Even when Michigan was bad, that was still one to keep an eye on all year, a contest of which to be wary from August through November.
Throw out the records when the Buckeyes and Wolverines get together, right?
Except for a recent period with no upsets, yes, that is correct, but I digress1…
Players were asked Wednesday night about potentially looking past Rutgers, and they said that won’t happen. I don’t doubt that, but I’m still not sure about the mindset of the head coach even after one of his captains said he has a different look in his eye this year.
We already know Ryan Day moved the traditions of Senior Tackle and the annual practice with the band to different times in the schedule.
The stated desire is to “keep things as normal as possible,” which I find to be phenomenally misguided.
This is not a normal game, and it’s not a normal week anyway. The academic calendar is different, and (if you weren’t aware) there is a major holiday right in the middle of it.
What has me back on this warpath this week is word that the media interviews schedule next week will be the same as every other week. That’s not official, but there’s no reason to expect it to change, so Day will meet with reporters Tuesday and then he will come back for a brief interview Wednesday followed by some players.
That differs from most of the past 20 years or so when usually we have had one day of interviews early in the week then we don’t see anyone associated with the team again until after The Game, a practice that Jim Tressel began in 2006 because of intense media interest on the No. 1-vs. 2 game that year.
Now, I don’t expect you to care about the media schedule. There is no need for you to. They can do interviews whenever they want and we’ll be there to ask players and coaches about Michigan, the rivalry, superstitions, etc.
However, this continues along the line of changes to Michigan Week I find to be unnecessary.
Trying to normalize Michigan Week is a fool’s errand. The only constant since I started grade school (but probably earlier) is the coaches who don’t embrace the rivalry being different ultimately lose.
John Cooper and Rich Rodriguez are the biggest examples, but that also fits the late Lloyd Carr era and the beginning of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure.
Harbaugh certainly always took the rivalry seriously, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence his Wolverines finally beat Ohio State following the first offseason in which they took a page from Jim Tressel’s book and started putting a daily emphasis on beating the Buckeyes. (And the cheating, but let’s put that aside for now.)
Will this decide who wins next week? I doubt it. The better team will probably win regardless, but I do think Tressel and Harbaugh changing the mindset of their players made a big impact on stopping their teams’ losing streaks in the series.
Of course, one could also argue that is what Day is doing now but in reverse, so maybe he’ll look like a genius in eight days.
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But first, what about Rutgers?
As mentioned Wednesday, the Scarlet Knights have a very bad defense but some threats on offense.
Day said they put pressure on you in all three phases:
“It starts with special teams and then goes offense and defense, and they always have a plan of how they want to attack you, and they play complementary football. So coming off of a win and a bye week, we've got to be on our game."
If styles make fights, this could be a good warmup for the OSU-Michigan game if the Ohio State running game can take another step forward and Julian Sayin can develop more rapport with his secondary weapons in the passing game.
The OSU defense will have to worry about a balanced attack, which is never a bad thing for practice purposes even if that is not what they figure to see from the Wolverines.
For more on the Scarlet Knights, including where they rank in both traditional and advanced stats, check out my Wednesday post here.
More importantly, Rutgers has been living a lie
Despite what they claim, the “first college football game” was not played at Rutgers because football had not been invented yet. What they did with Princeton in 1869 was soccer, or at least much closer to that than American football.
How do I know that?
William J. Leggett, captain of the Rutgers team who later became a distinguished clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, suggested that rules for the contest be adopted from those of the London Football Association
Association Football is soccer, which explains why goals were worth one and carrying the ball was not allowed.
The game recap Rutgers reprints does mention their team using a flying wedge-type formation to clear the way for the player dribbling the ball with his feet — I don’t think such interference is allowed in soccer then or now, but I could be wrong — so maybe this wasn’t pure modern soccer either, but it was surely closer to soccer than rugby, which is also distinct from American football in significant ways.
In reality, what we know as American football did not really come around until about a decade later. It evolved year by year as the Northeastern colleges who enjoyed experimenting with it would gather annually to change the rules.
Yale’s Walter Camp, who is generally regarded as the father of American football, wrote in his 1891 book appropriately titled, American Football, “our American intercollegiate game was derived” from Rugby Union rules, and the first American college game played under rugby rules was in 1876 in New Haven, Conn.
That is consistent with the NCAA rulebook, which identifies 1876 as the year "holding and carrying the ball" became legal (and also recognizes the Rutgers-Princeton game as the first college football game).
Probably the biggest step in the evolution came in 1880 when scrimmage play was added. That replaced the scrum of rugby and created alternating possessions, which Camp felt was a more ordered and American way to do things.
Two years later, they added the system of downs (to prevent teams from stalling after taking the lead), and then we really had American football without a doubt.
What else is going on this week at Ohio State?
Day began the week saying he was happy with the progress of the running game, but he isn’t sure if Carnell Tate or Jeremiah Smith will be able to play.
Meanwhile, I guess I write this every week, but Ohio State is STILL hot on the recruiting trail.
The Buckeyes picked up multiple new recruits in the class of 2026 and ’27 this week, including Lebanon senior tight end Nick Lautar.
He became the 10th in-state commitment for this class, which would be the most in one year for the Buckeyes since 2016 when Urban Meyer signed 10 Ohioans.
Meanwhile, the mens’ basketball team got a big win over Notre Dame on Sunday at home, and coach Jake Diebler added a national top 25 recruit in the class of 2027, four-star guard LJ Smith of North Carolina.
Kevin McGuff’s women’s basketball Buckeyes started the week by getting drubbed at No. 1 Connecticut, but they bounced back by beating MAC preseason favorite Kent State on Wednesday night.
I was there for the latter game, and I intend to be a regular attendee for both basketball teams this season (at least once football season slows down…)
That’s all for this edition of Cus Words Sports, but you can look for more after the Rutgers game.
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1 Does this mean your humble author is already overthinking the Michigan game, too? Yes, but I’m not playing so I don’t think that will make a difference in the end.