Thoughts on Day:
The people calling for Day's head are nuts. I've always said that evaluating a coach based on performance against rival is a mistake because no rival is a constant. If Michigan sucks for 10 years then going 6-4 against them isn't good enough. Conversely, if Michigan is great for a decade then going 4-6 against them might not be so bad.
To put this into concrete examples:
Woody Hayes had a losing record in the famous 10 Year War at 4-5-1. Here is the thing, entering The Game those ten Michigan teams were:
- 10-0 four times, 2-1-1
- 9-0 once, 1-0
- 9-1 three times, 0-3
- 8-0-2 once, 1-0
- 7-2 once, 0-1
You never like losing to your rival but those were some really great Michigan teams.
After the monster #1v#2 game in 2006 Michigan had a pretty lackluster decade and Ohio State went 8-1 against them (9-1 before vacating the 2010 season). Entering The Game, those ten Michigan teams were:
- 10-1 once, 1-0
- 9-2 twice, 1-1
- 8-3 twice, 2-0
- 7-4 twice, 1-0 (another win subsequently vacated)
- 5-6 twice, 2-0
- 3-8 once, 1-0
6-4 wouldn't be very good against that slate.
Another concrete example is that Michigan's last three teams have entered The Game at 10-1, 11-0, and 11-0. The last time Ohio State played three consecutive .900+ Michigan teams was 1976-1978. Woody Hayes went 0-3 in those games.
People comparing Day to Cooper are also wrong. Cooper's problem wasn't losing to great Michigan teams, his problem was losing to mediocre Michigan teams. He infamously finished 2-10-1 against Michigan but it really comes down to three games:
- 1993: 9-0-1 #5 Ohio State lost to 6-4 unranked Michigan
- 1995: 11-0 #2 Ohio State lost to 8-3 #18 Michigan
- 1996: 10-0 #2 Ohio State lost to 7-3 #21 Michigan
You might say "Hey Medina, even if Coop had won those three he'd still have only been 5-7-1 against Michigan." Ok, but he also lost his first four so he'd have been 5-3-1 after that plus he'd have had a four-year winning streak (1993-1996) and a five year non-losing streak (1992-1996) along with at least one (1996) and possibly as many as three (93, 95, 96) NC's.
Ohio State is 11-1. They will probably be roughly #6 in the final CFP rankings. That will make 10 straight years of being ranked in the final CFP rankings. Only Alabama and Clemson are in that club with Ohio State and Clemson is about to fall out of it so when the final CFP rankings come out this year only tOSU and Bama will have been ranked in every single final CFP ranking. Oh, and for good measure, tOSU's lowest rank so far was #7 which probably will not change this year while Alabama's lowest rank was #13 so Ohio State will continue to maintain their unbelievable consistency. They'll be the only team to have a single-digit final CFP ranking in each of the CFP's 10 years. Day has been HC for half of that.
The above doesn't even consider the ongoing NCAA investigation into the Stalions sign-stealing conspiracy. The Wolverines will almost certainly have to vacate at least the wins where it can be proven that they conducted impermissible in-person scouting.