Ryan Day reveals ‘secret sauce’ to avoiding upset losses

Ryan Day revealed the “secret sauce” to avoiding upsets, after he was asked following a 42-3 win over Minnesota at home Saturday. Don’t get it twisted, the Buckeyes have lost under Day before and have lost when they should’ve won on paper.

But with last year’s run to a national title and Day’s history of winning leading up to the postseason, Ohio State has a lot of consistency. On a day where Big Ten foe Penn State lost and preseason AP No. 1 Texas lost again, Ohio State kept it rolling.

In fact, it almost looked too easy for Ohio State. Day revealed the mentality his team has each and every week. Spoiler alert, it’s approaching each opponent with the same intensity.

“Well, the first thing is, it has nothing to do with our opponents,” Day said postgame. “You’ve heard me say that before, and I guess it sounds cliche and boring, but it’s true. You know, we don’t save things for other opponents, because maybe we circle them on our (calendar), it’s about our training. 

“And we believe that if we train harder than anybody else in the country and prepare harder than anybody else in the country, that it shouldn’t matter who we play. And so this year, it’s been interesting, because you start with Texas, and then you have Grambling, then you go Ohio, then you go to Washington. Now you’re home against Minnesota. All of those weeks should have been the same. How we train should be the same. It’s about us.”

Keeping it about Day’s guys, Julian Sayin played really well once again, going 23-of-27 passing for 326 yards and three touchdowns. Bo Jackson had 63 rushing yards and a touchdown to add to the output.

“You have to have a bunch of guys to buy into that and believe in it,” Day said. “And you got to credit the players for showing up, regardless of the opponent, week in and week out. And that, to me, is if you want to be great, you have to be great all the time. Otherwise you’re not great. You’re just somebody that shows up every week and you don’t know what you’re getting. So that was a message to our team, because it’s about an identity, you know? And if your identity is you know that you want to be great, that you want to be consistent … We have a list of what we want to be. You have to do that every week. Otherwise, that’s not who you are. It’s just what you can be.”

So far, Ohio State is great under Day. They are 5-0 on the season and ranked No. 1 in the latest AP Poll. The defending champs are also 75-10 under Day’s watch since he took over as head coach. Ohio State will head to No. 17 Illinois next weekend, so it’s about being consistent to avoid that upset once again.