Ryan Day Says Losing To Michigan Is One Of The Worst Things That's Ever Happened To Him, Aside From Losing His Dad At 9 Years Old

I'm going to be short and sweet with this one: this is both tragically sad, as well as exactly what I needed to hear from Ryan Day. For those of you who didn't know, Ryan Day's dad killed himself when he was only 9 years old. It's perhaps the saddest thing to think about in the entire world. And next on the totem pole is losing to Michigan. And that's not a joke. You can hear it in his voice. You can see it in his face.

The fact of the matter is that this game means more to the people of Ohio than anything else does in the entire world. And I know you'll have your out-of-state students that came here to party, and your Quarterbacks from Pennsylvania who came here to develop and get NFL money, and your commenters from other parts of the country that say otherwise....but they simply don't get it. There's people that want to beat their rival, sure. But then there's people that grew up in Ohio that need to beat Michigan. Can't function if you don't, let alone keep food down or breathe properly. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: I'd rather go 1-11 and beat Michigan than go 11-1 and lose to those motherfuckers. People say I'm lying. People say I'm wrong. People say I'm crazy. But those people didn't grow up in Ohio.

There's not a person in my entire family that isn't a Buckeye. And there's something different for Ohioans when it comes to this Rivalry. And let me say this, to all the people that call this Hate Week and cross out the Ms, I'm out on that. It's not one week, it's 365 days a year in my family. We don't vacation there. We don't spend money there. And we make sure the gas tank is full if we ever have to drive through there. Because you don't pay taxes in Michigan, when that money ultimately goes to that fucking school. I learned that from my Grandpa, who taught it to my Dad, who taught it to my brother (Class of 2014) and me (Class of 2015 - National Champion). And I also learned it from Jim Tressel, the coach of the Buckeyes as I grew up. And I learned it from Urban Meyer, the coach of the Buckeyes as I went to school there. We don't lose to them. We prepare 364 days a year to beat them so when that 1 day in late November comes that determines our mood for the next 11.99 months, we win.

So yeah, it's been heart breaking each November to lose. I don't use heart breaking as an exaggeration, either. I think losing last year was the worst day of my entire life. And now we take out that anger, that 4 years of pent up anger, we take it out on them on Saturday in the Shoe. Ohio State is going to kick the fucking shit out of Michigan. And they will say it's because they're having a down year, fine. My responses would be that we don't have bad years. And also that if your 6-5 record makes this not hurt as bad when we hang 100 on Saturday, you're a fake ass fan anyways.