Columbus, Ohio — On Saturday afternoon, Ohio State football coach Ryan Day will cross the playing field at Michigan Stadium and shake hands with a Wolverines football coach.
Not the football coach at Michigan, that is. Like you, Jim Harbaugh will most likely be watching The Game while eating Thanksgiving leftovers on the couch and screaming at the TV. He’s been suspended twice this season due to separate NCAA investigations, so he’ll be watching the biggest game in the sport with great interest.
Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti’s three-game suspension denied Harbaugh the opportunity to possibly celebrate yet another historic victory with his team on the field. Day was denied the opportunity to potentially convey messages through his body language that his voice has been unable to convey since the Michigan sign-stealing scheme came to light.
And boy, did it deny the rest of us the sick delight of witnessing these two men, who clearly detest each other, come together for the most awkward sporting event of 2023.
Aside from firmly refuting Michigan’s claim that OSU provided Purdue with the Wolverines’ signs prior to the Big Ten championship game in 2017, Day persistently declines to address any topic even remotely related to the controversy in the north.
However, it’s hard to envision a more intimate matchup for Day at this point in his career. Put aside any personal feelings he might have had toward Harbaugh for the time being. In the heat of the moment, those defeats from the previous two seasons were evaluated in terms of what Day had or had not done to get his program ready for victory.
It led to significant adjustments to his coaching staff in 2021. It was confirmed during the previous season that a program that was ranked first in the Big Ten upon his acquisition had been demoted.
