I’m always a sucker for alliteration, thanks Dr. Seuss, you racist bastard. (That’s a joke, don’t touch it)

Here we are… the morning after. The smorgasbord of posts range from walking The Green Mile to just being thankful that we have football to watch again are here and I have to say I fall on the former end of the spectrum.

Ohio State football and Cleveland football directly affect my health and needless to say, I’m probably going to die in my late 30s.

I woke up this morning after sleeping like garbage. The taste of a stale cigar still lingered heavily as I was not going to be deterred against smoking it with this loss. 

We all saw what happened yesterday. A myriad of takes trying to analyze if it was players being soft, if it was scheme, or if it was witchcraft (likely). What I saw was complacency. It’s not unreasonable. You beat your rival to a pulp enough you’re eventually going to get got. Just ask Michigan who got complacent after railing John Cooper for 13 years.

I’m lucky enough that Jim Tressel’s first year was my first year of cognitively understanding football. I know many Ohio State fans grew up under Cooper. It’s been written about before on the site that Tressel understood the rivalry and then Urban Meyer took that to the next level. Where Jim Tressel slowly and methodically picked apart the maize and blue starting in spring, Urban Meyer made it a habit to attempt to bury them in spring. 

For the most part, it worked. Tressel only lost once. Urban never lost. Ryan Day looked like he was going to pick up the mantle and roll onward.

Then something changed. Michigan, who had been complacent for years decided to up the ante. For years, there were theatrics and misgivings from the players and coaches. Crushing buckeyes on a gravestone to “revenge tours” (TM) ranged from funny to laughable. Then a banner went up in the Michigan facility asking what the players had done to beat Ohio State today. Harbaugh came across in interviews with a different line than he had previously. This was no longer just another game against the rival. They were going to “win or die trying.” 

Meanwhile, Ohio State’s side, appeared to think victory was a foregone conclusion. We were planning to “hang 100,” on them. Instead, we came out of the gate getting the ball shoved down our throat, misplaying kickoff returns, having bad penalties, and fumbling snaps. We looked unprepared for the moment as complacency finally reared its ugly head.

The entire season rested on the shoulders of this game. As we quip, we could go winless, but a win against Michigan means the season was successful. I surmise that this is the first year that Michigan team and coaching staff would have said the same thing.

Michigan’s complacency is over. The alluring sweetness of victory in this game is intoxicating. Just listen to Harbaugh’s postgame comments, he is as high as a kite and he is rattling off some cheap insults like a smartass kid who just waxed you in Madden. 

Ryan Day should play that “born on third base” comment every day to himself. That should be the only motivation he needs as a coach. The players need to understand that just because you have allegedly superior talent doesn’t mean a damn thing in this game. The members of the coaching staff who survive this debacle needs to look in the mirror and understand that they need to do whatever it takes to win this game. The nightmare is back and once again, The Team Up North has derailed a potential National Championship season. 

The question is, are we going to stay complacent now? Michigan’s coach now appears to care about the rivalry. There’s the chance that Harbaugh’s head gets big enough that he becomes conceited and fails to take it seriously next year, but Day can’t concern himself with that possibility. Day needs to go back to the drawing board. With this newfound understanding of pain, Ryan Day has to respond. The question is, how does he do it?