While I believed that Coach Day had turned a new leaf in the wake of losing The Game last year, I still carried a little bit of "I'll believe it when I see it" into the matchup yesterday. And when Marshall gashed us a couple of times on the first drive and Julian threw his INT on our first possession, I was terrified that we were going to get Bad Ryan Day all over again, putting a muzzle on our QB and helplessly buttoning things up in an effort not to lose.
And yet, he showed us that he was returning to his roots and that all his actions were not just empty talk, but a real philosophy shift. There are four plays where this felt clear to me:
(1) On our first scoring drive, Day was ready to go for it on 4th and inches for the TD (and dialing up a play-action pass too!), and only elected to kick a FG when we were flagged for a false start to push us out to 6 yards to go.
(2) Down by 3 points in the 2nd quarter from the Michigan 35 yard line, facing 4th and 5, he elected to throw the ball instead of attempting a long kick, and this time, he drew one up to our best player: JJ. Double-coverage be damned.
(3) Up by 8 points in the 3rd quarter, Bad Ryan Day would have run the ball repeatedly in a desperate gambit to shorten the game. Instead, he trusted Sayin to deliver an absolute dagger to Tate for a 50 yard TD bomb on second down. Again, staying aggressive, involving our best players. In my opinion, this was when I knew we had won the game.
(4) While the game was more or less decided by the 4th frame, I loved his decision to go for it on our penultimate possession on 4th and 1 from our own 38 yard line. Getting stuffed on that play would have given scUM the ball back with a sure-fire scoring opportunity (either a TD or FG would have brought it back to a two score game) with almost 5 minutes of game clock and all 3 TOs for Moore. Instead, Day decided to win the game right then and there, and he absolutely did.
It reminded me of his 2019 Game matchup, one of Coach Ryan's finest works, in my opinion. If this version of Day is here to stay, the Wolverines should be very, very afraid.
