The rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan doesn’t take a day off. Dave Portnoy has made his whole identity about hating the Buckeyes. But now OSU head coach Ryan Day just proved it in the most unapologetic way possible.
As per Eleven Warriors, Ryan Day signed two things during the annual appreciation day back at Woody Hayes Athletic Center. A football and a T-shirt that had “F–k Michigan” on it. Day trolled Michigan without saying a single word.
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More than anyone else, the Buckeyes’ head coach knows about the ins-and-outs of the rivalry. Losing to Michigan can even dampen the highs of winning a national championship in Columbus. And for Ryan Day, those losses started accumulating despite his otherwise great record as a head coach.
The nightmare began in 2021, when they lost 42-27 to Michigan. Before their 2024 matchup, the Buckeyes were riding a decent run, and Michigan was struggling in Sherrone Moore’s first year as a head coach. To make matters worse for the Wolverines, the game was in Columbus. However, they still managed to beat Ohio State 13-10 in a fiercely fought contest where tempers flared after the game.
Ohio State used the pain of the loss to go on a playoff run that culminated in a national championship. However, Ryan Day still had that streak of four straight losses to Michigan on his mind. In an interview last year, Day described Michigan losses as “one of the worst things that’s happened to me in my life.” He even compared them to personal tragedies.
A redemption was due, and Ohio State got that last season. The Buckeyes traveled to Ann Arbor and made a mockery of hapless Michigan. While they couldn’t go deeper into the playoffs, the Michigan win made the season a little sweeter than before. Instead of making any disparaging remarks, Ryan Day celebrated the win with humility.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no hate for Michigan. That will always be there. And it’s not just the head coach who’s displaying that. Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith never misses an opportunity to showcase his feelings for the team up North.
“If there’s one relationship formed out of this, or 500, or 5,000, it all adds up,” he said. “That’s what we have to continue to cultivate as part of what being a Buckeye means.”
Jeremiah Smith is one step ahead of the head coach
The wide receiver of OSU, Jeremiah Smith, proved that he is a true Buckeye by hating on the team up north. In a recent battle sport ad, Smith was flipping someone off, wearing a maize and blue tie. Later on in the ad, they cut the tie in half.
And this wasn’t the first time. Smith has been quite direct about his feelings. “I hate them, just something about them,” he said of Ohio State’s main rivals. Before the 2025 season, the wide receiver publicly vowed that he would not lose to Michigan for the remainder of his college career.
In the first challenge to the promise, Smith not only scored a touchdown against the Wolverines, but also gave angry Michigan fans the bird.
“So all the Michigan fans are right there at the bottom. So we’re out there, warming up, and they talking cash money, whatever they were saying. So I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll score. I got something for them.’ And then I scored, I ran up and, you know, flipped it off on them,” he later explained.
The Sherrone Moore era is over at Ann Arbor, and under a competent head coach like Kyle Whittingham, Michigan may show a better fight in 2026.
