Ohio State's Ryan Day's pregame hype speech aged like milk following Michigan loss

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day gave a speech at the Buckeyes pregame Skull Session ahead of their game against Michigan, and it gives us some insight into what may have gone wrong for the talented team in their upset loss to the Wolverines.

A Skull Session is essentially the Buckeyes' marching band's last rehearsal before game day, and have become a sort of de facto pep rally for the team before a game. Fans and students come and hear the band play, and Day and a player usually speak, according to the team's website.

The Columbus Dispatch provided video of this year's speech from Day:

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The speech starts pretty normally, with Day running through the usual platitudes about not wearing blue, and not saying Michigan before the game.

"But this is not about them today, " Day continues, "This is about us. This is about our band, this is about our fans, this is about our university, this is about our state, this is about our toughness, this is about our work ethic, this is about our integrity, our character, our resilience, and who we are as Buckeyes."

Toughness and resilience have been phrases that have haunted Day in recent seasons. In the first loss Day suffered at the hands of Michigan, the Buckeyes were outmatched at the line of scrimmage, grinding them down en route to a 42-27 pounding. The next year, after spending multiple weeks talking about how they were going to run the ball down the Buckeyes' throats again, the Wolverines came out and attacked Ohio State through the air, throwing for 278 yards (and running for another 252) in a 45-23 beatdown in Columbus.

But things really took a turn last year, when former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz ripped into Ohio State, saying the Irish were better than the Buckeyes, and the teams Ohio State had lost to were "more physical" than the Buckeyes.

Day didn't take kindly to the remarks, and after the Buckeyes beat the Irish, laid into the former coach in a postgame interview. But, from that point on, it's felt like Day has been trying to prove his team's toughness.

In this speech, you can hear it again; he's not talking about how his team is better, or more skilled, or has one of the most explosive offenses in the game. He talks about resilience, about toughness, about "who we are as Buckeyes." Unfortunately for Day and Ohio State, that mindset played right into the Wolverines' hands once again, en route to a fourth straight loss in which the Buckeyes' talent was negated by an offensive game plan that could best be described as "running head first into a brick wall."

Day was right, the game was about the Buckeyes' toughness, and as it turns out, they may not have been tough enough.

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