Ohio State and Michigan usually don’t find much common ground, but this season has pushed both fan bases into the same miserable corner.
Michigan’s first year under Kyle Whittingham has gone sideways, and Ohio State’s championship hopes have been wrecked by Julian Sayin’s season-ending injury. The result is a pair of proud programs staring at the same ugly truth: both are wandering in the wilderness right now.
For Michigan, the warning signs were impossible to miss in a 15-6 loss to Michigan State. The Wolverines had just squeaked by one of the Big Ten’s weakest teams in Rutgers, then needed a real offensive response against an injury-riddled Spartans team.
Instead, they produced almost nothing. Michigan converted only two third downs, managed just 54 rushing yards, turned it over four times and went nearly two full quarters without reaching the red zone.
It was a brutal performance, and only barely avoided becoming the Wolverines’ first shutout against an unranked opponent since 1977.
That kind of outing left embattled offensive coordinator Jason Beck with no room left to survive. On Sunday, Michigan fired him.
Now the attention shifts to quarterback Bryce Underwood. After Tommy Carr struggled against a defense Michigan should have been able to handle, Whittingham may not have many options left.
Ohio State’s problems are different, but just as damaging. Three weeks ago, the Buckeyes looked like a legitimate national title threat with Sayin healthy, Jeremiah Smith playing like a Heisman Trophy favorite and a defense that could carry the load. Then Sayin’s injury against Indiana changed everything.
Since then, the offense has fallen apart with Luke Fahey at quarterback. Ryan Day still hasn’t found a reliable running game to support the freshman, and while Fahey isn’t the only issue, he hasn’t done enough to stabilize things either.
Given how long Tavien St. Clair has been in Columbus, he may deserve a look before the Buckeyes run out of time to find out what they have in the former five-star.
The defense has started to crack too. Through seven weeks, Ohio State was allowing just 13.2 points per game.
In back-to-back Big Ten games, that unit has given up 30 points to USC and 41 to Oregon. The slide has been ugly.
The College Football Playoff committee noticed. In its first ranking of the season, Ohio State landed at No. 12, a clear signal that the Buckeyes need a much different finish if they want to stay in the hunt.
That is what makes the rest of the road so precarious. Michigan is one win away from bowl eligibility, but the Wolverines have to get that victory against three ranked Big Ten opponents: Oregon, UCLA and Ohio State. Ohio State, meanwhile, is staring at a path that looks far less forgiving than it did a month ago.
Just three years ago, Michigan was celebrating a championship season. Ohio State did the same two years ago. Now both programs are dealing with seasons that have spiraled in ways nobody saw coming.
And that sets up a strange possibility later this month: Ohio State-Michigan could feature two unranked teams for the first time since 1987. Even more jarring, the game may carry less weight than usual beyond the bragging rights, at least compared with what each team expected when the season began.
This year’s matchup will still matter. It just may matter more as a chance to stop the bleeding than as a step toward anything bigger.
In Other News...
Ohio State Just Exposed A Problem Bigger Than One Loss
Ohio State came out sharp against Oregon, jumping ahead 14-0 in the first quarter and still holding a 14-3 edge late in the first half. Then the game tilted hard, with Oregon scoring 38 straight points and flipping the matchup with a fake punt, turnovers and a surge that left the Buckeyes chasing the rest of the way.
The loss does not close the door on Ohio States bigger goals, since the Buckeyes still control a path to the Big Ten Championship and the College Football Playoff if they take care of the games left on their schedule. But the way this one unraveled raised the kind of questions that linger beyond a single defeat, especially around quarterback play and whether the teams effort can stay steady when the game turns against it. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Just Saw Why This Freshman Could Change Everything
Anthony Thompson gave Ohio State a glimpse of what its freshman class might become in the first half against Marshall, scoring 10 points and helping steady the Buckeyes in an 84-74 win. With the schedule about to stiffen, that kind of early contribution matters even more for a team still trying to sort out its rotation and build the kind of chemistry that can hold up against better competition.
LJ Smiths scoreless night showed the other side of the freshman learning curve, and Ohio States defensive issues were also hard to ignore. The Buckeyes now turn to a much tougher test against fourth-ranked UConn, where the margin for growth will shrink quickly and the need for both freshmen to keep developing will be impossible to miss. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Is Running Out Of Time To Fix A Costly Problem
Ohio State has made a clear move to address one of the seasons most frustrating issues, parting ways with special teams coordinator Robby Discher after nine games in 2026. The Buckeyes turned to Rob Keys as the interim coordinator for the rest of the year, while Matt Guerrieri and James Laurinaitis will help steer the punt and kickoff units, giving Ryan Day a reshuffled staff as the team tries to steady a phase that has repeatedly hurt it.
Day said there will not be any more coaching changes before the next game, but the evaluation process is still ongoing. That leaves Ohio State in a familiar late-season spot: trying to clean up a costly problem quickly, with limited time to see whether the new arrangement can bring order to a unit that has already given away too many damaging moments. [Read more 🡒]