Ohio State fans have seen this movie before, and the opening scene is making them uneasy.
Back in October 2004, Jim Tressel’s Buckeyes were ranked ninth and then hit a brutal three-game Big Ten skid that made the season feel like it was slipping away fast. It started with a 33-27 overtime loss at Northwestern, followed by a 24-13 home loss to Wisconsin, and then a 33-7 defeat at Iowa.
That Northwestern game was the Wildcats’ first win over Ohio State since 1971, and the Iowa loss was described as the low point of Tressel’s first four seasons. It also left Ohio State 0-3 in Big Ten play for the first time since 1988, John Cooper’s first season as head coach.
Now, 22 years later, Ryan Day is trying to steady a team that suddenly looks like it’s walking the same path.
This year’s Buckeyes opened the season ranked among the nation’s best, but the losses have piled up in a hurry. They fell at Texas in Week 2 by one point as time expired, then dropped a 30-18 decision at USC on Halloween night in Los Angeles.
Last Saturday, Oregon came into Columbus and left with a 41-28 win, handing Ohio State a third regular-season loss for the first time since 2011. The Buckeyes slid from No. 2 in the coaches’ poll in Week 8 to No. 20 now, an 18-spot drop.
The Oregon game had a familiar feel in the worst way. Ohio State got out to an early lead, then watched Oregon rip off 38 straight points after a fake punt swung the momentum. Missed tackles on long touchdown runs did the rest.
The comparison to 2004 isn’t perfect, and the source itself makes that clear. This year’s first loss came outside the Big Ten by one point on the road, while the 2004 team dropped three straight conference games.
That earlier team was also in transition, with a massive exodus of talent from the 2002 national championship squad and a new quarterback in place. This year’s Buckeyes were supposed to be something different: a projected national title contender with one of the deepest rosters in the country.
Still, the similarities are hard to ignore. In 2004, Ohio State struggled with a defense that gave up big plays and an offense that couldn’t answer.
In 2026, the Oregon loss followed that same script in its own way. The Buckeyes have also lost two straight to unranked teams, and quarterback Julian Sayin has been out “indefinitely” since the injury in the Indiana game on Oct.
Tressel’s team had quarterback questions of its own in 2004, which made the collapse harder to sort out. But the larger point is that the Buckeyes were able to recover then.
They finished 8-4, beat No. 7 Michigan, and closed with a 33-7 Alamo Bowl win over Oklahoma State.
The season was a disappointment, but it didn’t define the program.
Ohio State still has a chance to write a different ending this time, though the road back is narrow. The Buckeyes host Northwestern next, then go to Nebraska, then finish at home against Michigan on Nov.
- If they win those three and then take their bowl game, they would finish 10-3 in 2026.
And there’s one more twist that makes the whole thing feel even stranger: Northwestern was the team that started the 2004 slide. If Yogi Berra was right, Ohio State is either about to repeat history or finally slam the door on it. Fans won’t have to wait long to find out.
In Other News...
Ohio State Fans Have A New Reason To Worry About Legend Bey
Legend Bey arrived at Ohio State with some buzz, but his first season has not gone the way many Buckeyes fans hoped. The freshman running back has seen limited playing time, and his path has already been complicated by a suspension early in fall camp. Even with the season moving along, Bey has not been able to carve out much of a role in a backfield that has been difficult to crack.
Bey added another layer of uncertainty this week by posting a cryptic message on social media, which naturally sparked concern about where things stand. Nothing official has been announced, and there is no confirmation that he is entering the transfer portal, but the timing of the post is enough to make people around the program pay attention. For a player still trying to find his footing, and for a fan base watching the running back room closely, it is the kind of development that raises more questions than answers. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Makes Another Special Teams Change After Costly Problems Persist
Ohio State has moved on from special teams coordinator Robby Discher after the 2026 season, another sign that the Buckeyes are still searching for answers in a phase of the game that never quite stabilized. Discher was hired in January with the expectation that he would help clean up a unit that had become a recurring concern, but the same issues kept surfacing, from kickoff and punt return troubles to penalties and miscues in important moments.
Head coach Ryan Day has already acknowledged the problems and made clear the responsibility does not rest with Discher alone, which suggests this is as much about broader accountability as it is about one staffing change. For a program with Ohio States standards, special teams has become too familiar a source of frustration, and the latest move only adds to the sense that more adjustments could still be coming. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Day Owns Ohio State Collapse As Pressure Builds Fast
Ohio States latest setback was the kind that lingers, because it began with control and ended with a collapse. The Buckeyes jumped out to a 14-0 lead against Oregon, then watched the Ducks reel off 38 unanswered points as the offense stalled and the game slipped away, leaving Ohio State at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play.
Ryan Day did not try to soften the aftermath. He acknowledged the teams problems on offense, where the Buckeyes have struggled to find consistent production on the ground and through the air, and said coaching changes, play calling and personnel adjustments are all under consideration. With the season moving deeper into November, the pressure around the program is only getting louder, and the next steps now matter as much as the loss itself. [Read more 🡒]