Michigan’s ‘You’re not tough’ comment sums up damage done to Ryan Day’s Buckeyes -- Jimmy Watkins

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan wide receiver Roman Wilson is only one man with one very strong opinion about Ohio State’s one and only loss of the season. But the sentiment he shared Saturday encapsulates all the damage his Wolverines have inflicted upon the Buckeyes over the last three years.

Ohio State football is soft, or at least that’s what people think (again) after Saturday’s 30-24 loss against Michigan. It doesn’t matter whether they’re right, and logic won’t change their perception. Because when the winners write history, audiences take it as gospel. And when Wilson was asked whether the Buckeyes played tougher this season, his pen spoke loudly.

“No, definitely not,” Wilson said. “... You got guys who want to put on a Louis (Vuitton), $1,000 outfit. When you’re out there, you’re not hard. I see the film. You’re not tough.

“I don’t think I’m the toughest guy in the world, but I’m out there. I’m getting physical. I don’t think they wanted it like how I wanted it.”

Ohio State has been fighting Wilson’s critiques for years. They started from the same campus two years ago, when Michigan beat Ohio State for the first time in a decade. After UM’s 42-27 win in 2021, former offensive coordinator Josh Gattis was talking tough. He called the Buckeyes a good team, but he wasn’t sure they were a physical one.

“They’re a finesse team,” Gattis said then. “And we knew that going into the game that we can out-physical them, we can out-tough them and that was gonna be the key to the game, and that’s what we prepared for all year long.”

Ohio State spent the next two years fighting to reclaim its football identity with Gattis’s voice playing in their heads. They used it as fuel last season - or at least, they tried to - during their 45-23loss to Michigan at Ohio Stadium. They used loss as motivation during their 42-41 loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff. And coach Ryan Day used toughness as a rallying cry during this season’s 17-14 win over Notre Dame, which came days after former Irish coach Lou Holtz criticized OSU’s physicality.

“... I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now,” Day told NBC. “What he said about our team, what he said about our team ... I cannot believe.

“This is a tough team right here. We’re proud to be from Ohio, and it’s always been Ohio against the world, and it will continue to be Ohio against the world. But I’ll tell you what: I love those kids, and we’ve got a tough team.”

Day was talking to Holtz, but his anger stemmed from Michigan. Holtz had parroted Gattis’ narrative. And Day was still trying to prove it wrong two years later.

He still is, and he still will be this time next year. Because at this point, the only team that can prove Ohio State’s toughness is the same team that called it “finesse.”

If Day could’ve left Michigan Stadium with a win on Saturday, he would’ve pointed to several moments that erased — at least smudged — that label. His Buckeyes showed moxie fighting out of an early 14-3 hole. They played tough while finishing a third-quarter touchdown drive with eight straight run plays. And they held big, bad Michigan to 4.2 yards per carry, its lowest figure against the Buckeyes since 2016 - not that history (or its readers) will remember.

Instead, the record will reflect that Day’s team allowed 123 rushing yards after halftime. It will remember Michigan’s seven-minute fourth-quarter possession that featured 10 runs on 13 plays. And it will feature Wilson’s damning comments, playing on a loop, without the context required to argue his claims.

Stolen signs? Suspended coach? Easy cuts from Michigan’s version of events. With players like Wilson making the edits, Ohio State football is still losing because it is still soft. The public agrees with him because Wilson is still winning. And after another year spent trying (and failing) to change their narrative, the Buckeyes have lost control of it.