Ohio State football missed its chance for the last word at Michigan, maybe forever: What I’ll remember

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — The man in maize and blue stood palms up on the Michigan Stadium concourse, repeating one question with gleeful sarcasm to any Ohio State football fans filing out.

“What excuse do you have now?”

Michigan’s 30-24 victory rendered that a rhetorical question. A couple of Buckeye fans attempted to dampen that troll performance by offering their congratulations. The Wolverine backer preferred to wallow in smugness.

Over the course of the previous month, the sign stealing scheme orchestrated by former recruiting staffer Connor Stalions clouded previously established perspective on the Wolverines’ previous two victories in The Game. It led Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti to banish coach Jim Harbaugh from the Big House for the final three games of the regular season, including The Game. It led Michigan to fire linebackers coach Chris Partridge for interfering in the NCAA”s ongoing investigation.

Ohio State needed to win Saturday to achieve tangible goals. Avoiding its first three-game losing streak in the rivalry in a generation. Continuing pursuit of its first Big Ten championship in three years. Ensuring a more realistic path into the playoff.

A win also would have unmuzzled OSU coach Ryan Day. He took the high road repeatedly when asked about Michigan’s scandalous season from every possible angle. He knew even a “No comment” could be spun into a viral distraction. He wanted none of those in his team’s periphery, since every small miscue or shortcoming became magnified in The Game.

If that focus paid off and the Buckeyes won, what would Day say then? Ask Lou Holtz. Every reporter on the OSU beat braced for what Day might say into a Fox microphone before leaving the field, or into our voice recorders in the interview room.

Instead, Day somberly discussed how in a game everyone believes unfolded on the up and up, OSU made those few, key mistakes anyway.

Walking to midfield and shaking acting head coach Sherrone Moore’s hand postgame may linger as one of the more humbling moments of Day’s OSU tenure.

Know who might soon experience a tougher moment? Odds are, Saturday night in Indianapolis, Petitti will hand the Big Ten championship trophy to Harbaugh as athletic director Warde Manuel watches nearby. Ohio State fans who anticipated a day of validation instead must watch their bitter rival take its own aggrandizing tour into a third straight playoff appearance.

The NCAA may eventually say more about this Michigan scheme, along with the other open investigation into Harbaugh skirting no-contact rules during the COVID-19 dead period.

Ohio State, though, must swallow everything it wished to unload about its rivals’ alleged business practices — along with a massive dose of pride. That Michigan man and many like him relished the final word on Saturday.