<\/p>\n
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day watches players warm up before an NCAA college football game against Texas in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Eric Gay\/AP Photo\/Eric Gay<\/p>\n
Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin (10) throws against Texas during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Eric Gay\/AP Photo\/Eric Gay<\/p>\n
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) \u2014 Coach Ryan Day might have been understating things slightly when he said there’s a lot that comes with a loss at Ohio State.<\/p>\n
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Last Saturday’s historic fourth-quarter collapse by the Buckeyes in their 24-23 loss at Texas has brought angst and second-guessing usually reserved for losses to arch-rival Michigan.<\/p>\n
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Day spent Tuesday’s news conference going through the post-mortem after experiencing only his second setback in 27 games in September while trying to outline his hopes of preventing the loss from snowballing and impacting the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely frustrating, it\u2019s maddening and we\u2019re excited to get back on the field and get going because the last couple of days haven\u2019t been fun around here,\u201d Day said. \u201cHad some really good conversations with the guys. I think they\u2019re going to be in a good mindset moving forward. We understand we have a lot of football ahead of us. So this highlighted some things that we got to get fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first time in program history the sixth-ranked Buckeyes have lost when leading by at least 17 points at halftime. Going back to 2004, top-ranked teams in the AP Top 25 were 197-0 when holding a 20-point lead at any point in the fourth quarter. Ohio State was up 23-3 going into the final 15 minutes before the Longhorns scored on their final three drives.<\/p>\n
Day might have been too aggressive at times \u2014 including a failed fourth-down conversion when the Buckeyes could have kicked a field goal \u2014 which he owned up to.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen it\u2019s time to go win the game, we all have to be on the same page and we have to live with the result. Just like we throw the ball on third-and-4 to Jeremiah (Smith) on a fade to go win the game (in the fourth quarter). Yeah, I absolutely own that. We didn’t have enough answers in the fourth quarter to go win the game, but we will moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
One late-game situation Day acknowledged he might do differently next time is letting a team score in order to have enough time to possibly go on a game-winning drive.<\/p>\n
Day called his final timeout with 53 seconds remaining when Texas’ Hollywood Smothers was stopped on first-and-goal at the 1. Smothers ended up scoring two plays later and with 25 seconds on the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we win the game, then it would\u2019ve been the right decision. And in the moment you’ve got to make a hard decision and I decided to try to hold the line,\u201d he said. \u201cUltimately would have loved to see what it would\u2019ve looked like if they would\u2019ve scored. So we\u2019ll have to think about it when it happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Julian Sayin passed for 278 yards, but completed only five of 16 passes in the second half. The junior has a 75.9% completion rate in his two seasons as Ohio State’s starter, but it is 62.5% in losses.<\/p>\n
Before opening Big Ten play on Sept. 26 against Illinois, the Buckeyes (1-1) host Kent State on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Ohio State is averaging 59 points and winning by an average margin of 51.7 points in its seven matchups against MAC teams since Day took over as head coach in 2019.<\/p>\n
The bigger concern is making sure the Buckeyes correct mistakes by the time they have crucial road tests next month against No. 18 Iowa, No. 4 Indiana and No. 12 Southern California.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt’s see what we did wrong, try to improve those and make sure this doesn\u2019t happen again,” Sayin said. “I think we have a good group of guys on our team. I think we can use this as fuel. I love the group of guys on the team and have a lot of confidence in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here<\/p>\n
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