Ohio State is Underdog, A Role It Has Thrived In, Against Michigan for First Time Since 2018

Since Urban Meyer took over the program prior to the 2012 season and handed the keys over to Ryan Day seven years later, the Buckeyes have an 8-3 overall record as underdogs and a 9-2 mark against the spread when forecasted to lose.

Ohio State currently stands as a 3.5-point underdog for Saturday's game at Michigan, the first time this season the Buckeyes have been projected to lose by oddsmakers. The last time OSU was an underdog came at the end of last season when it entered its College Football Playoff semifinal matchup with Georgia at the Peach Bowl picked to lose by 4.5 points and fell just 42-41 after a last-second missed field goal.

The Buckeyes are 4-0 as an underdog in regular-season games since 2012.

The last time Ohio State entered The Game as an underdog was one of its biggest successes in the past decade when Vegas thought it would fail.

Following a razor-thin 52-51 overtime win at Maryland the week before and a 49-20 shellacking in upset fashion at Purdue that ultimately derailed the team's title ambitions earlier in the season, the Buckeyes were 3.5-point underdogs against a 9-1 Michigan squad in playoff position on the heels of a nine-game winning streak.

The Wolverines came to Columbus that day and saw their Big Ten and national title hopes obliterated. The late Dwayne Haskins carved up Michigan's vaunted defense, the No. 1 pass defense in the country at the time, for 396 yards and six touchdowns.

Then-freshman wide receiver Chris Olave had a breakout performance en route to becoming a first-round NFL draft pick some three-and-a-half years later, hauling in the first two Haskins scoring tosses and blocking a punt that was returned for a touchdown by cornerback Sevyn Banks. The Buckeyes won 62-39, the most points scored by either side in The Game since Michigan put up 86 in 1902.

Day happened to be on staff as an offensive coordinator for that game and got his first bite at the apple as a head coach earlier that year, serving three games atop the program in an interim capacity when Urban Meyer was suspended for three games.

Every year since, his appreciation of the rivalry has grown. Especially now that he's lost back-to-back meetings with the Wolverines, putting his record at 1-2 in the rivalry.

"This will be my sixth time in The Game," Day said. "You learn quickly when you're here, but each year, you learn more and it has more of a significant impact on you as a person. And I think all of our guys, when they come here, whether it's a coach or a player they're here for one reason – to win that game. So every year that you're here, you learn about that more and more. But my youngest daughter doesn't know any other place other than Ohio. So this means the world to me and my family."

Day's lone win as an underdog came in the 2020 College Football Playoff semifinals against Clemson, revenge for a loss in the CFP the year prior to the Tigers. The Buckeyes beat Clemson 49-28 thanks to a career-defining performance from Justin Fields, who threw for 385 yards and six touchdowns despite playing hurt the entire second half.

Ohio State will hope to make some of its recent underdog history repeat itself and defeat Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday. 

"We take every year as it is and go from there," Day said. "There's guys with scars. I'm one of them. So it just drives you every day to work harder and to make sure you do everything you possibly can to win The Game."