Ryan Day, Ohio State football gained something valuable from Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan departure.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jim Harbaugh accomplished the very thing he was hired to do at Michigan, and now the man who turned himself into Ohio State’s most hated sports figure is gone.
With his departure, a door that already felt like it was beginning to swing open has now been blown off the hinges.
The Buckeyes have spent the last three years being a victim of the Wolverines’ emergence as a top program in college football. That has kept the Buckeyes off the stage for two of the last three years to accomplish their ultimate goal.
Not beating Michigan has often meant not getting to do anything else. That would’ve changed next season anyway because the Big Ten has ended divisions and the College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams.
But that didn’t have to mean OSU’s biggest rival wouldn’t be a threat.
Harbaugh leaving to coach the Chargers, plus numerous other graduations and NFL decisions, means exactly that.
Ohio State has spent the days since Nov. 25, 2023, watching its roster purge itself with 19 scholarship players transferring out of the program — including starting quarterback Kyle McCord — a handful of graduations, and two underclassmen entering the NFL Draft in Michael Hall Jr. and Marvin Harrison Jr.
Once that was over, the Buckeyes got to work rebuilding with numerous draft-eligible players choosing to return and “reload the clip” while the coaching staff hit home runs in the transfer portal and recruiting trail.
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