
MLB trade deadline winners and losers: What we loved — and don’t understand
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David SchoenfieldJul 31, 2025, 07:00 PM ET
Close- Covers MLB for ESPN.com
- Former deputy editor of Page 2
- Been with ESPN.com since 1995
This year’s MLB trade deadline didn’t have star players on the move — like Juan Soto in 2022 — or the volume of last year — when there were 68 trades on deadline day — but, as usual, the 6 p.m. ET cutoff went down with a flurry of activity.
We did have two shocking trades: The Astros brought back former star Carlos Correa while the Athletics traded closer Mason Miller to the Padres for Leo De Vries, one of the best prospects in the game. Former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, still rehabbing in the minors, went from Cleveland to Toronto, while the Orioles and Diamondbacks were busy as expected. And the Twins? Well, we’ll get to them.
Who came out on top as the biggest winners of the deadline? And who were the biggest losers, leaving much to be desired? Let’s dig in.
The Mariners acquired the two best hitters to move at the deadline in Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor in two separate trades with the Arizona Diamondbacks — and remarkably didn’t have to give up any of their top 10 prospects to do so. That’s some crackerjack dealing from president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, who has always been an aggressive trader but has also been limited through the years by a stingy ownership group that has capped the Mariners’ payroll. Given the approval to add some dollars, Dipoto has now constructed one of the best lineups in the majors with the top home run duo in Cal Raleigh and Suarez.
The Mariners have had just one playoff appearance since 2001, having missed the postseason by one win each of the past two seasons after making it in 2022, so there certainly was an urgency to go big in a season where the American League is so wide open. They’re still battling for a wild-card spot and trying to chase down the Houston Astros in the AL West, so October is no guarantee, and they’ll need to get more consistency from a rotation that was among the best in the majors in 2024 but ranks 14th in the majors in ERA this season (and 23rd on the road).
The only knock on Seattle’s deadline: Dipoto had said he wanted to add an impact reliever, and while he did get lefty Caleb Ferguson from the Pittsburgh Pirates, getting a high-leverage setup guy for Andres Munoz would have capped an even better trade deadline.
Other winners
The Padres’ deadline began with the shocking trade of top prospect Leo De Vries for A’s closer Mason Miller, which led to speculation that general manager AJ Preller was in the midst of a complicated scheme where he would then trade Dylan Cease and Robert Suarez to replace the prospects he just traded.
Nope. The Padres were all-in, later adding Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano from the Baltimore Orioles and catcher Freddy Fermin from the Kansas City Royals. Just like that, the Padres addressed all three of their glaring holes — left field, DH and catcher — while also adding one of the game’s premier relievers. Indeed, already possessing arguably the game’s best bullpen, the Padres now look like the team you won’t want to play in October, when they’ll run out one dominant reliever after another, inning after inning. The offense is now improved as well. Of course, they still have to get there, but this is a team that now looks capable of chasing down the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League West title, which San Diego last won in 2006.
With an aging roster and three starting pitchers who are crushing it right now in Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez, the Phillies are absolutely in full-throttle win-now mode, and getting Jhoan Duran addresses their biggest Achilles’ heel. Jordan Romano and his 6.81 ERA leads the team with eight saves. They’ll get Jose Alvarado back from his PED suspension but he’s ineligible for the postseason. Phillies fans don’t need to be reminded of the 2023 NLCS (when Craig Kimbrel lost two games) or last year’s NLDS (when Jeff Hoffman lost twice).
In Duran, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acquires not only an immediate upgrade for his closer but also a long-term solution, since Duran is under team control through 2027. It cost the Phillies their No. 4 and 5 prospects in catcher Eduardo Tait and pitcher Mick Abel, but Tait is still just 18 years old and years away from the majors while Abel scuffled a bit in six starts with the Phillies. With the need to improve their high-leverage relief, this was a deal the Phillies had to make. In a second trade with the Minnesota Twins, Dombrowski also added useful outfielder Harrison Bader, who provides a needed right-handed bat and could end up as the regular in center field if he keeps hitting like he did with Minnesota.
The Mets bullpen had been struggling for two months — at least, aside from Edwin Diaz, who has been lights out of late. So president of baseball operations David Stearns used the deadline to remake it, turning it into what, at least on paper, now looks like one of the best in the game. Tyler Rogers is unconventional with his underhand delivery and men’s league velocity, but he gets batters to pound that sinker into the ground and he’s been one of the top relievers this season with a 1.80 ERA. Ryan Helsley and Gregory Soto provide a power arsenal from the right and left sides, respectively.
With Diaz, Reed Garrett, Ryne Stanek and Brooks Raley already on the roster, this pen is now loaded. October baseball is a different game than the regular season: There are more days off, which makes it even easier to go heavy on the bullpen. We’ve seen the Atlanta Braves in 2021, the Houston Astros in 2022 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024 win the World Series on the backs of their bullpens. The deals cost the Mets two of their top-10 prospects in infielder Jesus Baez (No. 5) and outfielder Drew Gilbert (No. 7), plus pitcher Blade Tidwell, who was No. 10 on Baseball America’s list. Dombrowski and Stearns have shown why they’re regarded as two of the top executives in the game — they’re not afraid to make a bold move, acting a day before the deadline to ensure they got the top relievers available.
To cap it off, the Mets added center fielder Cedric Mullins, who gives them more offense than Tyrone Taylor but less defense. That will probably turn into a platoon situation or allow the Mets to spread out some DH at-bats to Juan Soto. Nothing wrong with improving the depth.
The Astros added Carlos Correa to play third base, outfielder Jesus Sanchez to give them a much-needed left-handed bat and utility infielder Ramon Urias. They’re getting shortstop Jeremy Pena back on Friday, so suddenly the lineup is much improved compared to the stopgap group Houston has been running out there for much of July.
Correa looms as one of the key players these final two months as the Astros look to hold off the Mariners and Texas Rangers in the AL West. He hasn’t been an impact hitter in 2025, batting .267/.319/.386 with just seven home runs in 93 games, but he’s one season removed from a 151 OPS+, when his OPS was 200 points higher than it is this year. It will be fascinating to see what happens in his return to Houston.
The Astros have one of the best late-game bullpens in the majors and one of the best 1-2 starting pitcher duos in Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. They’ve been winning without Yordan Alvarez. They don’t necessarily need a great offense with their pitching, but they have a better one with Correa, Sanchez (.814 OPS against right-handers) and Urias.
The Mason Miller-for-Leo De Vries trade was one of the more shocking we’ve seen in years, not just because top-100 overall prospects are rarely traded at the deadline — let alone a consensus top-five prospect in De Vries — but because the A’s got him for a reliever. Yes, a very good one in Miller, who the San Diego Padres might try as a starter next season, but any time you can flip a reliever for a potential superstar, you make the move.
At 18 years old, De Vries is holding his own in High-A, with an OPS 60 points above the Midwest League average despite being the youngest player in the league (and one of just two teenage position players). You could say he’s where Carlos Correa or Francisco Lindor were at this age, although you could just as easily point to a long list of hyped teenagers who didn’t make it. Still, everybody thinks De Vries is the real deal and his precocious results suggest he should develop into at least an above-average regular. This a potential franchise-altering move.
General manager Brian Cashman promised the Yankees were going to “go to town” this deadline. They added third baseman Ryan McMahon, infielders Jose Caballero and Amed Rosario, closer David Bednar, outfielder Austin Slater and relievers Jake Bird and Camilo Doval, which is … a lot of pieces. But is that going to town? McMahon could end up as one of the sleeper acquisitions of the deadline, as escaping Colorado for a more analytical organization could be good for the psyche and the numbers. Caballero gives them an option to play shortstop over the struggling Anthony Volpe or at least gives them one of the best basestealers in the game.
But the Yankees didn’t get Eugenio Suarez or Jhoan Duran or a starting pitcher.
Bottom line: This was hardly the Death Star approach we always expect from the Yankees — but, really, they haven’t operated like that in a long time. Their biggest deadline moves in recent years were Jazz Chisholm Jr. last year and Andrew Benintendi in 2022. Don’t remind Yankees fans of Joey Gallo in 2021. They have dramatically improved their depth and versatility, so we’ll call them winners, but did they do enough to chase down the Toronto Blue Jays in the division?
What a sad, brutal day to be a Twins fan. Gone this deadline period: Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, Brock Stewart and Chris Paddack. That’s nine players off the 26-man roster, including the backend of a championship-caliber bullpen. At least they kept Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton.
Sure, some of those guys — Bader and Castro in particular — were heading to free agency. It’s more the messaging here: We’re cheap and we don’t care about winning. Was that likely this season? Probably not, as the Twins are 5½ games out of the wild-card race. But it wasn’t an impossible idea. One hot streak and they’re right back in it. Is it likely next year? Probably not now. The Twins will need to build an entire bullpen from scratch, for starters. They have one legitimate star position player in Buxton and he has trouble staying healthy.
Did they do well in the trades? Time will tell, but it’s not like they loaded up on top-100 prospects or anything like that. Catcher Eduardo Tait is the most interesting prospect they got, but he’s an 18-year-old in High-A and likely years away from making an impact. It’s possible the Twins — if they spend some of the savings on trading Correa’s contract — can reallocate their resources to build a more competitive, well-rounded team. It’s also possible, with the team for sale, that the Twins are entering a Rays- or Pirates-like era of frugality, pocketing more profits while the losses pile up.
This Twins era began with a 101-win team in 2019. They signed Correa in 2022, but the Correa era will have produced just one playoff season in four years. It might be a few years before the Twins are even thinking of the playoffs again. Twins fans can only hope that assessment is wrong.
Other losers
The Cubs weren’t inactive — they added third baseman/utilityman Willi Castro and a couple marginal pitchers in Michael Soroka and Andrew Kittredge — but it was a surprisingly non-aggressive deadline for a team battling the Brewers for the National League Central title. No Eugenio Suarez. No impact starting pitcher like Merrill Kelly. None of the impact relievers who exchanged teams. The Cubs have a pretty good farm system, so had the resources to make a trade for one of those players, but erred on the side of caution. We’ll see if that costs them a division title or haunts them in October.
The Red Sox added pitchers Dustin May and Steven Matz. Meh. May had a 4.85 ERA while starting for the Dodgers. Matz had a 3.44 ERA pitching in relief for the St. Louis Cardinals. Both have some utility — May gives them a rotation option and Matz has been a multi-inning reliever — but don’t really alter Boston’s playoff odds, especially factoring in the moves the Yankees and Blue Jays made or even the Tampa Bay Rays adding a couple higher-impact pitchers in Adrian Houser and Griffin Jax.
The Red Sox could have traded for a first baseman or gotten creative and dealt from their logjam of outfielders. It’s understandable why they didn’t want to do that now, given they’ve gone 17-7 in July. Why mess with that momentum? Still, a better starting pitcher than May or an impact reliever would have helped.
We applaud the Reds for making a couple of deals — after all, they haven’t made the playoffs in a full season since 2013 — but Ke’Bryan Hayes and Zack Littell are odd fits. As my colleague Brad Doolittle wrote, Hayes is a terrific defensive third baseman but hits like a 1970s shortstop (he has the lowest slugging percentage of any player with 600 plate appearances over the past two seasons). The Reds will try Noelvi Marte in right field to clear space for Hayes, but given that Marte had zero experience in the outfield until 11 days ago, the gains Hayes provides on defense might be offset by Marte in right field. Yes, this can be viewed as a long-term deal as much as a win-now move since Hayes is signed through 2029, but once his defense slips even a little, he’ll be unplayable.
Littell is a strange acquisition as well since the rotation has been a strength for the Reds and his home run tendencies — he leads the majors in homers allowed — are an especially bad fit for the cozy confines of Great American Ballpark. He’s allowed just 21 walks in 22 starts, so at least the plus-plus command eliminates some of the damage of the home runs. But Littell doesn’t look like an upgrade over what the Reds already have and, unlike Hayes, he’s a free agent after the season.
The Tigers were busy adding pitching at the deadline — with starters Chris Paddack and Charlie Morton and relievers Kyle Finnegan, Paul Sewald, Rafael Montero and Codi Heuer — but that group doesn’t do much to address the bullpen problems that have plagued the Tigers for two months and Paddack or Morton merely replaces the injured Reese Olson without providing an upgrade.
Granted, with a comfortable nine-game lead in the AL Central and their division rivals not doing anything to improve, the Tigers weren’t under any intense pressure to improve. Still, in a season where the AL is so wide open, it was a disappointingly conservative approach to the trade deadline, especially since Detroit has one of the top farm systems in the majors. The Tigers didn’t have to trade Kevin McGonigle or Max Clark or Bryce Rainer to get better, but they should have at least added an impact reliever.
The Brewers are hardly losers in the big picture, as this is arguably the best team in baseball, and you can argue they already made their two big additions with the return of Brandon Woodruff a couple weeks ago and the June call-up of flame-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski. It’s also true that their needs — a power bat for the lineup — didn’t match what was available, although Eugenio Suarez would have been a nice addition.
They did get reliever Shelby Miller from the D-backs, who is having a good year, but the Brewers already had one of the best bullpens in the majors. And if Andrew Vaughn keeps hitting, they’ll be OK at first base — though, he was terrible for the Chicago White Sox prior to the Brewers getting him for a song. Ryan O’Hearn would also have been a nice addition, capable of playing first base or the outfield and improving the bench, but he was dealt to the San Diego Padres. The Brewers are battling the Cubs for the division title — and avoiding that wild-card series will be huge. We’ll see if the Brewers can do that without making any major deals.
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Over/under predictions for MLB stars: What will Judge’s WAR be? 61 homers for Raleigh? How many K’s for Skubal?
Published
3 hours agoon
August 25, 2025By
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We’re just over three-quarters of the way into the 2025 MLB season, and some stars are on pace for some amazing final numbers.
Cal Raleigh is making history with every swing of the bat — hitting his 49th homer Sunday to break Salvador Perez‘s record for most home runs in a season by a catcher. Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani are also showing why they are considered the premier sluggers in the sport. And aces Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes are putting up incredible numbers.
We asked our MLB experts to decide which of these players will keep up their current paces — and which are due to slow down during the stretch run.
Cal Raleigh is on pace for 61 homers. Will he go over/under that total?
Jeff Passan: Under 61, but not by much. The Seattle Mariners have 31 games remaining. Raleigh has had two distinct 31-game spans this year in which he has hit at least a dozen home runs — the number he needs to get to 61 — so it’s possible. Now that he has passed Salvador Perez for the most in a season by a catcher, Raleigh can target the Mariners’ franchise record of 56 set by Ken Griffey Jr. in 1997.
David Schoenfield: His pace has slowed since the All-Star break — which isn’t surprising because he was on a 64-homer pace at the time. He has had just one day off since the break, and the strikeouts have piled up in August, including a five-strikeout game and several three-strikeout games. Is Raleigh finally getting worn down from playing nearly every game? In other words: Under 61.
Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani are on pace for 55-plus home runs. Who will win the National League home run crown, and with how many?
Jesse Rogers: Schwarber will win the home run title, hitting 56 this season. He has historically slugged well in September and this year will be no exception. In his career, he has produced his second-highest slugging percentage (.521) in September, trailing only June. Ohtani is also good late in the year, but this is turning into a very special season for the Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter. He’s slugging .577 against left-handed pitching, which will translate into a couple more homers off lefties in September and be the difference in the home run race.
Buster Olney: Schwarber will win the title, but he’ll reach 59. He has figured out how to hit left-handers — stand in the box, take the HBPs and square up everything — and has absurdly even splits, with a .946 OPS against right-handers and .943 against lefties. And as strong as he has been this season, he’s just getting warmed up, with 20 homers in his past 45 games.
Aaron Judge leads the majors with 7.3 WAR. What will his final total be?
Jorge Castillo: Judge has quietly gone cold — by his standards — after the All-Star break, with a .193/.346/.398 slash line and five home runs in 24 games. He has insisted his flexor strain, which cost him 10 games on the injured list, isn’t affecting him, but it’s easy to wonder if the dropoff and injury are related. Chances are, Judge won’t play right field every day for the New York Yankees when he’s cleared to return to the field, so that would limit his WAR potential. Let’s go with 8.7 as the final number.
Bradford Doolittle: That 7.3 figure is the Fangraphs’ version of WAR, and its projected pace tool has him landing at 9.1. He’ll have to stay off the IL to hit that, and the pace doesn’t reflect that he might have to DH more often than not. That costs him positional value and the chance to add to his fielding value. He has also looked rusty since coming off his last IL stay. So, considering all of that, I’ll say Fangraphs’ pace is a tad optimistic and I’ll go with 8.9 for the final number … which is pretty good.
Nick Kurtz has an OPS of 1.026. Will he end the season as the rare rookie with an OPS over 1.000?
Doolittle: This could go either way. Of 497 players with at least 75 plate appearances, Kurtz is one of just five with an OPS over 1.000. It’s encouraging that his number isn’t inflated by his homer rate; he can hit. If you remove homers from everyone’s record, the Athletics’ first baseman still has a top-25 OPS.
Another good sign is that he has shown no home-road split. He just hits everywhere he goes except … when a lefty is on the mound. Conquering southpaws is Kurtz’s last frontier. Of the Athletics’ 11 remaining opponents (including Boston and Garrett Crochet twice), all of them rank in the top half in terms of batters faced by lefty starters. I’m guessing Kurtz’s Rookie of the Year season won’t feature an OPS over 1.000.
Schoenfield: Rare is an understatement. The only qualifying rookies since World War II with a 1.000 OPS were Albert Pujols and Aaron Judge. Kurtz should reach the 502 plate appearances needed to qualify and, yes, he’ll finish with a 1.000 OPS. How? His OBP is over .500 (!) in the second half as his walk rate continues to climb and pitchers increasingly pitch carefully to him. Kurtz is not just going to be one of the best hitters in the game — he already is.
Tarik Skubal is on pace for 247 strikeouts. Will he reach the mark?
Passan: Yes. Skubal is at 200 strikeouts through 25 starts. He has at least six starts remaining — possibly seven if the schedule lines up properly — and he has historically improved toward the end of the season. His September strikeout rate is his second highest of any month, and as he looks to become the first back-to-back American League Cy Young winner since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000, finishing with a flourish will be paramount.
Rogers: Yes — but barely. There’s a world in which the Detroit Tigers clinch their division so early that they back off Skubal’s innings a tad over his final few starts, right? Then again, he’s bound to have a few outings totaling more than the eight strikeouts he averages per start. That would get him to the 250 mark by late in the month. And the Tigers are likely to have a first-round bye in the postseason — meaning Skubal can let it fly in September, knowing he’ll have a week off before taking the ball in Game 1 of the division round.
Paul Skenes leads the majors with a 2.07 ERA. Will his final mark be higher or lower?
Olney: I will say lower because it only makes sense for the Pittsburgh Pirates to give him as much rest as possible for the rest of the season. Pittsburgh isn’t playing for anything, but Skenes has a shot to win the National League Cy Young Award — and you’d assume that the Pirates will do everything they can to make that happen. He’ll close the season somewhere around 180 innings.
Castillo: A smidge over for two reasons: 2.07 is such a low number, and Skenes hasn’t been as sharp recently. The right-hander has given up 10 runs in five starts in August, good for a 3.21 ERA over 28 innings — with his most recent start on Sunday his best of the month, seven innings of three-hit ball. As Buster wrote, the Pirates will likely limit his workload down the stretch, so a significant increase won’t happen.
Freddy Peralta is at 15 wins. Will he be the first 20-game winner since 2023?
Doolittle: With Peralta failing to get win No. 16 on Saturday, he’s looking at an uphill battle. The Milwaukee Brewers might wrap up the top seed early-ish, so they wouldn’t be pushing Peralta during the final week. But let’s say he gets six more starts. He’s earning wins at a rate of .556 per start, so that’s 3.3 over six starts. Not enough! Peralta needs to win five of those last six starts, or all five if he gets only five more chances. I think he’ll get 19 wins. The 20-game winner drought will continue.
Schoenfield: I’ll say yes. Though we always complain about the lack of 20-game winners, we had one in 2023, one in 2022, one in 2021, two in 2019, two in 2018, three in 2016, two in 2015 and three in 2014. Yes, it’s becoming rarer, but we usually get at least one. So here’s hoping Peralta is the one.
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‘His kids were getting messed with at school’: How Ryan Day handles the pressures at Ohio State
Published
3 hours agoon
August 25, 2025By
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Jake TrotterAug 25, 2025, 08:30 AM ET
Close- Jake Trotter is a senior writer at ESPN. Trotter covers college football. He also writes about other college sports, including men’s and women’s basketball. Trotter resides in the Cleveland area with his wife and three kids and is a fan of his hometown Oklahoma City Thunder. He covered the Cleveland Browns and NFL for ESPN for five years, moving back to college football in 2024. Previously, Trotter worked for the Middletown (Ohio) Journal, Austin American-Statesman and Oklahoman newspapers before joining ESPN in 2011. He’s a 2004 graduate of Washington and Lee University. You can reach out to Trotter at jake.trotter@espn.com and follow him on X at @Jake_Trotter.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State coach Ryan Day leans back into the leather couch in his office, days away from the season-opening showdown against top-ranked Texas.
Behind him, the Rose and Cotton Bowl trophies from last year’s playoff run gleam on a shelf. Across the room, a black-and-white photograph captures Jeremiah Smith‘s game-clinching grab against Notre Dame — the play that sealed the Buckeyes’ first national championship in a decade.
That thrilling victory vaulted Day into exclusive company: only two other active college football head coaches — Clemson‘s Dabo Swinney and Georgia‘s Kirby Smart — have won national titles.
“We’ve won a lot of games, but when you haven’t won the whole thing, you don’t necessarily get the benefit of the doubt with everybody,” says Day, who took over for Urban Meyer in 2019 after just two seasons on his staff. “You’ll never get the benefit of the doubt with everybody, I guess. But winning one certainly gives a lot of credibility to what we’re doing.”
Nine months earlier, Day faced the fiercest scrutiny of his career — the result of a fourth straight loss to Michigan. As the final seconds ticked away in the 13-10 defeat at the Horseshoe, Ohio State students chanted “F— Ryan Day.”
The jeers escalated into death threats. Armed guards had to be stationed at the Day home, as they had been after past Michigan losses. Day’s wife, Nina, even received threatening text messages and calls on her phone.
“Fans were yelling at his wife in stores, his kids were getting messed with at school,” said 2024 Buckeyes captain Jack Sawyer, who’s now a defensive end for the Pittsburgh Steelers. “The things that he and his family had to go through were just absurd — it’s just insanity.”
But Day and his family remained resolute. So did the Buckeyes, who came together during a pivotal three-hour meeting a couple of days later with just Day and the players.
It began with screaming and tears. It ended with everyone clasping hands in prayer.
“It got real in there,” said then-quarterback Will Howard, also with the Steelers. “But it made us closer — and turned us into a different animal when the playoffs came.”
The Buckeyes bounced back with a fury. They destroyed Tennessee 42-17 at home in the College Football Playoff first round, then annihilated undefeated Oregon at the Rose Bowl 41-21, avenging their only other loss during the regular season.
Sawyer’s fourth-quarter strip-sack and score clinched the Cotton Bowl win over Texas, setting up Smith’s heroics against the Fighting Irish in Atlanta.
As confetti fell upon the championship presentation stage, Day hoisted the trophy and roared, letting the emotion pour out of him.
“Take all the components of what you’d want in a head coach — and Coach Day has all of that,” said Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork. “Maybe it took the national championship for people to really see it. But deep down, I think now people realize we’ve got the right guy.”
BEFORE LAST YEAR’S Michigan game, Day said that aside from his father’s suicide when he was 8 years old, losing to the Wolverines was “for my family, the worst thing that’s happened.”
When the New Hampshire native arrived in Ohio in 2017, he was an outsider to the rivalry. Now, Day feels the fervor that consumes the fan base.
“This is a big chunk of our life — we’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this place,” said Day, noting his kids have grown up in Ohio. “There’s a lot of weight with this job and a lot of people counting on you to do this job because of what the Block O means. You’ve got to have a thick neck and be able to handle it.”
That was put to the test last November when Michigan stunned the Buckeyes as nearly three-touchdown underdogs — one of the rivalry’s biggest upsets. Afterward, the Wolverines planted their flag on the Block O at midfield and a brawl erupted between the two teams. Police ended it with pepper spray.
“When you lose, and when you lose certainly that game, it hurts — it hurts nobody more than me and my family, trust me,” Day said. “It’s our life. And we understand what comes with it — the anger, the frustration for everybody. It’s real because the passion is so strong.”
In the aftermath, Day was so sickened he could barely eat. Bjork called to reassure Day that he and the administration had his back. Sawyer, Day’s first verbal commitment in 2019 and a Columbus product, also called to say he was sorry for what Day was going through.
“He cut me off: ‘I’m a grown man, I can handle this stuff — this is what comes with the job,'” Sawyer recalled Day telling him. “He’s one of the most resilient, toughest people I’ve ever met in my life — and they’ve got one of the toughest families that I’ve ever been around.”
Day said he gave himself one day to wallow. But he couldn’t let his family or players see him feeling sorry for himself. He told his three kids — R.J., a star quarterback at St. Francis DeSales, and daughters Grace and Nia — that school in the coming days wouldn’t be easy: “‘You’re going to have to be tough — and you’re going to find out who your true friends are,'” he said.
As the Buckeyes reconvened at the Woody Hayes facility to prepare for Tennessee as the No. 8 seed, the players called a closed-door meeting. They invited Day — no assistants.
Sawyer spoke first; Howard, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson and linebacker Cody Simon followed.
Players critiqued the playcalling, the schemes and individual players and coaches. They called out the entire offensive line, which, down starters Josh Simmons and Seth McLaughlin, had gotten dominated by the Wolverines.
“Guys are fighting, guys are in tears, Coach Day’s getting challenged, he’s challenging guys. You could’ve cut the intensity with a knife,” Sawyer said. “But it was the most special meeting I’ve ever been a part of.”
The first half hour was heated, but eventually, everyone — Day included — took accountability for the Michigan loss. They concluded with prayer and a collective objective — go win it all.
“It was a great lesson,” Day said. “When things aren’t right, you’ve got to have honest conversations — even if it’s uncomfortable.”
WHEN THE BUCKEYES took the field to face Tennessee, they saw swaths of orange coating the Horseshoe. Still disgusted with the Michigan defeat, many Ohio State fans sold their tickets and thousands of Tennessee faithful gobbled them up.
“Our backs were against the wall,” Day said. “When you came out of the tunnel and saw the crowd, you could feel it.”
Day and Howard briefly considered using a silent snap count to combat the visiting crowd noise before opting against it.
The Buckeyes were unfazed — and quickly dispelled any predictions of a Michigan hangover. Ohio State scored touchdowns on its first three drives. By the third quarter, the orange swaths had thinned into empty seats.
“We knew this was our last chance to make things right for us, for Coach Day,” Howard said. “And we all rallied around him.”
Before Oregon, Day showed the team a clip of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant looking angry in a news conference after going up 2-0 in the 2009 NBA Finals.
“What’s there to be happy about?” Bryant famously said. “Job’s not finished.”
The Buckeyes played that way in Pasadena.
The Ducks couldn’t cover Smith and almost every pass Howard threw was on point. Ohio State’s revamped offensive line — overpowered by Michigan and maligned in the team meeting — paved the way for the running game.
The Buckeyes led 34-0 in the second quarter.
“Things were moving in slow motion for us,” Day said. “The buy-in was right, the mojo was right, the tempo was right — we were hitting on all cylinders.”
Even in that moment, Day wasn’t satisfied. On the field after the win, Bjork tried to hand Day a long-stemmed rose to commemorate the memorable victory. Day turned it down.
“He said, ‘I’m not taking that,'” Bjork recalled. “‘We still got two games left.'”
Back in Columbus, the Buckeyes were going over the game plan for Texas when Day paused the conversation.
“I’ve never had so much fun coaching a group of guys — and I’ve never loved a group of guys as much as you guys,'” Sawyer recalled Day telling them.
On Jan. 20 — the anniversary of his father’s death — Day joined Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel and Meyer as the Ohio State coaches to win national championships. When he reflects on that title now, Day thinks first of his players — and the generations of Buckeyes fans who got to experience the run together.
“I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said, ‘I watched that last game with my grandfather before he passed away,’ or ‘My son and I went through an ice storm to get to Dallas to watch Jack run the ball back,’ or ‘We were out at the Rose Bowl and it’s one of the greatest first halves I’ve ever seen,’ or ‘We were in the stadium for the first half against Tennessee and it was one of the best memories I’ve ever had,'” Day said, before reeling off other similar stories. “That’s what this is all about. … That’s the responsibility here. And it’s bigger than any one of us.”
LEANING FORWARD FROM his office couch, Day notes that his biggest fear isn’t losing games — it’s losing the opportunity to impact players.
“That’s the No. 1 goal and focus,” he said. “And you have to win in order to continue doing that. It’s not about the championships, as much as so many people want to focus on that — that’s just the prerequisite.”
This offseason, he had his players read “Chop Wood, Carry Water,” which teaches that big successes stem from a commitment to completing a series of simple, mundane tasks.
The Buckeyes face a big task Saturday. The Longhorns are hungry for revenge after Ohio State ended their last postseason run.
Day knows better than anyone the Buckeyes can’t bask in their national title.
“We lose the first [game],” he said, “and we’re going to be hearing about it real fast. … That’s the way it goes here — more here than anywhere else.”
Day welcomes it. He also welcomes the pressure that comes with the Michigan game. Through four straight losses, he sees an “unbelievable opportunity” ahead.
“That’s it, man,” he said with a big smile. “Gotta go win that game — and I can’t wait to play it.”

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Jake TrotterAug 24, 2025, 08:58 PM ET
Close- Jake Trotter is a senior writer at ESPN. Trotter covers college football. He also writes about other college sports, including men’s and women’s basketball. Trotter resides in the Cleveland area with his wife and three kids and is a fan of his hometown Oklahoma City Thunder. He covered the Cleveland Browns and NFL for ESPN for five years, moving back to college football in 2024. Previously, Trotter worked for the Middletown (Ohio) Journal, Austin American-Statesman and Oklahoman newspapers before joining ESPN in 2011. He’s a 2004 graduate of Washington and Lee University. You can reach out to Trotter at jake.trotter@espn.com and follow him on X at @Jake_Trotter.
True freshman Bryce Underwood is expected to be named Michigan‘s starting quarterback, a source confirmed to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
The other Michigan quarterbacks were informed Sunday that Underwood will start, a source said.
Underwood was ESPN’s No. 1 overall recruit in this year’s signing class, flipping his commitment from LSU to Michigan last November.
Underwood, from nearby Belleville, Michigan, beat out Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for the job. Davis Warren is still recovering from the torn ACL in his right knee that he suffered in last season’s bowl win.
The 6-foot-4, 228-pound Underwood won two state championships with Belleville and won 38 straight games in high school.
“He’s grown every single day he’s been on campus,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said during Big Ten media days. “And he does everything the right way.”
The No. 14 Wolverines open the season Saturday against New Mexico before traveling to Oklahoma on Sept. 6 to face the No. 18 Sooners.
CBS Sports first reported that Underwood would be named the starter, which could come in an official announcement as soon as Monday.
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