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Thursday, July 25, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS
Little change in approach for OSU’s Day against Michigan
CHICAGO — If it ain’t broke,
don’t fix it. That seems to be the
mantra for first year Ohio State
coach Ryan Day.
Day takes the reigns from
Urban Meyer, who after seven
years as the Buckeyes’ head
coach
won
three
conference
championships and the national
championship in 2014. Not to
mention Meyer also finished
with a perfect 7-0 record against
Michigan throughout his tenure
— big shoes to fill for Day as he
steps into his first season as a
head coach.
But Day spent the last two
seasons with the Buckeyes as
the offensive coordinator, and
a sense of continuity may be a
key for the program’s continued
success.
“You’re talking about one of
the most successful coaches in
the history of the game,” Day
said. “I try not to focus on what
I might change and things like
that because we’ve kept so many
things in place.”
And as for a change in approach
to the rivalry game against the
Wolverines?
“No,” Day said. “It worked. It
worked just fine.”
Michigan’s
national
championship aspirations were
halted by Ohio State in the final
regular season game in two of the
past three years. The inability
to defeat the Buckeyes has been
one of the biggest criticisms of
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
throughout his four years at the
helm. For Ohio State, it has been
a badge of pride.
“I think the thing I learned
from Urban (Meyer) the minute
I got there is that you work the
game every day,” Day said. “And
the way to honor and respect the
rivalry is to work it every day.
And we do. It’s a part of what
we do whether it’s recruiting, or
we have periods where we have
in practice where we call it the
‘team up north’ drill. So, we live
it every day. It’s something that
we always have in the back of our
minds.”
Day and Ohio State have
their work cut out for them if
they hope to continue the trend
against Michigan. Departing is
quarterback
Dwayne
Haskins
along with four of its five
starting offensive linemen from
last season — dissimilar to the
Wolverines who have experience
and
depth
at
the
starting
offensive line position along with
quarterback Shea Patterson who
will begin his second season with
Michigan.
By the time that the two rivals
face off to end the regular season,
Day hopes that inexperience will
no longer be a factor.
“I think that by the time you
get to that point, you’re really
not young anymore,” Day said. “I
think you have experience, like
Chris Olave is great example, he
was young as a freshman in that
game and then he went on to block
a punt and score two touchdowns
in the rivalry game and then in
the Big Ten Championship Game.
So, I think when you get to that
game, by then, youth really isn’t a
factor anymore.”
When Day lines up across
Harbaugh for the first time,
the Buckeyes will hope to see
continued
success
while
the
Wolverines hope that it was
Meyer that was the bane to
Michigan’s success.
JORGE CAZARES
Summer Managing Sports Editor
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer is leaving the program after seven seasons.
Rosen and Smith: New team, new country and a new challenge
Twenty
hours
before
the
plane
containing
delegates
representing 11 different Big Ten
volleyball teams touched down
onto foreign soil, all the players
met up for a brief practice.
It
was
in
Chicago,
where they spent 45 minutes
familiarizing themselves with
one another before flying to
Japan for the 2019 Big Ten
volleyball Foreign Tour.
And then they headed
off,
concluding
their
brief
introduction.
***
Natalie
Smith
spent
the majority of her first two
years at Michigan as a defensive
specialist.
After
all,
career-
starter libero Jenna Lerg did her
job, and did it well. There was
no need for a different player to
get reps at the position during
her tenure. But upon Lerg’s
graduation, the spot opened up,
and Smith rose to the occasion.
During
the
spring
season,
Smith
was
the
Wolverines’ primary libero, but
even so, her reps were limited.
There were only seven games
over the course of a month. So the
trip to Japan to face high-caliber
teams — college and professional
— proved valuable for a player
getting adjusted to a new role.
“You know, it was a really
good opportunity for her,” said
Michigan coach Mark Rosen.
“Being a younger libero, trying
to step in and trying to take over
for Jenna, and that role, that’s a
big shoe to fill. I thought it was
a great extra opportunity for
her, another two weeks to play
volleyball, another opportunity
to be in that role.”
The
opportunity
wasn’t
without its challenges. There was
only one libero spot, and Penn
State’s Jenna Hampton eyed it
accordingly. In the end, after
competing for it, Smith earned
the role and Hampton became
the designed defensive specialist.
What stood out to Rosen
that made Smith qualified for
the position was her skill as a
first-touch passer and — taking
from previous role as defensive
specialist — her defense.
“She ended up playing libero
in pretty much every match,”
Rosen said. “And the other played
(defensive specialist) and part
of that is because she passed
consistently, she defended really
consistently,
and
she
played
really well.”
It was a role she had to
transition over to, but as the team
ironed out the growing pains
of playing with new faces, she
learned the nooks and crannies
of the position.
Whereas Smith will debut in
the fall as Michigan’s primary
starting
libero
for
the
first
time, this isn’t Mark Rosen’s
first rodeo. Having been a head
coach for 27 years total, 20
with the Wolverines, Rosen’s
acquired an array of knowledge
at the position. He’s even coached
similar USA teams, but to him,
the tour was “a very unique
experience.”
“You’re coaching players that
you’ve actually coached against,
so that’s a weird dynamic.”
Despite
going
into
each
season preparing Michigan for
the strength of the opposition,
having the same players you work
so hard to exploit now under
your tutelage and having to
make a team like that mesh was
a completely different ball park.
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Editor
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan coach Mark Rosen tackles new challenge in Big Ten foreign tour.
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