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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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