How Ohio State managed losing sideline communications against Michigan

The Buckeyes had to go old school to get its plays in during the second half.

COLUMBUS — With about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter of Ohio State’s win against Michigan last Saturday, Fox broadcaster Joel Klatt noted that Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin was running to the sideline to get play calls. Klatt wondered if the coach-to-player communication speaker in Sayin’s helmet was broken.

It turns out that Ohio State’s entire coaching staff had lost communication with each other, and with Sayin.

“We lost communication in the second half,” head coach Ryan Day said Tuesday. “The good news was that, earlier that week, I had an inkling that it might happen. So we had a plan for it. We had a wristband plan, and then we would bring Julian over. That was getting us through it until we got the headsets back up and running, which took a little while to get done. Yeah, just by chance, we had a plan for it. We were ready to go when it happened.”