Ohio State trying to use 2021's loss at Michigan as motivation

"The Game" as it's known, is truly going to live up to its name this season. Both the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines are College Football Playoff teams ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, heading into this contest.

The winner will capture an undefeated season, a spot in the Big Ten championship and likely a no-doubt spot in the playoff. The loser, thanks to the Big Ten's rather weak stature this season, will likely find itself on the outside looking in.

Nobody wants to be in that spot, but Ohio State, fueled by last season's 42-27 loss to the Wolverines in Ann Arbor, desperately wants to avoid a repeat.

The Buckeyes want to avoid more emotional scars from a loss to Michigan.

"I think you're shaped by whatever's happened in your past, and we have scars and it motivated us all offseason," OSU head coach Ryan Day said, per ESPN's Tom VanHaaren. He was specifically talking about last season's loss to Michigan. "So we've worked very hard to get to this moment right here, and now it's time to go to go prepare the best we can and that's what we're going to focus on physically, mentally and emotionally to go play the hardest game we've ever played. And we'll find out where we're at on Saturday."

This will be the 12th time both of these rivals meet as top-five programs. They're meeting for the first time as undefeated squads since 2006.

There's certainly no love lost between the Buckeyes and the Wolverines. It's considered one of the best rivalries in all of sports, not just college football, for a reason. These are two programs that don't just dislike each other. There's legitimate hate there between the teams and fans.

With that said, Day appears to not want his team to feed into that hype monster ahead of "The Game". He clearly wants his team to be focused on the action between the white lines, and that's the action that will lead one of either Michigan or Ohio State to the Big Ten Championship and an almost guaranteed spot in the CFP.

"There's a time and a place to talk about that, and it's not now," Day said of the animosity between the two schools.

What Day does want his team focused on? He wants them to do everything they can to avoid another heartbreak.

"Our guys know they felt the pain last year and let it simmer," Day said. "And we had to chew on that for a whole year, and it's a long time. So we'll see the corrections we made, we'll see about the growth that we've made and find out who we are on Saturday."