There are bad losses, there are terrible losses, and then there is what happened to Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday against Michigan.
Ohio State entered as 23.5-point favorites against their hated arch-rival on Saturday and everyone in the universe expected the Buckeyes to end their three-game losing streak against the Wolverines. Ohio State was ranked at #2 in the country and Michigan was unranked barely above .500. Ohio State had one of the biggest talent advantages in rivalry history against a badly weakened Michigan team and had all the motivation in the world that they would finally set the rivalry back on the trajectory laid out by Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer.
Instead, Ryan Day is following the path of John Cooper in winning pretty much every game except the important ones. And Saturday’s defeat against a struggling Michigan team was one of the worst losses in the 130-year history of Ohio State football.
The Buckeyes lost 13-10 in a game where their high-powered offense was chained up by a gameplan so bad that it looked like Jim Harbaugh drew it up to help the Wolverines. Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly persisted in running the ball up the middle at Michigan’s lone strength and Ohio State’s biggest weakness. The inability to win a game against a quarterback who threw for 62 yards and 2 INTs will take generations to figure out.
But what has been ascertained fairly quickly is that Ryan Day is on the hottest seat in sports right now.
It’s hard to imagine a coach looking worse than Ryan Day did on Saturday. Not only did he freeze when it came to playing Michigan, he froze during the postgame fight as well. The image of Ryan Day staring blankly into space asking “what happened” as chaos unfolded around him painted the picture of someone incapable of leading, well, anything.
“What happened?” pic.twitter.com/gd4JYB75W7
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) November 30, 2024
And the media has pounced on the Ohio State head coach, with SEC Network host and analyst Paul Finebaum leading the charge.
On Matt Barrie’s podcast, Paul Finebaum slammed Day for his “idiotic” quote after the game talking about Ohio State players defending their field from Michigan planting a flag, one of several rivalry related fracases on Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoVycUyoB68
“This is a whole another special show on planting the flag, but Ryan Day comes up with this idiotic statement about, ‘we’re not going to let them do that to our field,’ try to beat them first Ryan! You won’t have to worry about that,” Finebaum said.
On Get Up on Tuesday morning, Finebaum and Heather Dinich both agreed that Day needed a deep College Football Playoff run to stave off those calling for his head with Finebaum going as far as to say that Day should be let go regardless.
.@CFBHeather and @finebaum both think Ryan Day needs a deep playoff run to keep his job 😳 pic.twitter.com/oPtvTnb3gQ
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) December 3, 2024
“First-round knockout, I’d fire him on the field before he gets to midfield. I still think he probably ought to go. This guy has been a very good coach, he’s 66-10. But when you lose to your rival every single year four straight, we’re talking about three revenge games, and the result happens especially this year, it’s time to start packing,” Finebaum said.
Finebaum may be one of the most visible voices saying this, but he’s far from alone. Day may be a popular figure off the field in Columbus for his charitable work, but losing this game to Michigan has opened up a canyon of criticism with every single one of his shortfalls being thrown at him. There is his 1-4 record against Michigan, his struggle to win big games and falling short in the playoffs, his lack of head coaching experience before coming to OSU, his roster and staff management, and the belief that Jim Harbaugh’s famous “third base” comments broke him.
Sure, Ohio State is still the fourth favorite at DraftKings in betting for the national championship, but it’s hard to envision that kind of turnaround after what we witnessed last weekend.
The 12-team expanded College Football Playoff has plenty of wide-reaching ramifications, but one of them could just be a lifeline that gives Ryan Day one last chance to save his job at Ohio State. But the truth is that a national championship victory wouldn’t even be good enough for many in Buckeye Nation or around the country.
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