COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s an image that will remain in Ohio State lore for many years to come: Head coach Ryan Day, minutes after his No. 2 Buckeyes lost, inexplicably, to unranked Michigan 13-10, in a daze as players from both teams fought at midfield. He asked a player returning to the sideline, “What happened?”
It’s a big-picture question that will remain in lore, too. Day is 66-10 and has had four top-five finishes in the coaches poll in five seasons as Ohio State’s full-time head coach. Ohio State is one of three teams to finish in the AP top 10 each of the past five years, along with Alabama and Georgia. The Buckeyes have the second-best win percentage since 2019, behind Georgia. Day has put his team in the College Football Playoff three times since 2019; he’s made a New Year’s Six bowl his other seasons, and that streak will continue this year. It is a truly remarkable record.
Also, Ryan Day, your whole team is in the midst of a brawl, and you’re on the sideline asking “what happened?” Huh!?
Get your butt on the field and command your players go to the locker room.
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) November 30, 2024
But Day is 1-4 against Michigan and the loser of four in a row in The Game. And at this moment, it feels like the only ones who actually want him remaining in Columbus are Michigan fans.
Losing to Michigan multiple times? “It’s one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me in my life, quite honestly, other than losing my father and a few other things,” Day said earlier in the week during his coach’s show, before Saturday’s loss. “And for my family, (it’s) the worst thing that’s happened. So, we can never have that happen again. Ever.”
And on Saturday, it wasn’t just losing that stung (Day’s first loss to an unranked team). It was the worst Michigan team the Buckeyes had faced in more than a decade. It was a Wolverines team with an inept offense, and without its best players: tight end Colston Loveland and cornerback Will Johnson.
GO DEEPER
Meet 2024 Ohio State, the unhappiest Playoff team in college football history
The Buckeyes’ 10 points were their lowest output of the season. Their two elite tailbacks were unable to run the ball. Their special teams melted down. Their quarterback, Will Howard, threw two interceptions; quarterback play has been Day’s specialty and was what brought him to Columbus on Urban Meyer’s staff. Michigan, again, was the tougher team.
And then the damning postgame brawl erupted. Michigan players literally wanted to plant the Wolverines flag in the middle of The Shoe. Punches were thrown. Police got involved, pepper spraying those in and around the melee. And there was Day, frozen, instead of aggressively trying to settle things with his players. It was a horrible look at the end of a nightmarish day for the Buckeyes and especially Day.
It is impossible to truly know just what Day and his family have been dealing with, being on the wrong side of this rivalry and directly in the middle of it, suffocated by it.
Though Day seems to be having more fun behind the scenes this year than previously, people close to Day have talked privately about how emotionally hard this had been for his wife and young children. Coaches and their families often get the worst of being connected to proud programs with incredibly passionate fan bases. From what I’ve heard, this is all of that, times a million. And that was before Saturday’s disaster against Michigan — the most shocking outcome of a college football season of stunners.
Day, of course, is being compensated very well. He makes more than $10 million a year. Many, I’m sure, would love to have his problems. The Buckeyes have better resources than anyone in the sport; SEC blue bloods are in the same ballpark, but those half-dozen heavyweights are all jostling with each other. In the Big Ten, the Buckeyes stand alone. Michigan, Penn State and Oregon are not committed to football at the level Ohio State is. This year, after seeing how the Wolverines had surpassed Ohio State on the field under Jim Harbaugh, the Buckeyes pumped $20 million into the 2024 roster.
But against Michigan — a team that lost almost its entire offense and its defensive leaders, not to mention Harbaugh himself — Day’s team still couldn’t get the job done.
GO DEEPER
Ryan Day went all in on beating Michigan — except when it mattered most
The Buckeyes’ season is far from over, though they will be at home watching the Big Ten Championship Game next Saturday rather than playing in it. Ohio State will make the Playoff, given that the Buckeyes beat top-five Penn State in Happy Valley and blew out top-10 Indiana. This is still an extremely talented team.
Day is a really good coach, and I wouldn’t be shocked if the Buckeyes ended up winning the national title. (This is after believing that they would win it all this year; I am skeptical now.) Two years ago, Ohio State also had a crushing defeat against Michigan in Columbus. But it then almost beat Georgia in the Playoff, coming within a last-second field goal, which then would have set Ohio State up against an undermanned TCU team in the title game.
But this team feels much heavier. More gut punches at the hands of the Wolverines. More of the Buckeyes twisting themselves in knots. Stuck in a mind game they can’t seem to get out of. And if they don’t win the title this year, that seemingly excruciating pressure on Day will only get more suffocating.
Many are wondering if Ohio State would fire Day if the Buckeyes don’t win the title this year. Prominent alumni are loud about the Michigan losses and Ohio State hired a new athletic director this year. Day has a buyout of $38 million. Though Ohio State could figure out that sum, would it be justifiable just because he lost to Michigan again?
Moving on from Day would present its own challenges. Look around the sport and you’ll see a lot of big programs whose “home run” hires have fizzled out. Maybe Buckeyes great Mike Vrabel could be the answer. But would he want to become a college coach in this era of the sport? And if not him, then who?
A better question to me is this: If Day can’t rally the Buckeyes in the Playoff, does he still really want this job? Is it worth it to him and his young family now, given how hot the temperature is in Columbus?
At this point, it sure looks like it isn’t.
Read more:
(Photo: Aaron J. Thornton / Getty Images)
