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If Ohio State wins the natty, should Ryan Day tell the Buckeyes and their fans to take this job and shove it?
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Herbie was right.
Just not about the point he was trying to make.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbsteit was advocating for Alabama to get into the College Football Playoff instead of SMU or Indiana when he proclaimed that winning isn’t as important as who those wins come against.
The negative pushback was well deserved. And almost universal.
One of the few who agreed with Herbstreit’s controversial statement was the coach at his alma mater.
The Ohio State.
It’s not that Ryan Day was partial to the Crimson Tide or had a problem with the Mustangs or Hoosiers getting at-large bids into the 12-team field instead of the perennial SEC power. He could simply attest first-hand that not all wins, or losses, are created equal.
Day was a young assistant with no head coaching experience when he took over as acting coach when Urban Meyer was put on administrative leave for an off-the-field issue to start the 2018 season. Day did such a good job in going 3-0 that he was given the job on a full-time basis when Meyer retired later that year.
Since then, the former offensive coordinator has won a pair of Big Ten championships, made 4 Playoff appearances in his 6 seasons and has his current team 2 victories from a national title. His career .872 winning percentage (68-10) is better than Nick Saban (.806), Bear Bryant (.780), Woody Hayes (.761) and even his former boss Meyer (.854).
That’s a degree of success usually rewarded with a lifetime contract and a statue outside the stadium.
And yet in Day’s case, there’s a general feeling – and not just among the lunatic fringe Herbstreit labeled “the 15-percenters that get mad at anything” – that he’ll be out of a job if the Buckeyes don’t win it all. First, they have to beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Friday. Then raise a national championship banner by taking down Notre Dame or Penn State on Jan. 20.
It’s not that the folks in Columbus are that spoiled. Or that Day is that unlikeable. His only noticeable shortcoming is that he can’t seem to beat Michigan. Of his 10 career defeats, 4 are to the Buckeyes’ hated arch-rival.
He won his first meeting against the Wolverines in 2019. But after the 2020 game was canceled because of COVID, he has lost 4 straight. Including a dismal 13-10 upset as a 19.5-point favorite on Nov. 30 that knocked the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Championship Game, cost them an opening-round Playoff bye and stoked the “Fire Ryan Day” flames to a new height.
As it turns out, the disappointment of Michigan and the game plan that brought it about could end up being the spark that launched Day and his team to their greatest success.
It forced Day and his offensive coordinator Chip Kelly to scrap the conservative “we’re tougher than you on the line of scrimmage” approach that failed miserably against the Wolverines and start feeding their playmakers – especially unicorn wide receiver Jeremiah Smith – downfield.
The new approach has produced lopsided Playoff victories against Tennessee and top-seeded Oregon, games in which Ohio State has scored better than 40 points per game while averaging 486 yards of total offense. Including 319 through the air.
The impressive performances have, at least momentarily, quieted Day’s legion of detractors.
So what happens if he brings home the natty?
Is all forgiven? Should it be forgiven?
Or should he remember all those who disparage him on social media and have made threats toward him and his family and in the immortal words of Johnny Paycheck tell the Buckeyes to take his job and shove it?
He’ll be the same coach that he was before he had a championship on his resume. The only difference is that he’ll have a lot more leverage. If the lunatic fringe, along with a lot of others in the mainstream at Ohio State want him fired, why not give them what they want by firing himself?
He’ll have the power to walk away, write his own ticket, and go anywhere he wants.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are looking for a new coach. So are the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints.
If Day isn’t interested in the NFL or the NFL in him, he can always spend a year in the broadcast booth at ESPN or Fox while waiting for Kalen DeBoer to get fired at Alabama or for another high-profile college job to open up this time next year.
Someplace where he’ll be more appreciated than he’s been in Columbus. And where they put up statues of coaches who win almost 90% of their games instead of trying to run them out of town.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
