Ryan Day holds all the cards, even as Ohio State fans fume that he can’t beat Michigan. Maybe, it’s time to let someone else try and or Day to reboot in the SEC.
Ryan Day winning the national championship at Ohio State and leaving the Buckeyes would be the ultimate power move.
Several premier SEC jobs employ coaches who face pivotal seasons in 2025. Hello, opportunity.
Why would he? Why should he?
At age 45, Day would be awfully young to retire from coaching, even if he’s spent the past few seasons operating under incomparable pressure as Ohio State’s coach who can’t give fans what they demand – victories against rival Michigan – even as he beats nearly everyone else.
Anyway, Day nears a career peak. Why quit now?
Ohio State’s posse closed in on Day six weeks ago after he suffered a fourth consecutive loss to Michigan –this one, the most inexplicable yet. While Ohio State fans and media pundits debated replacements for a job that wasn’t open, Tennessee fans bought up Buckeye seats for a first-round playoff game at the Horseshoe.
As the playoff began, Day began to stash aces up his sleeve. Ohio State pulverized Tennessee, then stomped undefeated Oregon. He’s two big wins away from holding all the cards.
“Every single week, a slate is wiped clean, and you have to start from scratch again,” Day said Thursday, one day before his team faces Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
That’s a productive mentality for a coach, but Buckeyes fans won’t erase their memories of Day’s shortcomings against Michigan.
Day enjoys the power here. If he wins the next two games, he’ll reach a career zenith, able to pursue other opportunities or, if he likes, stay at Ohio State.
Worst-case scenario, Ohio State loses to Texas, and its administration bows to fans who want Day out – I consider this unlikely, by the way – in which case Day would be owed a buyout in excess of $36 million.
If Day wins the national championship, how to play that hand? Maybe, he should get one step ahead of the posse.
I’m not talking retirement, nor a pivot to the NFL, where Day previously coached quarterbacks.
I’m thinking the SEC, a land of rich opportunity, no Michigan, and big-time jobs that threaten to open next season.
Ryan Day could leave Ohio State on top, reboot in the SEC
Yes siree, I’m serious.
Day should turn an eye toward the South, because even if he wins a national championship in less than two weeks, if he loses to Michigan next season, he’ll be back up to his neck in hot water.
Who needs that? Not Day.
No SEC jobs are open this offseason, but Day would need to wait only about nine months before a potential onslaught of premier jobs hit the market. He could step down at Ohio State after this season, enjoy a mental break, recharge his batteries and wait for his phone to ring. And, yes, it would ring. When you win more than 87% of the time, like Day has, you’re marketable.
Half the SEC’s coaches face pivotal seasons in 2025. That list includes Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, Florida’s Billy Napier, Auburn’s Hugh Freeze, LSU’s Brian Kelly and Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer.
Those are five big-boy jobs, worked by coaches entering either Year 2, 3 or 4 who haven’t made the playoff.
And, I’m just spit-balling here, if it doesn’t work out for Oklahoma with the defensive-minded Venables – and it hasn’t been working out – maybe the Sooners would fancy a pivot back to a coach who develops NFL quarterbacks, a coach who came up under Urban Meyer and Chip Kelly, a pair of top offensive minds.
(OK, so Oklahoma is scheduled to play Michigan the next two seasons, but after that, no Wolverines on the schedule!)
Day enjoys enviable resources at Ohio State. He’s armed with a roster reportedly earning $20 million in NIL riches, and he hired an elite staff, but the SEC is no land of paupers, and Day would magnetize talent. He proved himself an ace recruiter before and after NIL. He might not be a fan’s coach, but he’s a player’s coach.
“I love that coach to death,” senior defensive end JT Tuimoloau said earlier this postseason. “That’s my coach.”
Added Ohio State senior defensive end Jack Sawyer: “Coach Day is awesome. We all love him.”
Buckeye Nation didn’t share that love as recently as a month ago.
At Ohio State, Ryan Day exists in Urban Meyer’s shadow
Don’t misunderstand, I’m not criticizing Ohio State faithful for fuming that Day persistently wilts against The Team Up North or desiring a coach who doesn’t lose to Sherrone Moore.
For better or worse, the Buckeyes attach their self-worth to beating Michigan. It’s an all-consuming desire. Day knew what he signed up for, and he counts his losses to the Wolverines among the “worst things that’s happened” in his life, as he described it to Columbus television station WBNS, topped only by the death of his father.
He’s earned a break from that pressure, if he desires it. Certainly, Day’s family doesn’t deserve the toxicity that accompanies repeated losses to Michigan.
You might be thinking, isn’t there a lot of pressure in the SEC, too, complete with major rivalry games? Absolutely, but Day has thrived in many areas of the job at Ohio State. He just can’t beat Michigan, and no singular SEC rivalry mirrors the way “The Game” consumes Ohio State fans.
Most SEC teams count multiple rivals. As big as the Iron Bowl is, I don’t recall Alabama fans affixing an asterisk next to the 2017 Crimson Tide’s national championship. That Alabama team lost to Auburn in the Iron Bowl but rallied to beat Georgia in the national title game, and it was celebrated. True, Nick Saban had Alabama fans dining from his palm by then, much as Georgia fans anointed Kirby Smart their king.
SEC fans relish winners, and I think Day would win in the South, without having to devote time 365 days a year to one rival.
If Day wins this national championship – the Buckeyes are favored to beat Texas in the CFP semifinals – he will have captured the crown in his sixth Ohio State season. That would put him on Smart’s timeline.
Smart, like Day, became a first-time coach at Georgia after an accomplished coordinator career. Smart won his first national championship in Year 6, at age 46.
Smart previously finished as national runner-up in his second season. Day did the same. His 2020 Buckeyes lost to Alabama in the national championship game.
I can draw those parallels between Day and Smart, but Smart earned respect by lifting Georgia onto a higher plane, and he enjoys a level of adoration at Georgia that I’m not convinced Day could attain from Ohio State even if he wins a national championship. He’s forever chased the success standard set by Meyer, his predecessor who never lost to Michigan and who won a national championship in his third season.
Ohio State became Meyer’s fourth head coaching job. He’d already proven himself by the time he seized the reins in Columbus. He left impossible shoes for Day to fill.
Perhaps, it’s time to let someone else try and for Day to let this sun set while he waits for another to rise. Somewhere, a struggling program, perhaps one in the SEC, would love to have Day coaching it and offer him a handsome sum, appreciate him a little more, and exist a long, long way away from Michigan.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.