Ryan Day said Wednesday that he expects to be Ohio State’s coach for the foreseeable future.
After Saturday’s 13-10 loss to Michigan — the Buckeyes fourth in a row in the rivalry — there have been many questions about whether Day is capable of taking Ohio State to the heights it expects to reach and whether he even wants to be the head coach going forward due to all the pressure he’s under. He put much of the latter to rest on Wednesday at a recruiting early signing period news conference.
Asked if he expects to be at Ohio State next year, he simply said, “Yes.”
Day is 66-10 as Ohio State’s head coach, but he has received arguably as much criticism as any coach of the country because of his 1-4 record against Michigan. Ohio State hasn’t won a Big Ten championship since 2020 and hasn’t been past the College Football Playoff semifinal round since losing to Alabama 52-24 in the national title game that same year. Each of the previous three Michigan teams to beat Ohio State won Big Ten championships, but this year’s Wolverines are 7-5 and entered Saturday’s game in Columbus as 21-point underdogs.
Day said he understands the frustration the fan base has but that his focus is on getting Ohio State a national championship this season. The Athletic’s projections model still gives Ohio State the third-best national title odds behind Oregon and Texas.
“We have to go forward,” said Day, whose 2025 recruiting class ranked No. 5 in the 247Sports Composite as of Wednesday afternoon. “The mindset is to go win the whole thing now. You can’t go back and second guess things at this point. We have to move forward.”
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The latest College Football Playoff rankings came out Tuesday night and Ohio State (10-2) is No. 6 in the Top 25 and the No. 8 seed in the bracket. That puts it in position to host a first-round game, with a chance to rise to as high as the No. 6 seed depending on this weekend’s conference championship game results. The final bracket will be revealed on Sunday afternoon.
Day takes blame for performance vs. Michigan
There’s no sugarcoating how bad Ohio State’s outing against Michigan was Saturday.
The Buckeyes scored just 10 points, the lowest output against an unranked opponent since the 10-7 loss to Michigan State in 2011. They went scoreless in the second half and have been criticized for their game plan, which included running the ball between the guards, right at Michigan’s stout defensive line, too much. Ohio State rushed for just 77 yards.
“The percentage was too high running it inside, that’s clear,” Day said.
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Though Ohio State threw the ball 33 times, its second-most pass attempts this season, Day said the Buckeyes should’ve found ways to get the ball on the perimeter more. Standout freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, who had five catches for 35 yards and a touchdown, was not targeted in the fourth quarter. Emeka Egbuka, who had four catches for 51 yards, was targeted just once, while Carnell Tate, who led the team with 58 yards, was targeted once in the second half, as well.
Ohio State’s strength is its playmakers on the outside, not a patchwork offensive line that has had injury problems. In the past, Ohio State has found ways to get the ball to its receivers in less traditional ways, like bubble screens, reverses or backfield handoffs. Day considers those plays an extension of the running game, but Ohio State showed none of it on Saturday.
“I think when you look back on it, there’s ways we could’ve got the ball to the perimeter,” Day said. “It’s the coaches’ job to put the guys in the best positions to be successful, and that didn’t happen on Saturday.”
The loss hasn’t been easy on Day, who has been open about how hard it has been losing to Michigan. Saturday’s loss was the worst of them all.
But Day said he has no plans to leave the program and has never had that thought.
“This is a wonderful place,” he said. “I have one of the best jobs in America. I’m disappointed more than anybody. We’ll continue to move and figure out what it is and overcome this obstacle.”
The question remains: Is Day the right person to lead Ohio State to the national championship — and past Michigan next season?
While he didn’t want to give a sales pitch for himself, he said the Buckeyes are going to take their best crack at the Playoff as possible, much like they did in the 2022 Peach Bowl against Georgia, when they came up just short of a national title game spot despite losing to Michigan.
“There’s no way to defend losing four years in a row, but I can tell you this, we’re going to play really hard in this game,” Day said. “We’re going to swing as hard as we possibly can. … I get the frustration, I know what comes with this job, but we’ve won a lot of games around here too, we’ve lost some key ones, but we are right there. When you are really close and feel frustrated, you have to push through.”
What’s going on with the offensive line?
Ohio State has struggled to run the ball since starting center Seth McLaughlin tore his Achilles before the Nov. 23 Indiana game. Ohio State averaged less than one yard before contact against Michigan and Indiana, per TruMedia, and Day said the team is evaluating every option up front.
The offensive line seems to be the one position that can hold Ohio State back in the postseason, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Buckeyes take the field in the Playoff with a new look up front.
Ohio State has been starting left guard Donovan Jackson at left tackle since Josh Simmons went down against Oregon, and Carson Hinzman, who stepped in at left guard, moved back to center when McLaughlin went down. The idea of having them play alongside each other again, putting Jackson back at guard or even bringing in new faces such as Luke Montgomery and Joshua Padilla are all on the table, Day said.
“We are contemplating some rolling at the very least,” Day said. “We considered that in the game, it was a big game, and we didn’t think it was the right thing to do at the time, but looking back we should’ve tried something.”
Required reading
(Photo: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)
