Coming to the defense of Ryan Day shortly after one of the most embarrassing losses in a long time for Ohio State seems foolhardy especially when the fan base wants his fingernails ripped out but some perspective here is needed.
No, this is not the dream season the Buckeyes expected where they would take their $20-million dollar roster, run roughshod over everybody right to the national championship and enjoy that splendor again.
But let’s get real here.
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The Buckeyes are going to the College Football Playoff and they are still talented enough to beat anybody in the country.
I’ll give you that Saturday’s loss to Michigan was an embarrassment.
The Wolverines have been horrible this season on offense. They’ve tried numerous quarterbacks with little success. They were without star tight end Colston Loveland on Saturday and still won the game.
Day looked clueless on the sidelines. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly called a terrible game where he tried to show Ohio State’s manhood by running the ball too much and not stressing Michigan’s defensive backs with a cadre of elite, NFL-level receivers.
Four losses in a row to the Wolverines - but especially this one - is a nightmare in Columbus.
Everything for the Buckeyes is ahead of them, though, and while there won’t be a Big Ten championship for Ohio State that could actually play to the Buckeyes’ benefit when it comes to the playoff.
Let Oregon and Penn State beat up on each other. The Buckeyes can get rested up, healed up and stay really upset about what happened in the Michigan loss.
Day, Kelly, the entire coaching staff and the team deserve tons of criticism for their performance against the Wolverines, a team that really isn’t that good especially on offense and has had quarterback issues all year en route to a 7-5 season.
Things were so bad on offense that Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison had to be enlisted for a massive NIL deal along with Barstool millionaire Dave Portnoy to flip five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood from LSU.
While Michigan plays in some meaningless bowl game, Ohio State is still one of the front-runners to win a national championship and Day deserves credit for that.
Former coach Urban Meyer did Day no favors when Meyer said that Ohio State had the best roster in college football in the last decade. Expectations were put through the roof that any less seemed ridiculous. The Buckeyes paid big for their roster and losing to Michigan was inexcusable.
But here’s the reality: Day is winning 86 percent of his games as Ohio State’s coach. The best college football coach of all time, Nick Saban, won 87 percent of his games at Alabama. Georgia coach Kirby Smart is winning 85 percent of his at Georgia.
This idea put forth by Ohio State fans that its national championship or bust in Columbus will only lead to a lot of heartache.
Winning a title is super hard. Ohio State hasn’t done it in a decade. The Buckeyes have two since the late 1960s. If the measure of success is what Meyer did then people will be in for a lot of disappointment since he was maybe the best college football coach ever not named Saban. Meyer also drove himself crazy coaching the game and his health suffered tremendously.
I don’t need to do Day any favors. He has never helped with our signing day show or gone out of his way with recruiting information. We basically begged for him to come get interviewed after five-star WR Jeremiah Smith signed last December but he declined.
Saturday was a gut punch maybe unlike any other in this rivalry. Day and his staff deserve a ton of credit.
But everything is still in front of Ohio State. And Day remains the absolutely right man for the job.
