Ohio State Football: Urban Meyer retiring, Ryan Day next for Buckeyes
Ohio State football has a new head coach. Amid much speculation, Urban Meyer will retire and give way to assistant Ryan Day.
As stated in a public release by the university, Urban Meyer’s tenuous tenure at the helm of the Ohio State football program has come to an end. The former national championship winning coach will retire from football, a decision expected to be formally announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Meyer leaves Ohio State after seven seasons and an 82-9 record including a perfect 7-0 record against the Michigan Wolverines and three conference championships. This season marked the longest time he’d spent at any of his coaching stops — he spent six years at Florida from 2005-2010.
In addition to the controversy surrounding how he handled the employment and subsequent firing of former wide receivers coach Zach Smith, Meyer has battled health issues for some time. Those health concerns were a primary driver for him stepping down at Florida and presumably play at least some role in his decision to leave Ohio State.
Ryan Day will take over as the permanent head coach on January 2. Day has never been a full-time head coach at any level, but guided the Buckeyes to a 3-0 record during Meyer’s suspension earlier this season.
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Meyer plans to coach his team in the Rose Bowl against Washington. The Buckeyes last won the Rose Bowl in 2009, the second to last year of Jim Tressel’s stint at Ohio State. Meyer won three national championships and played in a host of marquee bowl games, but he’s never coached in a Rose Bowl. He’ll hope to scratch that off his bucket list and send his team off with a win on January 1.