College Football 2018: Grading every new Power 5 coaching hire
6. Ohio State Buckeyes
New Coach: Ryan Day
Departed Coach: Urban Meyer
Urban Meyer’s decision to retire leaves behind a complicated legacy, one ripe with wins on the football field and full of controversy off of it. It’s fair to question whether this is really it for Meyer, with this being the second time he has walked away from the game due to health reasons.
Those health reasons feel very real this time, though, as anyone who watched Ohio State games this season and saw Meyer constantly doubled-over in anguish could attest to. For his sake, I hope this really is it for Meyer, who will go down as one of the best coaches in the history of the sport regardless of whether or not he coaches another game.
The itch is tough to ignore, though, and it was that itch that was impetus for his return from a brief retirement to take over at Ohio State in 2012 after winning a pair of national titles at Florida.
The Buckeyes didn’t bother with a coaching search to find Meyer’s replacement, despite the obvious interest that the vacant position would have garnered from some prominent sitting head coaches. On the day Meyer retired, Ohio State announced that offensive coordinator Ryan Day would be taking over as the full-time head coach.
Day served as the interim head coach for the Buckeyes for the first three games of the season as Meyer served a suspension as a result of the fallout from long ignoring domestic violence by one of his assistant coaches.
Day led Ohio State to a 3-0 mark, keeping them afloat long enough for Meyer to return and ultimately lead them to a blowout win over Michigan and a Big Ten Championship. Day has garnered rave reviews from those around the athletic department, along with high-praise from Meyer himself.
But there’s still a question about how he will do stepping into a head coaching position for the first time, particularly at a program like Ohio State where a couple multi-loss seasons will have the fans screaming for his head on a pike.
The hiring makes sense from a continuity standpoint, and he had obviously impressed the powers-that-be enough for him to get handed the keys to such a prestigious program without the benefit of head coaching experience; Ohio State is no doubt hoping he finds similar success as Lincoln Riley has so far in Norman upon replacing Bob Stoops.