Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day has agreed to a contract extension to stay in Columbus through the 2031 season. Day’s new deal is worth $12.5 annually, a healthy bump from his previous $10.02 million per year, which will make him the second highest paid coach in college sports behind Georgia’s Kirby Smart.
This caps off what has been a wild last two months for Day that included the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
It seems like just yesterday Day had lost his fourth straight game to Michigan and this time as a 20-point favorite. At this point in late November/early December Buckeye fans decided that they had enough and they, along with several talking heads in the sports media world, began calling for his job.
On the other hand, Michigan fans, who may see this as a great Day with this new deal, were jokingly rallying for Ohio State to extend their head coach.
Who did this!!!! 😂😂😂😂 https://t.co/zkzrMCgQ7G pic.twitter.com/oLSjGQfclz
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 21, 2024
Now of course this is college football so what happened? Day would go on to lead his team on one of the most impressive runs in college football history with double digit wins over No. 7 Tennessee, No. 1 Oregon, No. 3, Texas, and No. 5 Notre Dame to win the national championship.
In the more recent weeks of this two month span, Day has to of felt an enormous weight lifted off of his shoulders as he finally got some praise from Buckeye Nation. Also, in a similar fashion to what occurred to Michigan last year after their national title, Ohio State has been learning that winning a championship comes with a price.
The Buckeyes have lost three key coaches from their 2024 staff, including offensive coordinator Chip Kelly who is returning to the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles who left for Penn State.
It is important to note that reportedly one of the main reasons Knowles left Columbus was because Ohio State was unwilling to meet PSU’s $3.1 million per year offer, a near $1 million per year increase from his previous deal. But they have no problem with shoveling out this big money bump to Day… interesting, but I digress.
Ohio State is yet to name a new DC, but they recently promoted co-offensive coordinator and WR coach Brian Hartline to the OC role. Hartline held this position in 2023, but did not have play calling duties as that was taken up by Day.
Now this leads us to today to cap off a wild couple of weeks for the former New Hampshire quarterback. While a new deal will certainly call for higher expectations in Columbus, if that is even possible, I am sure the main thing Ryan Day will be looking to accomplish in 2025 is to improve his 1-4 record against the Michigan Wolverines.