Ohio State head coach Ryan Day is now 1-4 against the rival Michigan Wolverines. Losing to your rival can cost you your job when it comes to Ohio State versus Michigan. Recently, even Jim Harbaugh was on the hot seat a few years prior to changing the narrative and defeating the Buckeyes multiple times due to his numerous losses against the team to the south.
While the record is glaring and has prevented the Buckeyes not only from winning the Big 10 Championship in multiple years as well as College Football Playoff appearances, it is not Day’s only shortcoming during his time in Columbus.
Ryan Day’s biggest pitfalls
Kyle McCord
After sitting behind former Buckeye’s quarterback and first round NFL Draft pick CJ Stroud, McCord took the controls as quarterback of the Buckeyes in 2023 and led them to an 11-1 record. Unfortunately, McCord had a poor performance against the Wolverines which saw them fell short. Day felt this was enough to part ways with McCord and turn to acquiring Will Howard from Kansas State out of the transfer portal.
Entering the 2024 season, Howard had a 61% completion percentage as a starter in 2023 for the Wildcats. McCord on the other hand had a completion percentage of 66% in 2023 for the Buckeyes and had the exact same completion percentage in 2024 for the Syracuse Orange who acquired McCord out of the transfer portal.
Although Howard completed 72% of his passes in 2024, he only threw for 2,860 yards and 27 touchdowns. McCord threw for 4,326 yards and 29 touchdowns for the Orange which led the FBS in passing through the regular season.
McCord was a five-star quarterback in the 2021 class and presumably would have thrived to even greater heights beyond what Howard achieved in 2024 with the Buckeyes given the talent that would have been around him.
Joe Burrow
Many know quarterback Joe Burrow’s name from his time with the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL and the LSU Tigers at the college ranks. You may not know that Burrow began his college career with the Ohio State Buckeyes after being recruited to Columbus as part of Urban Meyer’s 2015 recruiting class.
After taking over for Meyer in Columbus in 2018 as interim head coach in 2018 and having coached Burrow in 2017 as offensive coordinator, Day failed to retain the former four-star who transferred to the Tigers and would win the 2019 National Championship quarterbacking one of the most prolific offenses in college football history.
Burrow threw for 5,671 yard and 60 touchdowns in 2019. Burrow helped propel wide receivers Justin Jefferson and JaMarr Chase as well as himself to become future first round NFL Draft picks. One can only think about what could have been if Day had been able to retain Burrow in Columbus.
Falling short in the College Football Playoff
Despite leading the Buckeyes to three College Football Playoff appearances in six full seasons as head coach, Day has failed to win the National Championship and only reached the National Championship Game one time, which would see the Buckeyes destroyed by the Alabama Crimson Tide 52-24 in 2020.
Ryan Day is not doing enough
While Day’s winning percentage and average recruiting class rankings parallel Meyer and are better than Jim Tressel’s, his record against the Wolverines is much worse. He also has not won a national championship, which each of the two Buckeye head coaches before him accomplished.