Why Ohio State should not fire Ryan Day, Buckeyes need to be careful what they wish for

Ryan Day should not be fired from Ohio State at any point. For a coach that has won 11 or more games each season since he took over as the permanent head coach in Columbus aside from the shortened season in 2020, that is quite the amount of success.

Day also ranks a hair above his predecessor Urban Meyer with an average recruiting class score of 93.4 to Meyer’s 93. According to On3.  Day’s national class rank average also ranks on par with Meyer’s at 3.75 during his time in Columbus, while Meyer’s ranked at an average of 3.4.

While all these rankings are impressive, the ever-elusive national championship has escaped Day’s grasp since he arrived in Columbus in 2018. That is something that the Buckeye’s two last permanent head coaches in Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer were able to obtain. Additionally, yesterday’s loss to the third-ranked Oregon Ducks heightened disappointment even more so for many fans of Buckeye nation and beyond who continue to call for the coach to be fired.

If Buckeye fans really do want Day gone, they should know that winning 11 games each year would be a difficult task to match regardless of who the Buckeyes would bring in as their next head coach. They should also know that there are only three active coaches in the FBS that have won national championships in Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney, and Mack Brown.

While the grass may seem greener on the other side, it is not always so. Whether coaches have left on their own accord or were fired, several programs have seen declines in the last few decades after at least a fair amount of success under the coach prior. Therefore, Ohio State fans better be careful or they are susceptible to falling into the same trap.

Coaches that failed to produce at college football programs that were thriving

John L. Smith (Arkansas)

After the abrupt exit of head coach Bobby Petrino due to an off-field incident, Smith took over a program in Fayetteville in 2012 that was coming off of back-to-back double-digit win seasons under Petrino and guided the Hogs to a 4-8 record. Although labeled with the interim tag, he sure did not receive the permanent one the following year as the Hogs moved on to hire Bret Bielema.

Will Muschamp (Florida)

Coming off of an Urban Meyer tenure that saw the Gators with two national championships in 2006 and 2008, Muschamp failed to meet anywhere close to this amount of success.

The former Longhorns defensive coordinator on the national championship staff under Mack Brown would last only four seasons in Gainesville, regressing the program to 4-8 by the third season in 2013 and only a 7-5 mark in 2014 which led to his firing. This was a far cry from the amount of success the Gators experienced under Meyer.

Derek Dooley (Tennessee)

Unlike the previous two mentioned, the Vols opted to fire previous head coach Phil Fulmer simply on performance. Prior to a 5-7 campaign in 2008 which they decided to fire Fulmer followed, the former national champion head coach had gone 19-8 in the two seasons prior.

The Vols deemed one subpar season of 5-7 as not good enough and opted for Dooley who let us be honest- was hired a lot off his last name due to his father Derek Dooley who had a legendary run as head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs. Derek Dooley would last only three seasons in Knoxville, going 15-21.

Larry Coker (Miami)

Coker served as the offensive coordinator under head coach Butch Davis with the Miami Hurricanes from 1995 to 2000. Coker was promoted and hired into the head coaching role due to Davis’s departure to the NFL to coach the Cleveland Browns.

Although Coker would win a National Championship in 2001 with the Canes, that was off of the talent and program that Davis had built. The Canes would regress moderately each year from there all the way to 7-6 which led to Coker’s firing in 2006.

Bill Stewart (West Virginia)

Stewart was the offensive coordinator on staff for the Mountaineers under head coach Rich Rodriguez from 2000 to 2007 before Rodriguez’s departure from the head coaching job at the University of Michigan thrust Stewart into the head coaching role. The program would go 9-4 in each of Stewart’s three seasons but would see a dip in on-field performance and recruiting throughout his time which would lead to his firing following the 2010 season.

Prior to Rodriguez’s departure, the Mountaineers came within a whisker of making it to the 2006 BCS National Championship only to fall to their Big East rival, Pittsburgh Panthers in the last game of the regular season.

Rich Rodriguez (Michigan)

This one you can kind of get as previous Michigan Wolverines head coach Lloyd Carr had been the head coach of the Wolverines for 13 years and failed to come close to winning a National Championship. Carr did however compile six double-digit win seasons during his time in Ann Arbor. Rodriguez would compile none following him.

After a successful tenure as head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers, Rodriguez would fail to replicate that on a larger stage. He would last only three seasons in Ann Arbor going 15-22 which is far below expectations for a college football blue-blood.

Joe Moorehead (Mississippi State)

This one probably hurt the fan base more- so than many others seeing as the Bulldogs have not been a long-standing successful college football program. That success was achieved however under head coach Dan Mullen who turned the Bulldogs into an SEC contender, going 69-46 in his nine years at the helm.

Mullen would depart taking the job with the Florida Gators, which would leave the vacated position filled by the former Penn State offensive coordinator, Joe Moorehead who would see his first head coaching gig with the Bulldogs begin in 2018. Moorehead’s tenure would end only two seasons later following the 2019 season. During his two seasons in Starkville, Moorehead would regress the program to a 6-7 campaign before he departed.

Charlie Strong (Texas)

The Longhorns program seemed to falter after losing in the BCS National Championship to the Alabama Crimson Tide, or so they thought. Head coach Mack Brown had been the head coach of the Longhorns since 1985 and achieved an overall record of 158-48, including a National Championship in 2005. That however was not good enough for Longhorn Nation as they fired Brown after an 8-5 campaign in 2013.

Former Louisville head coach Charlie Strong would take the job but fail to have a winning season in three years in Austin. This was far worse than Brown ever had done.

Sure, there are examples such as Dabo Swinney, Kirby Smart, and Nick Saban who thrived after taking the place of their predecessors. However, the examples of failure here far outweigh the examples of success. Buckeye fans should be careful what they wish for, and these examples tell the story.

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