COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ryan Day has a photo in his office from Jan. 1, 2019. It’s of Urban Meyer, in a celebratory locker room after Ohio State beat Washington in the Rose Bowl, placing a whistle around Day’s neck. It was the ceremonial changing of the guard at the head coaching position as Meyer handed the program over to Day.
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Fast forward two years later, and there are some similarities between that Ohio State team and the one that will return to Pasadena, Calif., next month to play Pac-12 champion Utah in this season’s Rose Bowl. No, there will be no changing of the guard at the top. Day is the Buckeyes head coach and intends to be so for the foreseeable future. But the questions he must address now are similar to those he was facing when he first took over — namely, how he plans to shape the future of the defense.
Back then, the team was coming off of an atrocious defensive season, and Day cleaned house as he built his first coaching staff. He retained line coach Larry Johnson but hired Greg Mattison, Jeff Hafley, Al Washington and Matt Barnes in a near-total reshaping of the staff and a complete transformation of the scheme.
Now? Well, the statistics for this season aren’t quite as bad on the whole as they were back then, but some are still quite poor by program standards. This year’s defense has allowed 246.6 passing yards per game, the fourth-most in school history, and 5.21 yards per play, the sixth-most. The run defense numbers are good on the whole, but OSU allowed more than 7 yards per rush in its losses to Oregon and Michigan. Combine that with last year’s defensive output, when that group set new program highs for points, yards per play and passing yards allowed per game, and Ohio State’s defense is again due for a reconfiguration.
“We’re gonna do the best we can,” Day said. “We’ll always be evaluating and seeing what’s best moving forward. When there’s updates on that, I’ll let you guys know. … As we head into this bowl time right now, and recruiting is like crazy, we’re focused on that and focused on these guys.”
Day twice deflected questions about which direction he’s headed with the defense now that OSU, despite its upcoming bowl game, is essentially in offseason mode. He’s trying to keep the focus on preparing for Utah, which makes sense for the team even if Day will be pulling some double duty, prepping for the bowl game while also planning for the future. Sources indicated to The Athletic that Day does intend to make an outside hire for the defensive coordinator position. It’s certainly possible that members of the current defensive staff will be retained, but the preference is that the person calling the shots on that side will be a fresh, outside voice. There’s not much clarity on who that voice could be just yet. The only apparent stipulation is that the new coordinator work within a four-down front, as the program has built up its defensive line personnel to play that way.
That certainly leaves Day with plenty of options as he pursues a new coordinator. On the timing front, it would be surprising to see any movement until after the early signing period begins on Dec. 15.
There’s also the matter of Day’s future with the program. It’s not in jeopardy, but the competitive college landscape combined with the likelihood of NFL teams pursuing Day again this offseason could mean the head coach is in line to have the terms of his contract reworked yet again.
Not surprisingly, Day didn’t venture much down that road Sunday.
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“I want to be the head coach here,” Day said. “I love it here. My focus is on this bowl. This has been a tough week for us across the board after that game. We’ve been trying to get back on the road and recruit. This is a great place to be, and we have great kids. But I gotta tell you, it was a tough week this week. It’s gonna be great getting back with these guys and preparing for a game.”
Day received a contract extension in February 2020 that would have him coaching the Buckeyes through the 2026 season and is set to pay him $7.6 million next year. At the time that looked like a competitive salary for a major-college football coach. Nearly two years later, that’s changed. Michigan State’s Mel Tucker, who’s 0-2 against Ohio State — with losses by a combined margin of 108-19 — received an extension this year that will pay him $9.5 million annually. Penn State’s James Franklin was bumped up to $7 million annually with an extension last month. New USC coach Lincoln Riley’s deal is rumored to be in the range of $10 million per year, and Brian Kelly just signed a 10-year, $95 million deal with LSU.
The money being thrown around is crazy. It will be interesting to see how Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith reacts to that.
All indications are that Day prefers to coach Ohio State for the long haul, but the college landscape being what it is and the NFL’s interest in him — sources said he was approached for multiple head coaching jobs last year — would seem to give Day leverage.
Day and Smith haven’t talked about his contract as of yet, but that could be on the horizon soon.
Ohio State is preparing for a game with all of this going on. This will be Utah’s Super Bowl, a Rose Bowl trip that the program has been eyeing since it joined the Pac-12 in 2011. For the Buckeyes, this is the consolation prize after the program missed on its chief goals of winning the Big Ten, making the College Football Playoff and competing for the national championship.
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There are some mild stakes for OSU. It’s looking to avoid its first two-game losing streak since 2013 and its first three-loss season since 2011. Surely there are some upperclassmen on this roster who would prefer that their lasting image in the program not be a loss to Michigan followed by a loss in the Rose Bowl.
Day is hoping those points are enough to keep the team mostly intact with a full complement of players against the Utes. As of Sunday, no players had indicated to Day they plan to opt out of the bowl game.
The Buckeyes didn’t have any opt-outs the last time they failed to make the Playoff, in 2018, and had only one when they played in the Cotton Bowl following the 2017 season. Such decisions have become more prevalent since then, though. So it ultimately won’t be surprising if a player or two makes the business decision to begin their preparation for the NFL rather than participate in what amounts to an exhibition.
In the grand scheme, that may not be the worst thing in the world for Ohio State, which will be looking at this next month as an opportunity to continue developing a team that has 55 players with either freshman or sophom*ore eligibility.
Day was on a video conference with the team at 2:45 p.m. Sunday, shortly after the matchup was announced, to make that point clear.
“We talked about how important these practices are gonna be for the older guys to re-bite and get ready to play in this game, but also for the younger guys to develop. We’re gonna do a really good job of making sure every practice counts as we go into this game.”
Ohio State lost three players to transfer this week, most notably quarterback Quinn Ewers.
“I think it was a very unique situation for sure,” Day said. “We wish him nothing but the best moving forward. But, boy, there’s a lot going on in college football right now with early enrollees, transfer portal, those type of things. We’re gonna try to do the best we can to adapt as time moves on. … You try to do the best you can on the front end of explaining what’s gonna happen, communicating that and then following through with it. … I’d rather not get into too many of the details, but it kinda caught me off guard a little bit, for sure.”
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Walk-on quarterback Jagger LaRoe joined Ewers in the portal Sunday.
On Saturday, third-year linebacker/safety Craig Young put his name in the portal. Heading into the season, Young looked to be in contention to start at the hybrid Bullet position, but that never materialized as the defense started to take on a different look schematically and that position changed a bit. Also, Ronnie Hickman played that position well this year and essentially never came off the field.
Young had a bit role at “cover safety” against Michigan State, but that was mostly the extent of his meaningful playing time this year.
“Craig felt like he just wanted an opportunity to play more,” Day said. “I think that’s probably common in a lot of guys who decide to transfer. At one point there were like 80 guys a day on average going into the portal. It’s unbelievable. I just think he wants an opportunity to play more. We wish him nothing but the best of luck. We don’t want to see guys leave, but this has become somewhat of the norm. As coaches, it’s hard sometimes, but we’re gonna have to adapt and move forward.”
Young wasn’t in the linebacker room this season, but his skill set is best suited for that position and it’s possible he could have contributed there in 2022. Combining his loss with those of Dallas Gant (transfer) and K’Vaughan Pope (dismissal) during the season and with the general lack of consistent play at the linebacker position on the whole, and that seems like a position where the Buckeyes could look to make an addition via the portal in the offseason.
They made a run at former Tennessee and current Alabama linebacker Henry To’o To’o last offseason and ultimately added USC transfer Palaie Gaoteote.
If Gaoteote and Teradja Mitchell, two seniors in eligibility who did not walk during senior day ceremonies on Nov. 20, return, that would give the team nine scholarship linebackers next year. However, four of those players — redshirt freshman Mitchell Melton, true freshman Reid Carrico and incoming freshmen C.J. Hicks and Gabe Powers — will have little to no experience heading into 2022.
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“I think we’re looking at all of those positions to see whether it makes sense to add a guy through recruiting out of high school or the portal,” Day said. “We were a little thin at linebacker at times this year and will maybe be a little thin moving forward. We have to make sure we bolster that room. Do we want to bring in a high school guy to develop or a portal guy who’s a little bit older? There’s a lot of things to consider.”
Tight end and cornerback jump out as other positions where Ohio State could explore portal options, but Day said the staff needs to be thoughtful about how they handle that.
“You have to take the dynamics of the team into consideration,” he said. “We’re doing that. We’re not just gonna be flippant about those decisions. The chemistry of your team is something that we really need to be on top of. All it takes is bringing in a couple guys and you can get yourself out of whack. When we recruit young men, we bring them in to develop them. Bringing guys in can really upset that. We don’t want to do that unless we need to. We’ve done it before. We had Justin (Fields) come in. That was the right thing at the right time. Jonah Jackson was the right thing at the right time. Trey Sermon was the right thing at the right time. I think we’ve been really smart about that. Noah Ruggles worked out well. That’s not something that we count on, but it’s something that we’ll use when we need to.”
(Photo of Ryan Day: Steven Branscombe / Getty Images)
