When it comes to buyouts, the numbers are similarly huge with coaches often being owed millions of dollars if their school decides it’s time to part ways and fire the coach without cause.
So how much money would Ohio State have to pay Ryan Day if the Buckeyes wanted to fire their head coach?
That’s definitely not the largest — Georgia’s Kirby Smart has the biggest buyout at $118,083,333 — but still a huge chunk of change if Ohio State ever decided to fire Day.
It’s pretty tough to tell if Des was trolling here or not.
There is perhaps no better way to sum up the current state of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry than ESPN’s Desmond Howard going on live television to express both pity and sympathy for Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day.
Howard, the 1991 Heisman winner at Michigan and Wolverines icon, went on an impassioned rant about Day’s critics during College GameDay before Friday night’s College Football Playoff game between Notre Dame and Indiana. Whether this was an elaborate troll is certainly up for debate.
What is clear however is just how funny the whole thing was, intentional or not.
With a straight face, Howard explained that Ohio State’s athletic department put too much pressure on Day by giving him the type of resources the vast majority of programs would sell their souls to obtain.
Take a look:
Desmond Howard claims Ohio State put Ryan Day in a bad situation and it led to some fireworks on College GameDay. pic.twitter.com/BEQwbfRvfd
“During the offseason, when they spent $20 million to go handpick some players in the portal to bring them to Columbus, the primary reason was to beat Michigan,And I thought they put him in a bad situation. Not only that but then they went out and got Chip Kelly, who was the head coach of UCLA and became his offensive coordinator. In my opinion, that was like the athletic director and the powers that be saying, ‘We’re pushing all of our chips in the middle of the table, Ryan, this is the year you have to get it done.’ And I thought that was too much pressure on him — I really do. I put out an Instagram message once I saw that, and I said, ‘Man, this is unfair.”
Desmond Howard thinks Ohio State spending $20 million dollars to handpick players from the transfer portal and getting Day’s old buddy Chip Kelly to leave his head coaching gig at UCLA to become Ohio State’s offensive was somehow unfair to Day. He probably feels bad about Goliath having all that pressure to defeat David.
Alabama crying poor has been dethroned as the most obtuse comment of the season in less than 72 hours.
Look, there are a lot of things unfair in the world of college football. Ohio State’s losing streak against Michigan is not one of them. Especially considering the Buckeyes are in the College Football Playoff!
As for Day, he’s paid quite handsomely to handle the pressure of coaching at Ohio State. No one needs to weep for the man earning $10 million per year because he lost a football game. Not when the standards for success in Columbus have remain unchanged since the Woody Hayes era.
If Howard is trolling here, it’s absolutely masterful. Michigan went 7-5 this season and was more or less a huge disappointment. Yet beating Ohio State allows Wolverines fans to hold the high ground and offer some unwanted words of advice for their rival.
If Howard isn’t trolling, he’s completely lost the plot. Either way, college fans should enjoy a good, hearty laugh at his comments.
Nick Saban rant alert! The GOAT goes off about the negativity among a certain college football fan base.
Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban has had it with some of the negativity among fan bases in college football.
Following a segment on ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Friday about the pressures facing Ohio State Buckeyes coach Ryan Day after his team’s stunning 13-10 loss to Michigan on Nov. 30, Saban was asked by host Rece Davis to weigh in on Day.
Saban came to Day’s defense and didn’t hold any punches.
“I think every coach has got to define how he wants to do it, and I have a lot of respect for Ryan Day and how he’s tried to do it. You know, for me, I always wanted every player in the organization the reach their full potential. So it wasn’t so much about the outcome as what you had to do to make everybody better. But a big part of that was insulating the players from external factors: criticism, internet.”
Saban was just getting warmed up and painted an unflattering picture of disgruntled fans.
“I used to tell the players all the time: ‘Why do you care about what some guy puts on the internet, who’s a fat guy, in his underwear, living in his mother’s basement?! Why do you care? Why does that mean anything? Why does that effect you in any way, shape or form? We should be focusing just on what we control and what we can do.'”
Saban grew more animated as he continued.
“I would tell the fans the same thing. If Ohio State (fans) wants to beat Michigan, they need to be positive about their coach and their players, ’cause nobody wants to beat them worse than the players and the coaches do. That’s No. 1. No. 2, they have the opportunity to win the national championship! Everybody ought to be supporting the hell out of them so that they have the best opportunity to do it and quit all this negative bulls—!”
That prompted a reaction from fellow GameDay panelist Kirk Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback who agreed with Saban.
“What I love about that (rant) is you were doing fine for about the first 30 seconds, and then something lit a fuse and you put yourself in that environment because you’ve lived there,” Herbstreit told Saban.
Herbstreit said of negative fans: “It’s like, ‘We’re doing a pretty good job here. … How about getting behind us and helping us down the field?'”
A few minutes later, Saban made it clear he wasn’t speaking just to Ohio State fans. He recalled the high expectations he faced from fans while at Alabama, as well:
“I sat in that spot for 17 years because they thought we should win every game we played at Alabama. And we lost some that we shouldn’t have. It happens sometimes. It’s hard to deal with success and it’s hard to deal with failure, but I think when everybody in the organization is positive about what you’re trying to do — I’m talking about coaches, players, fans, everybody that has anything to do with the organization.
“I always said the fans were a part of the team, and they shouldn’t have any greater expectations for the team than they have for themselves. I think people that create a negative atmosphere, regardless of the circumstance, only hurt their chances of being successful.”
Giving Oregon Duck fans a deep dive into Ohio State Buckeyes’ head coach ahead of a potential rematch in the Rose Bowl.
The Oregon Ducks have been able to enjoy a nice week away from football after winning the Big Ten Championship Game over the Penn State Nittany Lions earlier this month, earning the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff.
Because of that, they will now also enjoy another week off, with a first-round bye in the playoff. While Dan Lanning and the Ducks get down to business and prepare for their New Year’s Day game in the Rose Bowl on the field, it’s scouting time off of the field. Oregon will play either the Ohio State Buckeyes or Tennessee Volunteers in the quarterfinal game a couple of weeks from now, with a chance to move on to the semifinals.
While Lanning’s team prepares for their future opponent, we want to do the same.
Already this month, we’ve dived deep into the offense and defense for both the Buckeyes and the Volunteers, looking at players to know and what to expect going forward. This week we are going to continue that trend by looking at the man who is leading the charge.
Let’s start with Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.
The Current State of Ryan Day
Adam Cairns-The Columbus Dispatch
It feels safe to say that Ryan Day has had better stretches of his career.
While his Buckeyes are 10-2, and made it to the College Football Playoff, and will host a game in the first round, the past few weeks haven’t been brimming with success for Ohio State. At the end of November, Day had a major part to play in arguably the worst loss in program history — a fourth-straight defeat at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines, the Buckeyes’ biggest rival.
While the prior three losses to Michigan were understandable, with Jim Harbaugh leading the Wolverines to top-ranked finishes and a national championship in 2023, this defeat will act as a black spot on Day’s resume. The 2024 Wolverines finished the year unranked, with a 7-5 record.
Is Day coaching for his job in Columbus as the Buckeyes head into the playoffs? Some believe that’s the case, with anything less than a championship putting the head coach at risk.
Ryan Day History and Coaching Record
Day is a former quarterback at New Hampshire who got his start in the coaching world as a tight ends coach, working alongside former Oregon HC Chip Kelly. He ultimately became Kelly’s QB coach for the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers before getting hired by Ohio State as the HC in 2019.
As a head coach, Day is 66-10, with only six regular-season losses on his record. Four of those losses have come against the Michigan Wolverines, while the other two have come at the hands of the Oregon Ducks.
What This Playoff Run Means for Ryan Day
As we alluded to earlier, there’s a decent chance that Ryan Day is coaching for his job during this postseason. While it seems crazy from an outside perspective to fire a coach who was gone 66-10 in seven seasons, an inability to win the biggest game on your schedule each and every year starts to become an issue.
Depending on how far the Buckeyes make it in the playoffs, you could argue that Ohio State may choose to cut ties with Day or keep him. The roster in Columbus is among the most expensive in the sport thanks to a healthy NIL budget, and it is among the most talented in the nation as well. Nobody would be surprised if Ohio State could make a run at the championship, but should that run stop short of a semifinals appearance, then it’s fair to question what could be in store for day.
Lincoln Riley and Ryan Day have had different seasons. Day and Ohio State will be in the playoff. However, both men are facing pitchforks from angry fans.
Lincoln Riley won 11 games at USC football two years ago. Ryan Day has often won 11 games in a season at Ohio State (not counting bowl games). These two men have accomplished a lot over the past several years, in which they have both led prominent college football programs. Yet, the current reality facing both coaches is that their fan bases wish they would find employment elsewhere. USA TODAY Sports columnist Blake Toppmeyer wrote about Lincoln Riley and Ryan Day, and the turmoil both men are facing:
Of course, disgruntled Ohio State fans don’t want to swap Day for Riley. They just want to swap him for someone else, anyone else who might beat Michigan.
Toppmeyer adds, however, that as angry as OSU fans might be at Day, the situation at USC is profoundly worse with Lincoln Riley:
Hard telling, but, Ohio State remains an elite job, and the Buckeyes would attract good candidates if the job opened this winter. Ohio State blesses Day with great resources. The next coach would be well-resourced, too.
Ohio State fans aren’t wrong to expect more than Day’s 1-4 record vs. Michigan, and if Day can’t beat the Wolverines or reach the national title game with a roster that reportedly earned $20 million in NIL money, then it’s absolutely fair to ask whether it’s time to try something else.
Riley’s experience at USC, though, shows there’s no such thing as a slam-dunk hire. As Day signs another premier recruiting class and heads to the playoff, the Trojans march on in mediocrity, strapped to a $10 million-a-year bust.
One wonders if either Ryan Day or Lincoln Riley will be coaching at a different place in 2026.
USC fans wish 2026 could be changed to 2025, but it’s not likely to happen.
It seems like whenever there is a significant job opening in college football, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer gets his name lobbed all over message boards, certain media mouthpieces, and social media.
Scratch that, his name has also been floated out there when current Ohio State head coach, Ryan Day, can’t get the job done against Michigan. After all, Day is 1-4 against the Wolverines, a far cry from the 7-0 record Urban Frank Meyer had against OSU’s arch rival.
So, here we are again after Day’s Buckeyes lost a hard-fought and rather inept game against the Wolverines again. A report circulated earlier this week from former local Columbus and ESPN sportscaster Jay Crawford that Meyer might be interested in returning to coach Ohio State. That was shared across the internet here and likely through the entire Milky Way Galaxy and many in Buckeye Nation peed their pants a little with excitement.
However, sometimes rumors are just rumors, and that appears to be what this was here. But hey, don’t take our word for it, how about from the man himself? Meyer addressed the speculation on “The Triple Option” sports show hosted by himself, and Fox’s Rob Stone and Mark Ingram.
“It has come to my attention that there are reports speculating my return to the sidelines in Columbus,” Meyer said on the show. “While I thoroughly enjoyed my seven seasons as head coach of THE Ohio State University. I have no interest in coaching again. I will always be a Buckeye and have full confidence in Ryan Day, his staff, and every player that puts on the Scarlet and Gray.”
This seems like an annual thing now doesn’t it. While many with a slew of Scarlet and Gray in their wardrobes would love for Meyer to prowl the sidelines again on the banks of the Olentangy, this should put that to rest. Maybe.
It’s time for Ohio State fans to turn their focus on cheering for this team through the 12-team College Football Playoff in hopes that it can get its mojo back and bring home a national championship.
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.
Day, who has now lost four-straight games to Michigan, a game that is always the most important on the Buckeyes schedule, is on the hot seat after that 13-10 loss on Saturday as a near three-score favorite.
However, he’s still captaining this team for now, and with the CFP on the horizon, there is certainly room to improve his resume.
A deep run in the single-elimination tournament may save his job. But, even if he does win a few games, he may still find himself on the way out. So who could Ohio State bring in?
One Ohio State insider, Jay Crawford, who also used to help host “SportsCenter,” suggested that Urban Meyer could be a candidate, noting the reason the star head coach left is behind the program now.
“Urban never wanted to leave Ohio State. His hand was forced, because the administration at the time, did not like how powerful Urban had become at the university. And so there was a real power struggle. Note that the two main players that forced Urban out —and that’s what it was — are gone,” Crawford said on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show via 247Sports Brad Crawford.
This is an interesting take given Meyer works for FOX Sports as an analyst now after a failed stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, one shouldn’t bet on Meyer to be interested in it regardless.
With numerous five-star recruits eyeing Columbus as a potential home along with some of the top transfer portal players having Ohio State on their mind, the Buckeyes are often part of the routine news cycle.
So, when their head coach loses his fourth straight game to a rival in what the majority of fans would deem the most notable rivalry in college football, there are going to undoubtedly be calls for his job.
Questions about Ryan Day’s job security had little effect on Ohio State when the early signing period opened Wednesday.
The Buckeyes lost only one commit and flipped two themselves as they put together another top-five class. That and other things we learned: www.dispatch.com/story/sports…
According to the Columbus Dispatch’s Bill Rabinowitz, Day expects to be back in Columbus next season. He had a quick and short “yes” when asked.
The Buckeyes are going to have decisions to make, and for Day, success in the upcoming single-elimination tournament could help his cause. However, the damage may be irreparable without a championship in Columbus.
Ohio State football’s Ryan Day parted ways with Syracuse starting quarterback Kyle McCord after last season, and Fran Brown is happy he did.
Kyle McCord has had a terrific season for Syracuse. McCord, who started for the Ohio State football last season, parted ways with Ryan Day and the Buckeyes program after a disappointing 2023 campaign.
He had been with the Buckeyes since 2021, spending two seasons as a backup quarterback. McCord’s good friend, Marvin Harrison Jr., went pro, and he found a place where he could be a star.
He’s certainly become that with the Orange. McCord upset the top-ten Miami Hurricanes Saturday, and he threw for 380 yards and three touchdowns, arguably his most complete game of the season.
A few days after the game, Syracuse’s head coach continued to highlight how good the senior quarterback has been. He has an ACC-high in passing yards, passing completion, and passing attempts.
Here’s how he phrased his appreciation to Day for letting go of McCord. Fran Brown said he owns Day a case of champagne.
McCord has been winning as well and has the Orange sitting fourth in the ACC. With a 9-3 overall record, they won’t make the College Football Playoff, but they will be playing a bowl.
Not only did Ryan Day and company fall short, but they’ve failed to come out on top for now four-straight years.
The Buckeyes had their most experienced, most talented, and most expensive squad in recent history and couldn’t get the job done against a five-loss Michigan side. That’s embarrassing.
However, Paul Finebaum isn’t buying stock in Day if he loses in the first round, and he’s still skeptical even if he makes a run in the CFP.
“First-round knockout? I’d fire him on the field before he gets to the midfield,” Finebaum said. “I still think he probably ought to go.”
The Buckeyes have all the pieces to reign supreme, and they have a roster built by Day and his staff.
They needed to come out on top Saturday, and they failed to do so. It’ll be interesting if Day’s job can be saved even if he wins in the first and second rounds in the coming weeks.
