Ohio State football: Ryan Day and another head-scratcher coaches list

It seems the leader of the Ohio State football program can’t get any respect from national reporters.

Legendary comedian Rodney Dangerfield used to claim, “I don’t get no respect.” Ryan Day can probably make that claim as well. Just a week or so after Pro Football Focus didn’t think Day deserved to be ranked in their list of top-twenty college football coaches, another head-scratcher list comes along. This one is from The Sporting News who, with the use of a six-person panel, ranked all 130 FBS coaches.

Although this list has Day at number six, it is who he is ranked behind that makes you go, “Wait…what?” At number three is Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley. Like Day, he is one of the bright young coaches in all of football and like Day, his teams have dominated their conference. Unlike Day, he has not won a playoff game. As a matter of fact, the Sooners have lost THREE playoff games under Riley.

Ready for who is ranked at number four? Brian Kelly of Notre Dame. The same Brian Kelly whose Notre Dame teams are 0-2 in the College Football Playoff and have been outscored 61-17. Oh, and let’s not forget that 42-14 loss to Alabama in the 2012 BCS National Championship game.

So, between two playoff games and a national championship game appearance before the playoff, Kelly’s Fighting Irish have been outscored 103-31. He has all of four bowl wins in his eleven seasons at Notre Dame. Two of those came against 6-6 Rutgers and 7-5 Iowa State.

None have been in major bowls. In fairness, Kelly and Day each have a win over Clemson, but there is a difference. Kelly got his in two overtimes with a home-field advantage during the regular season. Day’s win came over the Tigers came at a neutral site in the playoff.

Two of the others in front of Day are predictable. Nick Saban of Alabama and Dabo Swinney of Clemson are ranked first and second. I’m surprised Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher is fifth on the list, but at least he’s won a national title in his career.

It was seven seasons ago (2013 with Florida State), but at least when ranking coaches you can justify putting him in front of Day because of this. Placing Riley and Kelly ahead of him is something I just can’t agree with.

Day is the only Big Ten coach listed in the top ten, but the conference did land seven in the top 25. That’s the most of any conference. Penn State’s James Franklin is eleventh. Pat Fitzgerald is a very deserving twelfth. Jim Harbaugh is overrated at fifteenth, while Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst is seventeenth. Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Tom Allen of Indiana are 20th and 21st.

Lists like this are just that, a list. They’re meaningless and are only meant to create discussion and arguments. Ohio State football fans know just how good Ryan Day is and what a gem of a head coach we have.