Ohio State Football: Ryan Day behind his predecessors at Ohio State

Being head coach of the Ohio State football program is a ridiculously hard job. Not only do you play in a tough conference with a bunch of other premier programs, but the Buckeyes are held to unrealistically high standards. Every year it’s national championship or bust.

Ryan Day has learned that since he took over in 2019. He’s been on the job for four full years now. Each year, the expectations and the heat have ratcheted up. He has made the College Football Playoff in three of his four seasons, and yet that’s still not enough.

Day is behind his predecessors who led the Ohio State football program. Urban Meyer, who used to be Day’s boss, had already won a national championship by his third year coaching the program. He also never lost to Michigan during the seven years he coached the Buckeyes.

Jim Tressel won a national championship in his second season on the job and played for two more in his sixth and seventh years on the job. Tressel also compiled a record of 8-2 against TTUN in the ten years he held the position. Day hasn’t reached the heights of either coach.

Day has now lost more games to TTUN than he’s won. He has two Big Ten Championships and one national title appearance. For most programs, that would be really darn good. At Ohio State, that’s not good enough after what we’ve seen the previous two coaches do.

After losing to TTUN again in 2022, I called Day John Cooper 2.0. So far, his resume is eerily similar. Day has to beat TTUN this year in the Big House to get that thought out of fans’ heads. Losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl was an absolute heartbreaker that could have changed his legacy.

Alas, the game didn’t end in a win. Now Day has to try to catch the benchmark that his predecessors set for him.