Ohio State Football: Gene Smith gives Ryan Day vote of confidence

The last couple of seasons has been rough for Ryan Day and the Ohio State football program. After making the CFP and getting one bad call away from making the national title in 2019 and then actually making it to the end in 2020, the last two years have not been kind to him.

That’s what back-to-back losses to TTUN will do for you as the leader of the Ohio State football program. That is especially true after the Buckeyes had beaten Michigan every year since 2011. Fans were hard on him. I was hard on him too after the most recent loss.

A win against Georgia and TCU for a national championship would have forgiven everything. Unfortunately, Day was one missed field goal short of that goal. Instead, things have heated up around Day from the outside. Internally, they seem to stay cool.

Gene Smith told ESPN today that Ryan Day is “my CEO” and gave him a public vote of confidence. He thinks that Day has been doing a good job and said that they have regular conversations on how to improve the team and ultimately achieve their goal of winning championships.

I’m not surprised to see Smith give Day this vote of faith. I will say that this could change if the Buckeyes lose yet another game to TTUN. The Ohio State Buckeyes haven’t lost three straight in The Game since the mid-90s. That would be an utter disaster.

There are a lot of things that need to be taken care of before that. Day mentioned to ESPN how they have to get better at limiting explosive plays on defense. That’s certainly one area that killed this team last year. There’s no excuse for it this year though.

I think if Day is able to beat TTUN this year, the heat will cool down regardless if he wins a national title this year or not. If he loses to TTUN for a third-straight year though, all bets are off. He could be looking for a new job.