Ohio State Football: Why I still want Ryan Day

Another year of sadness has come as the Ohio State football team lost a heartbreaker to Michigan 30-24 on Saturday. As expected, many Buckeye fans are calling for Ryan Day’s head on the chopping block. However, I am not one of them.

Ryan Day has a record of 56-7. I understand that 3 of those losses are to Michigan and that is a tough pill to swallow. However, all the man does is win. I know many say he can’t win “the big ones”, but do you realize how hard it is to win? He has lost 7 games in 5 years. Many programs lose 7 games in one year. 50 FBS teams lost 7+ games this season. I think that fans should have high expectations, but that winning percentage should not be grounds for firing.

I also understand that we want to compare Day to Tressel and Urban and that is partially fair. Both have won national championships. They also went a combined 16-1 against TTUN. Ryan Day is now 1-3 and should at the very least by 2-3. More than likely, 2 of those losses will be vacated, which brings him back to 1-1.

It’s not an excuse, but let’s look at the Michigan teams that Tressel and Urban beat. They had 10+ wins in only 6 of the combined 17 years. They finished in the top ten four times! Their football program was a dumpster fire compared to the Buckeyes. Those are games that we should win.

Let’s bring up the fact that Day doesn’t beat anyone good. Urban only won one national championship at Ohio State. Those are also the only two playoff wins he had while being here. He also lost in a semifinal by 31 points. Tressel also lost 22 games in 10 years. They both lost to teams that they shouldn’t lose to. Day only has 3 conference losses.

I think it’s bigger than Day being fired. It’s more of who wants to come to Ohio State knowing you have to win every game every year or you get fired. Nobody wants that. Can you imagine doing things right 89% of the time and people only think about the 11% of things you do wrong?

Yes, I was very upset when the Buckeyes lost on Saturday, but I still think we are the better team. I also think Day called a good game other than 2 conservative calls on 4th down. Could that have been the difference? Maybe. However, I also know that they didn’t get a stop in the second half, and that could also be the difference.

Keep Ryan Day and good things will happen.