In the history of the Ohio State football program, there have only been eight national championship teams. It's incredibly hard to win a national title, no matter how good the roster is. Ryan Day was able to lead the 2024 team to a title. Now, he has an even tougher task.
Julian Sayin is almost surely done for the year. Day now must lead a backup quarterback to a title. Urban Meyer was able to do it in 2014 to become the second-best coach in the history of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Day has a shot to surpass him this season with a title.
Ryan Day can make Ohio State history with a national championship in 2026
With the Buckeyes needing either Luke Fahey or Tavien St. Clair to lead them to a championship, Day has a unique opportunity. Ohio State is still the third-ranked team in the country. Back-to-back tough games will really show whether this team has what it takes to win it all.
Winning a second national title would give him more titles than anyone not named Woody Hayes as the head coach of the Buckeyes. That alone would put him on the Mount Rushmore of Ohio State coaches. Doing so with a backup quarterback would be an even greater accomplishment.
Day has five games in the regular season to make sure that the team makes the College Football Playoff. Beating USC and Oregon in consecutive weeks would quiet a lot of the noise around the team. That's what Day is working towards right now during the bye week.
Ohio State has a chance to get a first-round bye in the CFP. Having that with a backup quarterback would be even more advantageous, even though the bye week has proved perilous for a lot of teams. However, Indiana made it work for them last year en route to a title.
Ryan Day has a chance to fully get fans off his back
Even with a national championship to his name, Day still has detractors. He finally beat Michigan last year, as well. However, there are some fans who aren't sold on him being the head coach long-term. Winning a title this year changes all of that. He would have this job for life.
If Day wins a championship with a backup quarterback this year, he could have this job for as long as he wants. No amount of fan complaining would ever get him fired. He would likely keep this job until an NFL team came calling about a head coaching opportunity. That's the only reason he would leave at that point.
We are getting a bit ahead of ourselves, though. Day still has a lot to do before that scenario comes to fruition. The Buckeyes have to win games with Fahey or St. Clair in the backfield. They then have to get through the gauntlet that is the College Football Playoff.
There are still months of football ahead, but Day has a unique opportunity in front of him. If he seizes it, he could finally ascend to the title of the best head coach in college football.
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