Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day was under considerable pressure in the inaugural 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff.
Despite finishing the regular season with a 10-2 record, Day was on the sidelines in late November for a fourth straight loss at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines, the Buckeyes’ top rival.
The disappointing end to an otherwise solid season has prompted a contingent of Ohio fans to wonder if Day should be removed as head coach. However, Day seemed to quiet most of those criticisms by guiding the team to an unblemished December and January.
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Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer laughs while answering a question during a news conference at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio on December 4, 2018. During the news conference , Meyer announced his retirement and his offensive coordinator Ryan Day was tapped as the next head coach. (Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
After knocking out the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round, the Buckeyes blew out the top-ranked Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals. Ohio State then defeated the Texas Longhorns In the semifinals to advance to the national championship game in Atlanta, where they prevailed with a 34-23 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Amid the Buckeye Faithful’s national title celebration, Day’s predecessor called out fans who previously used social media to express their displeasure with the program’s current head coach. Urban Meyer, who served as Ohio State’s head coach from 2012-18, described fans who previously criticized the day via social media as “idiots.”
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“I’ve coached a long time, and a lot has been done with it and coach’s day and the pressures of coaching at a place like Ohio State,” Meyer said during a recent appearance on the podcast. Triple Option”. “I made the comment that this won’t change. What needs to change and has changed are the idiots on social media who don’t sign their names.”
Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day looks on after defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Monday. (Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
The reaction to Michigan’s loss prompted Day to hire security to protect his home. Meyer also said the reported mistreatment the children from that day encountered while attending the school was a step “too far.”
“When you start involving families, you take it too far,” Meyer added. “Booing because you don’t get the first lows and you lose to the rival, that’s part of the game. It’s only fair. But you have to keep the families away.”
Meyer then compared Day’s situation to what he faced during his coaching stint at Florida.
Urban Meyer looks on during the CFP National Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Monday. (Images by Mark J. Rebilas-imagn)
“When I am for the first time [went] to Florida, you know they wanted [Steve] Spurrier. I would also like Spurrier. He was a Heisman Trophy winner, won the national championship,” Meyer said. But it was Coach Spurrier went, I think, to the [Washington] Redskins, he was fired and left. He was available. The contingency wanted it to come back to him and they hired me from Utah.
“I really didn’t understand the dynamic until I was able to get there, and I got there and I’ll never forget – he goes to South Carolina – we lose to South Carolina, that you don’t do that in Florida .I’m going to do my radio show on a Thursday, and I’m the most miserable human being, at the time.”
Meyer and Day have history, with the latter being the offensive coordinator under the former from 2017-18. Meyer retired after the 2018 season, and Day was then touted as Ohio State’s next head coach.
Meyer coached the Buckeyes to the national title after the 2014 regular season, making Ohio State the winners of college football’s first playoff. A decade later, the day brought them back to the mountaintop.
