Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day was under considerable pressure entering the inaugural 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff.
Despite ending the regular season with a 10-2 record, Day was on the sideline in late November for a fourth consecutive loss at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines, the Buckeyes’ top rival.
The disappointing end to an otherwise solid season prompted a contingent of Ohio State fans to question whether Day should be removed from his head coaching post. However, Day seemed to quiet most of those critics 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 press conference at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 4, 2018. At the press conference, Meyer announced his retirement and offensive coordinator Ryan Day was tapped as the next head coach. (Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
After knocking the Tennessee Volunteers out in the first round, the Buckeyes blew out the top-seeded Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals. Ohio State then defeated the Texas Longhorns in the semifinal 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 head coach from 2012-18, described the fans who previously criticized Day via social media as “idiots.”
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“I coached a long time, and a lot has been made of it and Coach Day and the pressures of coaching at a place like Ohio State,” Meyer said during a recent appearance on the “Triple Option” podcast. “I made the comment that that’s not going to change. The thing that has got to change and has changed is the idiots on social media that don’t sign their name to stuff.”
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)
Reaction to the loss to Michigan prompted Day to hire security to protect his home. Meyer also said the reported poor treatment that Day’s children encountered as they attended school was a step “too far.”
“When you start involving families, you’re pushing it too far,” Meyer added. “Booing because you don’t get first downs and you lose to the rival, that’s part of the game. That’s all fair. But you’ve got to keep the families out of it.”
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. (Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
“When I first [went] to Florida, you know they wanted [Steve] Spurrier. I’d want Spurrier, too. He was a Heisman Trophy winner there, won the national championship,” Meyer said. “But it was Coach Spurrier went, I think, to the [Washington] Redskins, he got fired and left. He was available. The contingency wanted him back, and they hired me from Utah.
“I really didn’t understand the dynamic until I got there, and I got there and I’ll never forget — he goes to South Carolina — we lose to South Carolina, which you don’t do that at Florida. I walk in to do my radio show on a Thursday, and I am the most miserable human being. I’m a stranger in a strange land down South there, and I come walking in and they boo me. I’m 7-2, I think, at the time.”
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Meyer and Day have history, with the latter serving as the offensive coordinator under the former from 2017-18. Meyer retired following the 2018 season, and Day was later introduced as Ohio State’s next head coach.
Meyer coached the Buckeyes to the national title following the 2014 regular season, making Ohio State the winners of the inaugural College Football Playoff. A decade later, Day got them back to the mountaintop.
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