HC Ryan Day (2019 B1G Media COY)

[Buckeye86]

Expanded playoff may really muddy things. If he loses to scUM again next year AND in the first round of the playoff. Does he get another pass because “HE MADE THE PLAYOFF!!”?

I’m his biggest defender here (seemingly), and I just said if he doesn’t flip the momentum next year in the ‘Shoe then the only answer is probably a new HC.

 

[Buckeye86]

Day has to make the decision on whether McCord will improve on his reads next year or if this who he is. If he moves to change the QB he has two options. 1) start another first year starter that doesn't have any significant playing time or 2) get a gem out of the transfer portal. If he goes the transfer route then McCord would leave and probably Brown as well.

There is absolutely no way he goes transfer portal. It’s Brown or McCord in ‘24, loser (probably) transfers.

 

[buckeyemania11]

I’m his biggest defender here (seemingly), and I just said if he doesn’t flip the momentum next year in the ‘Shoe then the only answer is probably a new HC.

The attitude I see from a lot of people (not necessarily on here) is the how can you fire a coach who wins 11 games a year! His replacement could be much worse!

While true there is a risk, like many have pointed out though, it’s pretty much title or bust in todays game for the major players. Nobody cares about the “moral victories” anymore. 11 wins and an early playoff out might as well be 8-4 and the Alamo Bowl 20 years ago.

 

[Gunlife]

There is absolutely no way he goes transfer portal. It’s Brown or McCord in ‘24, loser (probably) transfers.

You have to let Lincoln have a shot. His added athleticism might be what we were missing the last 3 years. Fields destroyed ttun with his legs

 

[Buckeye86]

You have to let Lincoln have a shot. His added athleticism might be what we are missing the last 3 years. Fields destroyed ttun with his legs

Sure, that just seems unlikely, but I’m fine with whoever Day thinks puts them in the best position to win.

Even if Brown is barely a step up athletically from McCord, the attitude and willingness to run makes a difference, too.

It’s also about confidence, and McCord might be broken from that standpoint—although maybe it was just a bum ankle for half the season holding him back.

It won’t be an easy decision, but out of everything, choosing his starting QB is the area I trust Day the most in.

 

[Steve19]

You have to let Lincoln have a shot. His added athleticism might be what we are missing the last 3 years. Fields destroyed ttun with his legs

I agree

 

[scarletngray]

McCord made a really, really bad play and gave the other team 7 points right from the jump, a hole OSU was trying to dig out of literally the rest of the game and came up just short.

McCord also missed some reads to kill drives throughout the rest of the game. He was a first-year starter, he either gets better as a second-year starter, or someone beats him and the QB position is better next year.

But, otherwise, the offense was moving the ball, scoring points, and playing well enough to win the rest of the game. The play calling on offense was effective outside of McCord’s play in limited situations (I’m specifically thinking of missing a wide open Fleming running a corner route to the end zone).

Day could have been more aggressive at the end of the first half, I get that, but if he fails to get a first down there, there was a real chance UM puts up more points before the half with a few passes.

Hindsight is 20/20 and getting that first down was not a given.

It’s amazing to me how quickly expectations change. How many people were saying this is a 3-4 loss team at the beginning of the year? More than a few. By that metric, Day far exceeded expectations.

Similarly, a microcosm of the instantly changing expectations was in the game, Ohio State was pinned at its own two-yard-line with almost no time left in the first half. Praying to get a first down and not giving up a safety or blocked punt in the end zone was the reasonable expectation there. Instead, McCord makes one of his better plays of the entire game and the expectation instantly flips to getting points before the half, and people thinking Day should be fired because he wasn’t aggressive enough.

I get it. Losing The Game absolutely breaks people’s brains, but there are, in fact, a lot of broken brains here.

It sucks, it absolutely sucks.

Michigan ducked an epic ass beating in 2020 like cowards. That would have made Day 2-0 against ttun.

Day made a horrible DC hire, UM started cheating, the weather was bad, OSU players were sick, and UM was pretty damn good in ‘21.

In ‘22, UM perfected the art of cheating and they had a good QB who has had OSU’s number, OSU’s secondary was decimated by injury, OSU was on its 4th string RB, lost its best player on offense for the season, and the DC was too aggressive.

In ‘23, UM had its best team of a generation, with the experienced QB who had OSU’s number, at home, against an OSU first-year starting QB, Knowles was not aggressive enough, the OSU LB had a robot arm and couldn’t tackle a TE in the open field, the OSU special teams were a mess which left points on the field and utterly failed to pin UM deep when they should have on every punt, the first year starting OSU QB made a game killing mistake early, and OSU still had a legit shot to win at the end of the game.

Call it excuses, whatever. That is what happened. A lot of bad things have lined up against Ohio State for the past four seasons, and talk of being soft, not “getting it,” or whatever is absolute horseshit, in my opinion.

Look at Urban Meyer, who “dominated” the series. OSU won by 5 in ‘12, was fortunate as shit to win in ‘13 with a two-point conversion interception, and again in ‘16 with a 4th down conversion by inches on the game-winning drive. Some bad luck in any of those games and Meyer’s record is practically 50-50, assuming the momentum isn’t completely different in the rest of the games.

Maybe it’s some kind of Ohio magic in there that gets those lucky bounces, but I don’t really think so. Those lucky bounces are about confidence and momentum as much as anything else. Meyer had it and OSU benefited from things going there way.

OSU and Day don’t have it right now, and the bad bounces have stacked up against them.

Next year is lined up exactly opposite to ‘23. UM’s team will be decimated and coming to Columbus with a first-year starting QB. Day HAS to get the momentum back next year, or the narrative changes and even I’ll admit that the only was to get it back would be to make a coaching change.

Day does need to make some moves this off-season. I’m not saying things are fine and Day/OSU just need to wait for UM to be bad.

First with an exclamation point is getting rid of Parker Fleming and adjusting how special teams are coached. Pinning UM deep instead of 35 yards punts to the 30 all day give the defense a much better chance to get stops.

That’s my magnum opus on moving forward. Another test for Day will be getting the team ready for whatever bowl game they’re in. I look forward to seeing the future in that game.

Hope springs eternal, and I will always be optimistic for the next wave of talent at Ohio State and their chance to shine next season.

This

 

[BuckBackHome]

McCord made a really, really bad play and gave the other team 7 points right from the jump, a hole OSU was trying to dig out of literally the rest of the game and came up just short.

McCord also missed some reads to kill drives throughout the rest of the game. He was a first-year starter, he either gets better as a second-year starter, or someone beats him and the QB position is better next year.

But, otherwise, the offense was moving the ball, scoring points, and playing well enough to win the rest of the game. The play calling on offense was effective outside of McCord’s play in limited situations (I’m specifically thinking of missing a wide open Fleming running a corner route to the end zone).

Day could have been more aggressive at the end of the first half, I get that, but if he fails to get a first down there, there was a real chance UM puts up more points before the half with a few passes.

Hindsight is 20/20 and getting that first down was not a given.

It’s amazing to me how quickly expectations change. How many people were saying this is a 3-4 loss team at the beginning of the year? More than a few. By that metric, Day far exceeded expectations.

Similarly, a microcosm of the instantly changing expectations was in the game, Ohio State was pinned at its own two-yard-line with almost no time left in the first half. Praying to get a first down and not giving up a safety or blocked punt in the end zone was the reasonable expectation there. Instead, McCord makes one of his better plays of the entire game and the expectation instantly flips to getting points before the half, and people thinking Day should be fired because he wasn’t aggressive enough.

I get it. Losing The Game absolutely breaks people’s brains, but there are, in fact, a lot of broken brains here.

It sucks, it absolutely sucks.

Michigan ducked an epic ass beating in 2020 like cowards. That would have made Day 2-0 against ttun.

Day made a horrible DC hire, UM started cheating, the weather was bad, OSU players were sick, and UM was pretty damn good in ‘21.

In ‘22, UM perfected the art of cheating and they had a good QB who has had OSU’s number, OSU’s secondary was decimated by injury, OSU was on its 4th string RB, lost its best player on offense for the season, and the DC was too aggressive.

In ‘23, UM had its best team of a generation, with the experienced QB who had OSU’s number, at home, against an OSU first-year starting QB, Knowles was not aggressive enough, the OSU LB had a robot arm and couldn’t tackle a TE in the open field, the OSU special teams were a mess which left points on the field and utterly failed to pin UM deep when they should have on every punt, the first year starting OSU QB made a game killing mistake early, and OSU still had a legit shot to win at the end of the game.

Call it excuses, whatever. That is what happened. A lot of bad things have lined up against Ohio State for the past four seasons, and talk of being soft, not “getting it,” or whatever is absolute horseshit, in my opinion.

Look at Urban Meyer, who “dominated” the series. OSU won by 5 in ‘12, was fortunate as shit to win in ‘13 with a two-point conversion interception, and again in ‘16 with a 4th down conversion by inches on the game-winning drive. Some bad luck in any of those games and Meyer’s record is practically 50-50, assuming the momentum isn’t completely different in the rest of the games.

Maybe it’s some kind of Ohio magic in there that gets those lucky bounces, but I don’t really think so. Those lucky bounces are about confidence and momentum as much as anything else. Meyer had it and OSU benefited from things going their way.

OSU and Day don’t have it right now, and the bad bounces have stacked up against them.

Next year is lined up exactly opposite to ‘23. UM’s team will be decimated and coming to Columbus with a first-year starting QB. Day HAS to get the momentum back next year, or the narrative changes and even I’ll admit that the only was to get it back would be to make a coaching change.

Day does need to make some moves this off-season. I’m not saying things are fine and Day/OSU just need to wait for UM to be bad.

First with an exclamation point is getting rid of Parker Fleming and adjusting how special teams are coached. Pinning UM deep instead of 35 yards punts to the 30 all day give the defense a much better chance to get stops.

I also think Day needs to make a move with LJ Sr. and DL coaching by moving to someone new who is more on board with Knowle’s overall scheme.

Part of Knowles being able to hit the right level of aggressiveness (too much in ‘22, too little in ‘23) is either 1) implementing the Jack position and the variability/aggressiveness that brings or 2) a coach that can strike a better balance between maintaining gap responsibilities and getting after the QB, which LJ Sr. has not been able to do. The DEs being good against the run, which they have been all season, does not mean they have to be lackluster at getting after the QB. Maybe that’s not having the Jack, maybe that’s the coaching of technique and situational awareness. Either way, moving on from LJ Sr. seems like the move.

That’s my magnum opus on moving forward. Another test for Day will be getting the team ready for whatever bowl game they’re in. I look forward to seeing the future in that game.

Hope springs eternal, and I will always be optimistic for the next wave of talent at Ohio State and their chance to shine next season.

Greenies for you! Great post.

 

[zbuck]

He's also 1-3 in CFP games.

Don't forget that one.

No one cheated him there. He just wasn't good enough.

I think we were cheated by the refs in both 2019 and 2022. But that’s another story ….

 

[Osi]

Greatest football coach of all time should have lost to fucking 5-6 Auburn today. Shit happens. Day isn’t Saban but by all intents that should have been a career embarrassing loss today for Nicky.

Now, I don’t know how bad shit happens 3 years in a row for Day - that’s an ovious pattern but…you’re dealing with 18-22 year olds for 3-4 hours. And those fuckers have had the best 10-12 hours of game time ever imagined.

It’s gotta run out.

Yes

 

[sg86]

If not for a shanked chip shot FG last year we are most likely defending national Champs.

Instead we want to fire a coach for going 11-1 this year.

All because when we go to work on Monday there's a Michigan fan and we're tired of his shit.

That field goal was not a chip shot. And Ruggles could barely kick an extra point straight all season. No reasonable person had confidence that was going in. The decision to just sit on it where it was and kick a long FG was a terrible one.

And rather than learn from that mistake, he repeated it yesterday.

He’s incredibly arrogant when it comes to his offense. There’s no learning from the past or adjusting plans based on the opponent. He thinks his ideas and calls are infallible and only fail because other people didn’t execute them properly. All he does is try the same shit over and over again and then gawk in disbelief when he gets the same result.

 

[Bill Lucas]

generational talent at QB and WR. We don’t have that this year…..or next, probably.

Jeremiah Smith says hello.

 

[Onebuckfan]

If not for a shanked chip shot FG last year we are most likely defending national Champs.

Instead we want to fire a coach for going 11-1 this year.

All because when we go to work on Monday there's a Michigan fan and we're tired of his shit.

IF but the world sees us as Louisville a tick above PSU and below (puke) Iowa. Let that sink in..Buckeye fans are to close to see what the world sees.

 

[Buckeye doc]

That field goal was not a chip shot. And Ruggles could barely kick an extra point straight all season. No reasonable person had confidence that was going in. The decision to just sit on it where it was and kick a long FG was a terrible one.

And rather than learn from that mistake, he repeated it yesterday.

He’s incredibly arrogant when it comes to his offense. There’s no learning from the past or adjusting plans based on the opponent. He thinks his ideas and calls are infallible and only fail because other people didn’t execute them properly. All he does is try the same shit over and over again and then gawk in disbelief when he gets the same result.

I tend to agree with the take on his offense. The job here is winning football games, beat your rival, play for championships. Not preparing guys (mostly qb and wr) for the nfl. Getting guys to the league helps with recruiting, I get that. But could the offense be simplified a little, so it doesnt require a generational thrower of the football to execute the gameplan and win?

Day does deserve credit for changing things up in the run game and short yardage play calls. There was solid improvement in those two areas over the course of this season.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Next year is a whole new ballgame:
1) With the addition of 4 new (and potentially) very good teams to the B1G and the elimination of divisions; even winning the B1G will be a bigger challenge. It could even require beating scUM in back to back games.
2) 12 teams get into the CFPs. if you end up in the top 10 you are almost a lock to go to the CFPs. You can lose 2 games (maybe even 3 during the regular season and still get in. It will be the football version of March Madness.

So who knows how it will pan out for Day and the Buckeyes?