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THE GAME, tOSU at tCun, Sat. 11/25, 12pm ET, FOX

I know that Sherrone Moore was better than Day.
Yesterday he was. UM is definitely in Day’s head no doubt about it. There’s something about this game that doesn’t go well for him. But as long as he beats everyone else and doesn’t get blown out when he does lose (like Tressel and Urban were always good for), I’ll ride with him a little longer. Now he eventually has to win the big one in the next few years (along with beating Michigan) , but I’ll give him some more time with what he’s shown so far.
 
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Again, I’m calling for Day’s job if he starts doing Cooper-esuqe things and we lose to Maryland, Mich st, and or Rutgers and have an 8-3, 9-2 record heading into Michigan. If we are consistently over 10 wins/undefeated by Michigan weekend, I’m willing to stick with him unless he is getting blown out in the game or by OOC match ups (like Tressel did and Meyer did at the end).

Hey, I’m just trying to help put things in perspective. This is the last year of the game as we know it and moving forward the game is not going to stop us from reaching our ultimate goals no matter the outcome. Now, considering we might have to play them three times to win a championship, we obviously have to beat them eventually. Thanksgiving weekend just won’t be our only most meaningful shot at doing it. That’s all I’m saying.
Again, Cooper would blow everyone out on the schedule and then lose to a 9-3 Michigan team. In 1993, 1995 and 1996 he took undefeated teams into the Michigan game and got pantsed. IMO, that's one reason those assholes were able to recruit well enough to win their 1/2 championship in 97. The 1998 team losing to Michigan State sucked and likely cost us a natty, but at least he beat scUM that year. and the miserable seasons post 1998 were because he lost control of the program.
 
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The anti-Day crowd has made so many bad takes in this thread that you are starting to turn me into one of his staunchest supporters. I am only partially joking.

This following take is not bad, it is simply incorrect:
I’m there with you in that I don’t think Ryan is that guy. He’s not a Kirby Smart or a Nick Saban.
Actually, through their first five years, Ryan Day is exactly Kirby Smart. Ask our resident Georgia fans what they thought of Smart when he kept losing big games to his rivals during his first five seasons. Then Smart wins it all in years six and seven and is odds on favorite to threepeat in year eight. Now ask Georgia fans how high they want to build his statue.

Kirby Smart is an aberration. Most coaches who win an NC do so within their first four seasons at that school. The complete list is here: LINK. Dabo Swinney is another aberration, as he won his first NC at Clemson in year eight and his second in year ten. I have no reason to think or even believe that Ryan Day will buck the trend like Smart and Swinney, but at this point I have to hope that he does so. My hope will run out in three years – if Day hasn't won it all by the 2026 season, then I will firmly join the anti-Day camp.

I've given my thoughts on Ryan Day earlier in this thread: LINK. Ryan Day is not a risk taker – he doesn't go for the throat early (Clemson 2019; scUM 2023) or sweep the leg late (Georgia 2022), and this has led to three career-defining losses. Sometimes risk aversion is the byproduct of intelligence, sometimes of cowardice. You decide.

Now I want to give a different perspective on Ryan Day. I'm not Ryan Day's boss, but if I were I would consider the following to be his job duties, in order: (1) prepare players for the NFL; (2) generate money for Ohio State and its media partners; and (3) win football games.

The purpose of a college is to prepare its students for their chosen careers. Ryan Day and his staff are essentially professors of football, so their primary job is to prepare their players for the NFL. Ryan Day and his staff do a great job of preparing players for the NFL, and that is one of the main reasons why talented high school football prospects want to attend Ohio State (just like talented high school computer programer prospects want to attend Stanford).

Of course, college football is a business and player development requires money – for assistant coaches, for a recruiting staff, for training facilities, and these days for players themselves. Ryan Day generates a lot of money for Ohio State, and thus Ohio State has a lot of money to invest in its football program – it's a successful business model.

So if Ryan Day succeeds in his first two job duties (develop players; generate money), then he will naturally succeed in his third (win games). Day has won games at an incredible rate and he will continue to do so. The question remains: Will Day ever the big game and transform himself from a good steward into a renowned king?

A few more thoughts on The Game itself....

After the Minnesota game, I had this to say about Kyle McCord:
• In his last tune-up prior to The Game, QB Kyle McCord was adequate but not great: 20/30, 212 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, sack. All season long, Buckeye fans have been trying to come up with an appropriate comparison for McCord, with the most common candidate being Craig Krenzel. After watching McCord for eleven games, I can't help thinking that he's Todd Boeckman – a quarterback who was good enough to lead Ohio State to the brink of a national championship as a junior in 2007, but who was quickly replaced by a younger better player (Terrelle Pryor) the following season....
After The Game, I feel even more strongly that McCord = Boeckman and that Ohio State will have a new starting quarterback in 2024. McCord showed no real improvement throughout the season and he does not possess the athleticism to overcome his mental mistakes.

After the Michigan State game, I had this to say about Xavier Johnson:
Xavier Johnson has quietly developed into the third option on offense behind Harrison and Henderson. Against Sparty, Johnson had 4 carries for 40 yards and added a 31-yard reception. You have to feel happy for the sixth year former walk-on finding so much success. You also have to wonder why he's more productive than some of the five-star talent on this roster.
Johnson had another nice game yesterday, with 3 plays from scrimmage for 22 yards and 2 kick returns for 42 yards. It's really cool to see the X-Man having some success, but where have all the five star recruits gone? Marvin Harrison Jr is the best player in college football and Emeka Egbuka gets somewhat of a pass this year due to injury, but in his fourth season Julian Fleming has still not progressed beyond mediocrity (26 receptions, 270 yards, 0 TDs this season; 80 receptions, 990 yards, 7 TDs for his career). Sure, Brandon Inniss and Carnell Tate look like future stars, but former top prospects Jayden Ballard, Kiyon Grayes, Kojo Antwi, Noah Rogers, and Bryson Rodgers have a combined zero receptions on the season. Tight end Gee Scott Jr has a grand total of 19 receptions for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns through four seasons.

One final thought. After the Notre Dame game, I wrote this:
• With 4:12 left in the game, I was preparing to write the lazy postmortem. You know, something like: "Play calling .... lack of adjustments .... soft team .... short yardage red zone Clemson 2019 .... John Cooper .... season over wait until next year." While we can, and some of us undoubtedly will, discuss our team's and our coach's shortcomings over the upcoming days and weeks, today all of that negative talk (or constructive criticism) has to be put on hold because It happened.
I understand that football games are win/lose events and that there are no bad wins or good losses. I also understand that football is a game of inches and that one or two plays can swing the outcome of a game. In the Notre Dame game, everything went right on the final drive and Ohio State pulled out a miraculous victory; in the scUM game, the potential game-winning drive ended with an interception. Now reverse the situations – the Notre Dame ends with the pick, the scUM game with the last-second touchdown. Do your opinions of Ryan Day and Kyle McCord change? Should they, or are they still the same guys?
 
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With everything going on at Michigan this season, they won't have much of a team next year. They are losing around 40 players who are going to lose eligibility. With the NCAA violations, how many more will enter the transfer portal? How many recruits will open up their recruiting and flip? If Day does lose to Michigan next year, something is very wrong.
I’m sure you will be making excuses for him then too
 
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This is a blue-blood program that recruits at the highest levels. You have top tier facilities, money and structure. If scUM is a good team, then we just failed the greatest benchmark of how we measure success - by beating other good teams. But not only that, your arch nemesis.

The problem is believing it has to be one or the other. Consistently win against who is in front of you, while putting a special emphasis on The Game. Pretty straight forward stuff.
Totally agree. I don’t think it has to be one or the other either as a great coach should do both. All I’m saying is that he consistently wins against anyone who’s not Michigan and while that game is important for sentimental reasons, it’s not the end all be all for our ultimate goals moving forward (that’s if you value National Championships).

There is only one great coach in college football and a few good ones. We have one of the good ones. Will he be great? Idk, but I’m just not willing to trade him in for an unknown commodity just yet. I agree he needs to start beating his top 5 opponents, chiefly Michigan, but if he only loses to top competition in close games, I’ll take it. I’ve seen Tressel and Urban beat Michigan so many times only to lose to a team with a losing record during the season or get blown out by a non-conference opponent in the bowl game. The feels just as bad to me.
 
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That's the worst aspect of the cheating scandal. Is it cheating, or is it Day?
Well, considering that multiple coaches other than Prime have come out and said what a huge advantage it was and the dynamic that tsun pushes the 22 team all over the field at home and then that same team turns around and comes within a missed field goal of dethroning UGA (and likely moving on to a NC) seems to pretty indicative. You also have all the data comparing tcun pre-Stalions to their performance with him: winning percentage, average points for and against, pass efficiency against the blitz and most damning that they were beating the spread in B1G games at better than a 75% clip. You can also look at Spin Pass going immediately from Heisman front runner to mediocre without Stalions.

I know that people are having this emotionally driven backlash against Day, but there is no way that you can look at 21 and 22 and not acknowledge that, with what we know now, he took those teams into The Game with a huge thumb on the scale in tcun's favor.
 
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