For the first time since 2011, an Ohio State head coach entered Big Ten Media Days after losing the final two games of the previous season.
Ryan Day is very conscious of this. And he knows that Ohio State fans are, too.
He knows that folks in the scarlet and gray don’t care so much that he’s compiled a 45-6 record since taking over the program, and he knows they don’t care much about his winning two Big Ten titles and making three College Football Playoff appearances in four years.
They care that he’s 1-3 against That Team Up North — Michigan to the rest of us — and that he’s lost the last two to that team. They care that in the latest installment of The Game, the Buckeyes were embarrassed at the Shoe by an offense that seemed to do whatever it wanted.
I could point out — and often do — that Ryan Day has won a College Football Playoff semifinal game. In fact, this is something that Lincoln Riley, Brian Kelly and Jim Harbaugh cannot say.
I could also point out that Day’s Buckeyes fell one play short — a missed field goal at the stroke of midnight — of probably winning the first national title of his career. That kick would have topped Georgia in the CFP semis, and with respect, Ohio State likely would’ve beaten TCU in the national title game.
But as we know, criticism will always find a way to float to the top — like sludge in an otherwise clean pool of water. This, according to Day, is what he signed up for.
As he sees it, his job is to win championships. He hasn’t, and, unfairly or not, he accepts the criticism that comes with that fact.
Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Marvin Harrison Jr. and J.T. Tuimoloau preview season at Big Ten Media Days
“Being a play away from having a completely different conversation right now is not only frustrating, but it’s also encouraging, because our guys this season know how close we are now,” Day told me. “We have to replace a couple pieces, but we have more experience coming back on defense than we have since 2019.”
And Year 2 in a Jim Knowles defense is supposed to be the magic year. It was at Knowles’ previous stop, Oklahoma State, where he helped Mike Gundy’s Pokes beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl in 2021.
With EDGEs J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, linebacker Tommy Eichenberg, corner Denzel Burke and defensive tackle Mike Hall all returning, plus the addition of talented players like C.J. Hicks and Sonny Styles joining in, the defense should be better built to limit explosive plays.
“When you look at it and take a step back,” Day said, “the biggest thing that we’ve got to eliminate are the big plays. There’s just too many explosive plays in those last two games.”
While Day has to replace quarterback C.J. Stroud, the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, his track record is among the best in the sport at evaluating that position. Every QB he has started at Ohio State has been selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, dating back to the late Dwayne Haskins.
And, quiet as it is kept, Kyle McCord started for him last year against Akron while Stroud took a rest week. There’s currently a derby going on for that job between he and Devin Brown, but it’d be tough to pick against McCord, who is not just a five-star player but threw passes to the best wideout in the sport, Marvin Harrison Jr., on a state championship team at St. Joseph’s Preparatory in Philadelphia.
All of this leads me to believe Ohio State is more dangerous than it has been in four years. The Buckeyes are not just talented, they’re chippy. They’re no longer looking for a reason to fight the world — they have one, and they’re gripping it tightly.
Ohio State against the world.
Buckeye fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young. Subscribe to “The Number One College Football Show” on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.
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