Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day was under considerable pressure entering the first 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff.
Despite finishing the regular season with a 10–2 record, Day was sidelined 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 led a contingent of Ohio State fans to question whether Day should be removed from his head coaching position. However, Day seemed to put most of those critics to rest by guiding the team to a spotty December and January.
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Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer laughs while answering a question during a press conference at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 4, 2018. At the press conference, Meyer announced his retirement and offensive coordinator Ryan Day was being tapped as the next head coach. (Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
After knocking off the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round, the Buckeyes blew out the top-seeded Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals. Ohio State saw defeated the Texas Longhorns in the semifinals to advance to the national championship game in Atlanta, where they won 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 the fans who previously criticized Day via social media as “idiots.”
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“I coached for a long time and a lot has been made of it and Coach Day and the pressure of coaching at a place like Ohio State,” Meyer said during a recent appearance on the “Triple Option” podcast. “I made the comment that it’s not going to change. What needs to change and has changed is the idiots on social media who don’t put their name on things.”
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 the loss to Michigan prompted Day to hire security guards to protect his home. Meyer also said the reported mistreatment Day’s children faced when they attended school was a step “too far.”
“When you start involving families, you’re pushing it too far,” Meyer added. “To boo because you don’t get first downs and you lose to the rival, that’s part of the game. It’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 watches 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 would [Steve] Spurries. I want Spurrier too. He was a Heisman Trophy winner there, won the national championship,” Meyer said. “But it was Coach Spurrier who went, I think, to [Washington] Redskins, he got fired and left. He was available. The emergency services 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 in Florida. I go do my radio show on a Thursday, and I’m the most wretched person. I’m a stranger in a strange land down there, and I’m coming on foot, and I’m 7-2 years old, I think, at the time.”
Meyer and Day have history, with the latter serving as offensive coordinator under the former from 2017-18. Meyer retired after the 2018 season, and Day was later introduced as Ohio State’s next head coach.
Meyer coached the Buckeyes to the 2014 regular season national title, making Ohio State the winners of the inaugural College Football Playoff. A decade later, Day got them back to the mountaintop.
