ATLANTA — Please stay, Ryan Day. Give dear ol’ Ohio State a chance to win consecutive national championships. Give the Buckeyes a shot at being what Alabama was or what Georgia might be.
Please stay, Ryan Day, because right now you’re too good for the Buckeyes. That’s less of a shiv in the back to the crazed Scarlet and Gray critics who kicked you to the curb 7 ½ weeks ago, after the latest Michigan loss, and more of a fact. Right now after beating Notre Dame 34-23 to win the program’s ninth championship and first in 10 years, you’re a made man. You’re good for life in Ohio. You never have to buy a drink on High Street again — or Cleveland or Cincinnati or Pickerington or wherever Bucknuts grow.
You’re minted and gold-plated as a Buckeye legend. Or should be. Your win percentage of .875 is behind only Knute Rockne among FBS coaches with a minimum of 50 starts. Knute. Rockne.
The leverage now is also all yours. If you’re thinking promotion, Ryan — and you’d better be at this point — there’s only one place to go after Monday’s dunking of the Domers. It’s the place you came from on the recommendation from your mentor Chip Kelly to become Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator seven years ago.
The NFL. It’s a place where you made your name as an up and comer. It’s the place that got you to Ohio State. Now you can write your own ticket back to where you came from.
Maybe not right away. His son, RJ, has two more years of high school quarterbacking to do. The Jags, Cowboys, Jets, Saints and Raiders are still open and we’re not sure if those are great city/owner/roster fits for him. Day is a diehard Patriots fan. The stars didn’t align for that to happen this cycle and New England hired former Bucknutter Mike Vrable, who should be in Foxboro a long time. But Day is in some ways an NFL guy, raised in New England with hazy 20-something memories of cross-country drives to Super Bowls far away.
But eventually, perhaps soon, Day will land an NFL match that suits him best, because the rest of the country knows what those keyboard warriors in your own state sometimes forget: You’re a damn good coach, particularly a damn good offensive mind.
If you’re that made man then Chip Kelly might as well be your consigliere. There’s your movie reference if you need it. The stones on those two to order up that hit to Jeremiah Smith on a deep streak on third down, a win-or-lose proposition that favored the bold.
If you need any more symbolism, with seconds left in the first half LeBron James was shown on the video board in some secluded suite. The Honorary First Buckeye was decked out from head to toe in Scarlet and Gray.
Feeling the moment, LeBron took off his hat to show the crowd. It had the feel of coronation. The Buckeyes were champions by halftime.
Their coach had been underappreciated for a while, the Michigan losses be damned. In this playoff era, you don’t have to win your conference. You don’t even have to play a game to win your conference. At Ohio State, you don’t even have to beat Michigan.
OK, maybe that’s a stretch. It’s less than 10 ½ months to next season’s game at Michigan. Day and the Bucks have lost four in a row to TTUP (The Team Up North).
Except that Day is now minted as an all-time great at Ohio State, or should be. He is 70-10 after his sixth season and continues to be the winningest active coach. Woody Hayes was 57-19-3 through 80 games. Urban Meyer, the last coach to win a natty, was a staggering 72-8. Jim Tressell was 66-14.
Eighty games. That’s not a snapshot. That’s a solid foundation. That’s also just the beginning if Ohio State can hold onto their guy. It was only last month when Ohio State AD Ross Bjork said that Day would “absolutely” be back in 2025 as coach — back when some thought Bjork might be the one giving Day his walking papers.
Now we need to look for the same promise from Day himself that he will be back in the fall. It’s his leverage. He’s earned it.
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