In college football, coaches rarely get a moment to enjoy their successes, and Ohio State’s Ryan Day is a prime example of this.
On Sunday, Day lost his third assistant coach from last year’s national championship-winning staff, with offensive coordinator Chip Kelly now joining defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and offensive line coach Justin Frye as departures. Kelly is headed to take on the offensive coordinator position with the Las Vegas Raiders.
While it’s common for successful programs to lose assistants, this situation feels unprecedented. Kelly’s departure, in particular, stands out as he was only with the Buckeyes for one season, having joined last year at the last minute.
Day, who relinquished his play-calling duties, initially hired Bill O’Brien. However, O’Brien unexpectedly took the Boston College head coaching job shortly after agreeing to join Ohio State. This led to Day hiring Kelly away from UCLA, where Kelly had been the head coach for six seasons. Kelly’s arrival was one of the most significant assistant coaching hires last year.
Now, with speculation swirling around who Day will pursue next, CBS Sports’ Josh Pate suggests Day should “swing for the fences again.”
“I’d be calling pretty big-name G5 (Group-of-Five) head coaches and I’d be offering this job to them,” Pate said. “Because you never know until you kick the tires.”
Pate pointed out that G5 coaches might be frustrated with the current college football system, where top assistants and players are often poached by Power Five schools with greater financial resources. This creates a difficult dynamic for G5 schools, which develop talent only to see it stolen by bigger programs.
“The way those G5 guys look at it is… you’ve got some really, really high-caliber head coaches who, the better job they do, the more they get punished because the bigger fish come grab their assistants and then they grab all their players,” Pate said. “You’re actually being punished because you’re doing a great job at recruiting and developing and coaching, and you’re doing all for what? Wisconsin. Alabama. Or for USC to come grab your guys at the 11th hour.”
Some potential G5 head coaches that could be on Day’s radar, based on their previous offensive coordinator experience, include:
- Toledo’s Jason Candle: Offensive coordinator at Toledo from 2012-2015 before becoming head coach. Record: 73-40.
- Liberty’s Jamey Chadwell: Previous offensive coordinator experience at multiple schools, including Coastal Carolina. Record: 119-62.
Day could also look internally, considering wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, who has long been seen as a candidate for either an offensive coordinator or head coaching role.
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