Ryan Day is months removed from getting the monkey off his back. FOX Sports’ RJ Young believes the national championship-winning Ohio State head coach still has a ways to go before he’s mentioned among the Buckeyes’ legends.
Analyst Sets Clear Expectations for Ryan Day to Achieve Great Status
Day has gone 70-10 as Ohio State’s head coach. The most glaring segment of that mark is a 1-4 record against the program’s most bitter rival, Michigan. Young said Monday on “Adapt & Respond with RJ Young,” a head coach must go undefeated against the hated Wolverines to even enter the discussion as Ohio State’s best ever for many fans.
“But he’s not gonna do that,” Young said. “I think he could win the next four in a row, right? Maybe get back to .500 against Michigan. Still not going to be on the list of greatest of all time. You’ll be on the list, I think, of great head coaches because you’ve already done something that some have not. John Cooper, for instance.”
Cooper, who coached the Buckeyes from 1988-2000, had the second-most wins (111) in the program’s history when he was dismissed. He also struggled against Michigan, going 2-10-1 against the Wolverines.
“For Ryan Day to enter into that conversation of the greatest head coaches we’ve ever seen in the sport, I think he has to win at least four national championships at Ohio State,” Young said. “I don’t think that’s asking too much.”
It’s hard to fail at the Buckeyes’ helm, but with advantages come sky-high expectations. Ohio State head coaches have whatever recruiting resources they need at their fingertips and the full backing of the athletic department and the university.
“To be the head coach at Ohio State is not only to accept the mandate of needing to win each and every year, and play for championships each and every year,” Young said. “It’s accepting the mandate that, if you do not, you have failed. I’m thinking about this from the standpoint of some past coaches. … I think about Jim Tressel, who only won one national championship, but won four at the FCS level at Youngstown State.”
Young also mentioned Urban Meyer, a former Ohio State head coach himself. Meyer went 83-9 and also won a national crown in Columbus. He had a pristine 7-0 record against Michigan.
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“Off the rip, they’re already way ahead of Ryan Day,” Young said. “Urban Meyer’s got, I believe, the highest winning percentage of any coach that has coached more than a decade. It was not always easy, it was not always clean, but Urban went out there and he got Ws at Florida and Ohio State.”
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