It’s crucial to remember, though, that he is not under investigation. On his way out of office, Gene Smith is not going to fire Day and leave the new athletic director in charge of hiring a new head coach. Day is in five years, 56-7. Last season, he was one field goal away from most likely winning the national championship against Georgia. Other than Michigan, he has not yet lost to a Big Ten team. That is a successful outcome.
ANN ARBOUR, Michigan: We haven’t stopped discussing Ohio State’s disappointing 30-24 loss to Michigan on Saturday—the Buckeyes’ third straight defeat in The Game. Five more ideas about what went wrong and what comes next are as follows:
1. Ryan Day must come first.
I wrote about it immediately following the game, but I don’t mind if Ohio State supporters think he’s the next John Cooper. Fans of Ohio State have every right to be upset with Day for the choices he made during the defeat.
It’s crucial to remember, though, that he is not under investigation. On his way out of office, Gene Smith is not going to fire Day and leave the new athletic director in charge of hiring a new head coach. Day is in five years, 56-7. Last season, he was one field goal away from most likely winning the national championship against Georgia. Other than Michigan, he has not yet lost to a Big Ten team. That is a successful outcome.
Here, I’m not attempting to argue Day’s case; those are the facts. He is an effective coach. But he needs to take something positive out of Saturday’s defeat if he wants to go down in history as one of the greats, up there with guys like Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. Nor am I advocating for the dismissal of assistant coaches in the hopes that fresh faces will conceal issues. Day needs to check himself in the mirror.
Michigan is a fantastic team with a strong chance of qualifying for the national championship. However, Ohio State had more talent in skill positions. Furthermore, as a coach, you have to have faith in your players’ ability to win games when you have more talent.
It is unacceptable to punt on a fourth-and-1 play from Ohio State’s 46-yard line. This isn’t Michigan State or Minnesota. The nation’s top coaches understand that winning rivalry games requires giving it everything you have. That’s what Washington did on Saturday night when it faced Washington State and went for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 29-yard line in the fourth quarter, just like Sherman Moore did for Michigan.
Subsequently, it was decided to elapse 37 seconds prior to the half. I’ve been thinking about this for the past two days, and I still don’t understand it. The momentum was all with Ohio State. It had just been stopped after Jack Sawyer and Michael Hall Jr. scored a touchdown. However, Day made the decision to head into halftime and settle for a long field goal attempt. If he had taken the field on fourth and two, no one would have blamed him. That’s when you have to act aggressively.
issue. Ohio State doesn’t belong in the College Football Playoff if its talented players can’t convert a fourth-and-short. The issue is that we can never be certain if it will convert.
Day is a capable coach who has demonstrated the ability to devise winning strategies, but Ohio State has lost the last two seasons due to his poor decision-making in pivotal moments. The next time, he needs to approach the situation with more aggression.
2. One of the things that Day will have to consider when he looks in the mirror is whether or not he has been choosing his assistant coaches wisely.
Day chose to give special teams coordinator Parker Fleming a raise last year in spite of all of the special teams errors in the last two games. Fleming is not a better coach as a result of that choice. Even though the offensive line problems have taken centre stage, it is possible to argue that Ohio State’s special teams represent the team’s greatest vulnerability this season.
Take Saturday, for instance. Punter Jesse Mirco averaged 36.7 yards on three punts, well short of his season average of 42.8 yards, despite the wind being hit or miss in Ann Arbour. That should have been sufficient justification for Day to take a shot on fourth and 1. Additionally, Ohio State kickers have now missed two straight seasons of field goals from 50 yards or more when the game was on the line.
