COLUMBUS — Conventional wisdom says Ohio State football coach Ryan Day emerged from a third consecutive loss to Michigan and set out on a new, radical agenda.
Maybe it feels that way because the national perception of the program shifted substantially since the calamity at the Cotton Bowl. That night in Dallas, many people saw a team fresh off a loss to its bitter rival taking an offensive nose dive and passing Iowa on the way down. They began stacking wood beneath his desk chair, preparing for a flashy name to headline those offseason hot-seat lists.
Next came a series of seismic events which, like earthquakes, were also somewhat predictable. A team that needed a starting-caliber quarterback landed one in the transfer portal. A coach who a year ago toyed with the idea of stepping back from play calling made that commitment. A program that had spent the past two years building a name, image, and likeness infrastructure saw that finally manifested as a strength.
By the time of star safety Caleb Downs’ transfer commitment from Alabama, OSU might already have been Georgia’s only challenger for the preseason No. 1 ranking.
Per social media scuttlebutt, this happened through Day’s newly summoned commitment to taking big swings and newly acquired ability to print money for NIL deals. He and Ohio State will gladly let the college football world believe that narrative. The image of a coach with nothing to lose piloting a machine loaded with more fuel and ammo than ever before only benefits the Buckeyes.
In this case, that perception also has more than a little basis in reality.
All in at quarterback
Everyone knew by the second quarter of the Cotton Bowl that Day had to bring in an experienced transfer quarterback. The Will Howard rumors were already making the rounds. That marriage made too much sense for everyone.
Taking Julian Sayin as a transfer from Alabama, though — that one qualifies as one of the more ruthless decisions of Day’s tenure. It is a step beyond taking both C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller III in the same recruiting class, since that had been the intention all along. It trumped Quinn Ewers reclassifying and arriving a year earlier than expected, since OSU actually had little choice in the matter.
Adding the consensus No. 1 quarterback prospect to an incoming freshman class which already included another five-star talent in Air Noland — that showed Day had reached the point of taking literally nothing for granted.
In the aftermath, cleveland.com’s Buckeye Talk podcast heard from some fans who worried the move might upset team chemistry, or at least that in the quarterback room. Hope those weren’t the same people saying only a win over Michigan and a deep playoff run could save Day’s job this year. Adding Sayin was not a direct response to that outcry, since his moment is likely a year away. Yet the insufficiency of 11-win regular seasons leaves coaches no choice but to make such moves.
To a lesser extent, the same can be said of adding former Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins alongside three-year starter TreVeyon Henderson. Too many mouths to feed in one backfield. That’s September’s problem.
Ohio State had a pretty great roster last season. That could not prevent another roundhouse to the gut in The Game and an unceremonious exit from the playoff conversation.
Throwing it around
Of course, adding those transfers — on top of retaining almost every potential NFL Draft early entry candidate — has been spun as a win-at-all-costs spending spree.
Day himself threw out that $13 million figure for keeping a roster together in the summer of 2022. Take caution with the actual hard dollar amounts you may have heard recently. Name, image, and likeness income deals do not necessarily mirror free-agent deals in pro sports in their structure — not yet, anyway.
From numerous conversations with people in the NIL space around OSU, we know a few things for certain.
• NIL was absolutely a part of the conversations for players opting to pass on the NFL Draft and return for another year. In most or perhaps all cases, money was not the determining factor in the decision. Sources from both the player and collective points of view reiterated that the first consideration is the player wanting to be part of the team for another year. That OSU is in a better position than ever before to reward them is a helpful benefit.
• A true NIL war chest from which OSU can write blank checks does not exist in the way fans might assume or hope. However, sources said the income side of the equation ramped up considerably in the past six weeks or so.
THE Foundation, the only OSU non-profit collective currently accepting donations, held a fundraising drive this month which brought in $500,000 — a total matched by its board. The 1870 Society, an LLC collective which began operating last March, was not yet six months old when the season began. It has helped connect OSU athletes with marketing opportunities around Columbus and beyond.
Ohio State and the people behind its collectives had built momentum for months if not years to capitalize on December and January’s opportunities. It was not enough to save every signing day flip or answer every positional upgrade via the transfer portal. Clearly, though, the vibe shifted greatly from Day’s somewhat somber appraisal on signing day 2022.
• That momentum included Day’s accelerating communication strategy with the local business community. One reason for stepping away from full oversight of the offense was the relentless attention to NIL necessary to compete at the top of the sport. If that time commitment cost Day any focus earlier in the calendar, it appeared to pay huge dividends at the close.
Recalibrating the staff
Truth the told, the time for ruthlessness in staff decisions came and went in January 2023 without important structural changes. Day instead doubled down on the positional imbalance by extending special teams coordinator Parker Fleming. Instead of changing quarterback coaches to facilitate hiring a true replacement for Kevin Wilson – or better yet, one who could do what Bill O’Brien will do as the new play caller — Day settled for Brian Hartline’s title bump.
Day’s staff moves of the past month reflect a conscious decision not to wait for perfect timing. He moved on from a respected safeties coach in Perry Eliano because OSU could not afford a recruiting trend becoming a recruiting deficiency. He fired Fleming because that unit’s issues had devolved to the left of distraction.
Whenever he hires a 10th assistant to complete the defensive staff, Day will have corrected an imbalance that had existed since 2021.
By aligning the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator positions, Day ensured a proven, veteran voice for both spots. Even if O’Brien leaves after a brief tenure, the options to replace him grow exponentially. Day will always have the option of hiring a top-shelf coaching talent for the two areas he has been most reluctant to yield control.
Any good system builds in redundancies to account for what might otherwise slip through the cracks. Whenever Day hires the 10th assistant to complete the defensive staff, this will be his most layered and deepest staff yet. More importantly, it sets a new standard for staff organization moving forward.
Is Ryan Day different today than he was on Nov. 26, the day after a one-possession loss in Ann Arbor? The truth seems more nuanced and less dramatic. In the end, all anyone will remember is whether the surge of the past two months worked.
