Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day was under considerable pressure entering the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
Despite finishing the regular season with a 10-2 record, Day was sidelined in late November for a fourth straight loss at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines, the Buckeyes’ biggest rival.
The disappointing end to a solid season led a contingent of Ohio State fans to question whether Day should be removed from his head coaching position. However, Day seemed to calm most of those critics by leading the team into an uneventful December and January.
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Ohio Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer laughs as he answers a question during a news conference at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 4, 2018. At the news conference, Meyer announced His retiring and offensive coordinator Ryan Day was touched as the next head coach. (Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
After knocking out the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round, the Buckeyes exploited the top-seeded Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals. Ohio State then defeated the Texas Longhorns in the semifinal to advance to the national championship game in Atlanta, where they prevailed with a 34-23 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Amid the Buckeye faithful’s national title celebration, Day’s predecessor called out fans who previously took to social media to express their displeasure with the program’s current head coach. Urban Meyer, who served as Ohio State’s head coach from 2012-18, described fans who previously criticized Day via social media as “idiots.”
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“I coached a long time, and a lot has been made of it and Coaches’ Day and the pressures of coaching at a place like Ohio State,” Meyer said during a recent appearance on the “Triple Option” podcast. “I made the comment that that’s not going to change. What needs to change and has changed are idiots on social media who don’t sign their name to things.”
Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day watches after defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Monday. (Samantha Madar Network/Columbus Dispatch/USA Today via Imagn Images)
The reaction to the loss to Michigan led Day to hire security to protect his home. Meyer also said that the reported poor treatment that day children were encountered that day, as they attended school, was a step “too far.”
“When you start involving families, you’re pushing it too far,” Meyer added. “Booing because you don’t get first downs and you lose to the opposition, that’s part of the game. That’s fair. But you have to keep the families out of it.”
Meyer then compared the day’s situation to what he faced during his training period in Florida.
Urban Meyer looks on during the CFP National Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Monday. (Mark J. Rebila-Imagn Images)
“When I first [went] to Florida, you know they wanted [Steve] Spurrier. I would also like Spurrier. “He was a Heisman Trophy winner there, won the national championship,” Meyer said. But it was Coach Spurrier was, I think, to the [Washington] Redskins, he was fired and left. It was available. The contingency wanted him back, and they hired me from Utah.
“I didn’t really understand the dynamic until I got there, and I got there and I’ll never forget, he goes to South Carolina, we lose to South Carolina, you don’t do that in Florida. On my way to do my radio show on a Thursday, and “I am the most miserable human being, at the moment.”
Meyer and Day have history, with the latter serving as offensive coordinator under the former from 2017-18. Meyer retired after the 2018 season, and Day was later introduced as Ohio State’s next head coach.
Meyer coached the Buckeyes to the national title following the 2014 regular season, making Ohio State the winners of the inaugural College Football Playoff. A decade later, Day took them to the top of the mountain.
