“Ryan Day takes Ohio State back to the top of college football”. Now he’ll make a call to the NFL on his own terms

ATLANTA – Please stay, Ryan Day. Give dear old Ohio State a chance at back-to-back national championships. Give the Buckeyes a chance to be what Alabama was or what Georgia could be.

Please stay, Ryan Day, because right now you’re too good for the Buckeyes. This is less of a stab in the back from the crazy Scarlet and Gray critics who kicked you out 7 1/2 weeks ago, after Michigan’s last loss, and more of a fact. By now, after beating Notre Dame 34-23 to win the program’s ninth championship and first in 10 years, you’re a made man. You’re good for life in Ohio. You’ll never need to buy a drink on the High Street again – or in Cleveland, or Cincinnati, or Pickerington, or wherever Bucknuts grow.

You’re minted and gold plated like a Buckeye legend. Or should be. Your .875 winning percentage is behind Knute Rockne among FBS coaches with a minimum of 50 starts. Knute. Rockné.

The leverage is now yours too. If you’re considering a promotion, Ryan — and you better be at this point — there’s only one place to go after Monday’s Domers dunk. That’s where you came from on your mentor Chip Kelly’s recommendation to become Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator seven years ago.

The NFL. It’s a place where you made a name for yourself as a newcomer. This is the place that brought you to Ohio State. You can now write your own ticket where you are from.

Maybe not right away. His son, RJ, has two more years of high school quarterbacking to go. The Jags, Cowboys, Jets, Saints and Raiders are still open and we don’t know if they are good cities/owners/rosters for him. Day is a die-hard Patriots fan. The stars didn’t align for that to happen this cycle and New England hired former Bucknutter Mike Vrable, who is expected to stay in Foxboro for a long time. But Day is something of an NFL guy, raised in New England with hazy memories of twenty-something years of traveling across the country to Super Bowls far away.

But eventually, maybe soon, Day will win an NFL game that suits him best, because the rest of the country knows what those keyboard warriors in your own state sometimes forget: You’re a damn good coach, especially a damn good one offensive spirit.

If you’re that man, Chip Kelly might as well be your consigliere. There is the reference of your film if you need it. The rocks on these two hit Jeremiah Smith on a deep streak on third down, a win-lose proposition that favored the bold.

If you need more symbolism, with just seconds left in the first half, LeBron James was shown on the video board in an isolated suite. The first honorary Buckeye was decked out head to toe in scarlet and gray.

Sensing the moment, LeBron took off his hat to show it to the crowd. It felt like a coronation. The Buckeyes were champions at halftime.

Their coach had been underestimated for a while, Michigan’s losses be damned. In this playoff era, you don’t have to win your conference. You don’t even have to play a game to win your conference. At Ohio State, you don’t even have to beat Michigan.

OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration. There are less than 10 and a half months until next season’s game at Michigan. Day and the Bucks have lost four in a row to TTUP (The Team Up North).

Except Day is now considered an all-time Ohio State great, or should be. He is 70-10 after his sixth season and continues to be the winningest active coach. Woody Hayes was 57-19-3 in 80 games. Urban Meyer, the last coach to win a game, had a stunning score of 72-8. Jim Tressell was 66-14 years old.

Eighty games. It’s not a snapshot. It’s a solid foundation. It’s also just the beginning if Ohio State can keep their man. It was only last month that Ohio State AD Ross Bjork said Day would “absolutely” be back in 2025 as coach — back when some thought Bjork might to be the one to give Day his walking papers.

Now we have to wait for the same promise from Day himself that he will be back in the fall. This is his leverage. He deserved it.

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