He’s one of college football’s winningest coaches — yet his own team’s fans aren’t sold on him

For as long as there have been coaches, there has been consternation over their performance. 

Yet even in that generations-old tradition, the case of Ohio State’s Ryan Day is unique. Few coaches have produced as much ostensible success — and angst.

In his six seasons in Columbus, Day’s Ohio State teams have made four playoff appearances and won two Big Ten conference titles — making him the first coach since the program began in 1890 to start his career with consecutive conference titles. Under Day, the Buckeyes are 39-3 at home, 46-5 against conference opponents and 21-9 against ranked teams. 

When the Buckeyes arrive at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, for Wednesday’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup against top-seeded Oregon, Day will boast a record of 67-10 and a winning percentage of .870, which, if it qualified (he hasn’t yet coached 10 seasons), would rank second on college football’s all-time coaching leader board. 

A start like that might lead some coaches to be lionized or to earn enough goodwill to ensure decades of job security. Not in Columbus, where over the past month local coverage has described the “Day dilemma” and national outlets have pondered “How hot is Ryan Day’s Seat at Ohio State?”

“People are uncomfortable, and they don’t like him right now, there’s no question about it,” said Ari Wasserman, a national college football reporter for On3, who previously covered Ohio State for a decade as a beat reporter. 

Unlike his two predecessors who won national championships in their first three seasons, Day has yet to claim a national title. In Columbus, however, perhaps even more damning is that Ohio State has also struggled in the other main criterion by which its football coaches are evaluated: It can’t beat its biggest rival. 

Under Day, Ohio State is 1-4 against archrival Michigan, including four consecutive losses, and while fans could rationalize that rivalry losses in 2021, 2022 and 2023 were against strong Michigan teams — the most recent of which went on to win the national championship — the Buckeyes’ Nov. 30 defeat was mostly baffling. 

Unranked, playing on the road and 20.5-point underdogs, the Wolverines commanded the game en route to a stunning win. As a postgame skirmish broke out on the field, cameras caught Day looking on, unmoving, as if in a daze. On social media, commenters were quick to point out that Ohio State had fallen flat despite having assembled a roster that, the school’s new athletic director said last summer, had cost $20 million in name, image and likeness payments.

One month later, even after Ohio State routed Tennessee in a first-round playoff game on Dec. 21, “OSU fans are still in a bit of shock about the Buckeyes playing such a bad game against a substandard Michigan team,” Doug Lesmerises, host of “Kings of the North,” a college football YouTube show, wrote by email. 

Lesmerises, who has covered Ohio State since 2005, wrote that though the first-round victory had reinvigorated some national title confidence, it also “almost makes the Michigan loss more perplexing.”

“Day won’t just shake that off. A lot of fans who had been behind him have real, first-time questions about him that won’t be forgotten.”

Facing a barrage of criticism of a coach he didn’t hire, Ohio State’s athletic director offered public support for Day in mid-December, telling a local radio station that Day will “absolutely” be back next season. It is an open question, however, how much support Day has elsewhere within a fan base that dreams of national titles but demands a winning record against its rival.

“Ohio State has three goals each year — beat Michigan, win the Big Ten, win a national title. They are 0-11 on goals the last four years and still chasing this national title,” Lesmerises wrote. “If Ohio State doesn’t compete well against Oregon, and as long as OSU alum and former successful NFL head coach Mike Vrabel is without a current job, I don’t think Day’s future is certain.”

Like Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer, who each coached the school to a national title since 2002, Vrabel comes from deep Ohio roots. Day, in contrast, grew up in New Hampshire and spent virtually his entire career in either the Northeast or the NFL until he was hired as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator in 2017. Geography might matter little at some schools; for the Buckeyes, however, it is paramount. Ohio State players, coaches and fans rarely refer to Michigan by name, described it instead as “That Team Up North” or simply the initials “TTUN.” Each fall, as “The Game” approaches on the final weekend in November, it has become an annual Columbus tradition to cross out the letter “M” on campus signs with red Xes.