Ad Disclosure
Greg McElroy analyzes magnitude of The Game for Ryan Day’s OSU status entering 2023
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Greg McElroy knows things have become a bit rocky for Ryan Day at Ohio State. Despite making it to the College Football Playoff a year ago, the Buckeyes have lost back-to-back games against Michigan, and those final scores have been too lopsided for a program expecting to win the national championship each season.
Fortunately for Day, McElroy believes the head coach salvaged some of his standing with Ohio State fans for the Peach Bowl performance against Georgia. Though the Buckeyes came up just short, Ohio State was a missed field goal away from taking down the reigning champs and playing for a national title.
“(Ryan Day) made up some goodwill with how his team performed against Georgia, just a field goal away from ultimately advancing to the national championship and based on how the national championship went probably winning (against TCU),” McElroy explained on his Always College Football podcast.
That is the good news for Day heading into the 2023 season, but that goodwill obviously hinges once again on the end of the regular season. McElroy foresees a scenario where Ohio State and Michigan are once again 11-0 heading into The Game.
If that is the case, it could be close to a do-or-die game for Day’s tenure with the Buckeyes with many fans unwilling to wait around for a coach with three straight losses to TTUN:
“I do think Ryan Day is back in the good graces of Ohio State fans until they play Michigan this year,” said McElroy. “They might be 11-0, they might be sitting there No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 in the country. Michigan I might add might be 11-0 too at that point… and if for whatever reason Ryan Day can’t get it done this year, that would indicate 3 consecutive losses to the Michigan Wolverines.
“Now, I’m not one to have spent a lot of time around Ohio State fans the past couple of years, but the little time that I have on national radio platform, they might be out with their pitchforks and torches if the Buckeyes lose a third consecutive game to Michigan.”
Here’s the full episode of McElroy’s latest podcast with The Game talk beginning around the 7-minute mark:
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.