Forget Michigan. For Ryan Day, Penn State might be the most important game

Ryan Day has lost 9 games in 6 full seasons as a college football coach.

Let’s repeat that for the folks in the back. A grand total of 9 losses (against 62 victories) in 6 seasons as the leader of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

And yet, somehow, Day continues to be under the harshest of glares and brightest of spotlights – a place in time he inhabits at this very moment as the Buckeyes prepare for a huge matchup Saturday against the No. 3-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions.

How is it possible that a coach that has won 2 Big Ten titles and played for a national championship could be in any kind of jeopardy? How is it possible that the seat under Day’s trousers could even be the slightest bit warm despite the only ding in Ohio State’s 2024 season to this point is a 1-point road loss to then-No. 3 Oregon?

Welcome to Ryan Day’s world.

Inexplicable as it sounds when presented in that context, the notion of Day coaching the biggest game of his career just a few hours after October rolls into November is college football insanity. Then again, Day has been surrounded by a bit of insanity ever since he took over on an interim basis from Urban Meyer at the start of 2018.

Day won all 3 of his games as Meyer was on administrative leave, and then took over for good when Meyer retired after the 2019 Rose Bowl. What followed was nothing short of perfection – as Day’s Buckeyes delivered a perfect 12-0 regular season (the program’s first in 6 seasons) and a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Ohio State followed that with a run to the Playoff title game in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. And the Buckeyes won 11 games in each of the ensuing 3 seasons, but earned just a single Rose Bowl bid in the process – all the while Michigan was 3-0 against Day’s Buckeyes.

That doesn’t sit well in Columbus, losing to The Team Up North – no matter who the coach is and what his success has delivered. Which is why there were those on the periphery of Buckeye Nation that openly wondered if Day was the man for the long-term job at Ohio State.

Day has another chance Saturday at earning more than a smidgen of respect from his detractors. Strapping on shiny white tops and heading to Happy Valley as a road favorite against the undefeated Nittany Lions, No. 4-ranked Ohio State can continue being a part of the College Football Playoff conversation with a victory.

But with a loss?

That’s where it really gets complicated for Day.

At just a couple bucks under $10 million, Ohio State isn’t paying Day for trips to the Peach Bowl or Cotton Bowl – either in the prior 4-team Playoff era or the newly expanded 12-team system. But with the Big Ten still sporting 3 undefeated teams (upstart Indiana joins the Ducks and Nittany Lions in that category …), there might not be room in this year’s Playoff for any 2-loss team.

And while it is true that the Buckeyes lost by the slimmest of margins, 32-31, at Autzen Stadium to now-No. 1 Oregon, that setback exposed some vulnerabilities. It also furthered the storyline that Day can’t win in the big-game setting – he is 1-7 against Top-5 opponents, including losing 4 straight (the last win coming via a 21-10 home victory against No. 5 Notre Dame to open the 2022 season).

Still, Day and the Buckeyes were just a second short of potentially beating Oregon (a slide by quarterback Will Howard and attempt to call a timeout to attempt a winning field goal happened right as the Autzen clock hit triple-0s), and have a great chance of making the Big Ten race a complete mess by upending unbeaten Penn State (whose coach James Franklin isn’t exactly a big-game wizard, either …).

As with most things at Ohio State, though, Day’s ultimate future could come down to beating The Team Up North and moving to 2-3 against the Wolverines. So, too, could a buyout for Day and his staff that hovers north of $40 million – though the same deep-pocketed Buckeyes fans that funded a rumored $20 million worth of NIL funding for this season’s roster could likely cough that up for a change at the top — especially if the Buckeyes end up watching 12 other teams compete for the national championship.

But those are factors for another day, and only become relevant if Ohio State can’t earn a victory at high noon Saturday in central Pennsylvania. Knocking off unbeaten Penn State quiets the naysayers down and cools the seat beneath Day. Losing to the Nittany Lions and it cranks up to medium broil.

Is Saturday a big game for Ryan Day at Ohio State? Yep, sure is … at least until the M-school visits the Horseshoe on Nov. 30.

David Wasson

An APSE national award-winning writer and page designer, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.