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Gene Smith, Ohio State AD, doubles down on confidence in Ryan Day: ‘He’s my CEO’
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Gene Smith has heard the noise. Ohio State football, despite an abundance of talent and a college football playoff berth this past season, has now dropped 2 straight games to rival Michigan and failed to win a CFP game since 2020 under Ryan Day. The Buckeyes have been good, but have fallen short of true Ohio State football expectations to end the season for 2 years straight.
The Buckeyes’ 18-year Athletic Director veteran was asked Tuesday how he stands on Day, whose Buckeyes have now shifted behind Michigan in the B1G hierarchy across the past couple of seasons. At least, that’s what the results on the field would tell you.
According to Smith, his faith has never waivered. He called Day his “CEO,” but still revealed he has had conversations with Day about the changes the football program can make to check a few boxes moving forward.
“My standards are high, our team standards are high,” Smith told ESPN’s Heather Dinich, via Eleven Warriors. “So we talk about how do we get better and how do we make sure we are able to win the championships that we aspire to win? We look at each individual contest that got in the way of that, and we’re trying to figure out what’s the strategy to mitigate that. When we lose, it’s highly disappointing, but I break things down, and look at things objectively, and we have good conversations about what we need to do better.”
Some Ohio State fans insist a good place to start would be for Day to hand play-calling over to offensive coordinator Brian Hartline. Smith discussed the possibility of that coming to fruition Tuesday as well.
“His thought process about possibly giving up play-calling, he shared that with me without me ever asking that question,” Smith said. “When we hired him, I told him, ‘You’ve got to stay in your wheelhouse and call plays. There’ll be a natural point in time in your career where that changes.’ So that’s not for me to decide, that’s for him to decide.”
Ethan Stone was an editor for his student newspaper at the University of Tennessee and is now a News Manager for Saturday Tradition.