ESPN analyst makes bold Ohio State prediction

With all due respect to Coach Prime, there may not be a more interesting coach entering the 2024 college football season than Ryan Day.

While he lays claim to a staggering 56-8 record as Ohio State’s head coach, the Buckeyes have lost each of their last three matchups against rival Michigan. And considering that Ohio State possesses arguably he most talented roster in the entire country thanks in part to some aggressive moves in the transfer portal and NIL market, that’s led some — including ESPN’s Desmond Howard — to believe it’s now or never for Day in Columbus.

“The people at Ohio State just pushed all their chips to the center of the table,” the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner said on Friday’s episode of Get Up . “They went and spent about $13 million on free agents — well, college football’s version of free agency with the portal and NIL.”

While whether Day is actually on the hot seat or not could be disputed, Howard’s take is a reasonable one.

Winning 87.5 percent of your games is nothing to sneeze at, but Ohio State head coaches are ultimately judged on Big Ten titles, national titles, and of course, their record against Michigan. And in that regard, Day’s resume is unquestionably lacking, as he hasn’t won a Big Ten championship since 2020 while laying claim to a 1-3 record vs. “That Team Up North.”

What’s less reasonable, however, was Howard’s subsequent point, in which he speculated about who could replace Day in Columbus should the Buckeyes’ brass make a move.

“Some fans will say, ‘Well if we got rid of Ryan Day, who will we hire?'” Howard said. “They went out and hired Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator. So if things go awry, I think they have somebody who’s behind Chip Kelly — I mean behind Brian Day, I mean Ryan Day — Chip Kelly, where they can say, ‘Chip Kelly can be the next coach too.’ So I think that Ryan Day, he’s on the hot seat right now.”

While Kelly might be the likeliest interim head coach should things in Columbus go especially haywire, it’s hard to envision a world where his presence on the Buckeyes’ staff factors into Ohio State deciding to move on from Day. Despite being a big get as an offensive coordinator this past offseason, the 60-year-old Kelly is coming off a middling six-year stint at UCLA — hardly the type of resume that would propel you to one of the top head coaching jobs in all football a year later.

Ultimately, the only scenario in which Kelly would become the head coach of the Buckeyes would seemingly be one in which Day gets fired midseason — which considering his resume and Ohio State’s talent level, seems highly unlikely. Given Howard’s obvious ties to the Wolverines program, it’s fair to question whether this was actual analysis or merely wishcasting from the former Michigan star.

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