Bobby Carpenter assesses Ryan Day's job security after Ohio State loss to Michigan

Ryan Day and his Ohio State job security came into question as soon as the Buckeyes lost to Michigan.

It hasn’t been pretty since the weekend. Former Ohio State linebacker Bobby Carpenter followed the Buckeyes closely this season and seeing the loss to Michigan sent negative vibes across the whole town.

Going into the playoff, Carpenter weighed Day’s future and if Ohio State should let him go.

“I don’t know if I can get all the way there Greeny, because there’s so many things that have changed here in the last couple seasons,” Carpenter said on Get Up. “I think he needs to have a strong showing. I think Paul is right. It needs to be akin to that 2022 season, where they played Georgia in the Peach Bowl and handled themselves very well. They were a field goal away from winning that game and potentially going to a national championship. But there’s so many moving parts. 

“The players are going to be getting paid $20 million next year. There’d be buyouts on both sides. There’s financial implications that have never been there before, and you’re talking about a guy that’s won a ton of games and had a lot of success, has to find a way to beat Michigan. That is undoubtedly true. But I think that this team has a lot of juice, and we talked about them having one of the best rosters, I think that they can go make a deep run, especially if they get one of those early home games.”

Losing a fourth straight game to Michigan can cause a lot of emotion, especially with Day. The head coach is 1-4 against the Wolverines and has yet to win a national title like predecessor Urban Meyer did.

“There are people that wanted him fired immediately after the game,” Carpenter said. “There’s people that still want him fired, even though there’s going to be a College Football Playoff, and it’s like the National Championship is still there. I understand that part of the goal is to beat Michigan. That’s a huge piece of it, win the Big Ten. 

“But yes, there were people that were ultimately ready to move on, hire an interim coach, coach the playoff and move forward. I don’t know if that’s necessarily the prudent thing to do. I don’t think you’re going to see a ton of movement this year in college football with their head coaches and so like, let’s see the ending of this movie before we’re ultimately ready to judge what it looks like.”

Ohio State didn’t suddenly lose its talent under Day. But there’s questions about his game day coaching in big moments.

“This team was one of the most talented in college football. You look at all the pieces that they had coming back and obviously losing to Michigan at home is inexplicable, and it’s honestly, it’s unacceptable as well,” Carpenter said. “But you’ve looked at them, the best team in the country, as everybody has pointed out, has been Oregon. They’re undefeated. They are spotless right now. They lost by one point, really by one second, on the road there so it’s a difficult situation. But I think it’s a game you can win. And I honestly think that there’s not a team in college football that Ohio State can’t still beat.”