Joel Klatt reveals what makes Ryan Day an elite head coach

Ryan Day joined Dabo Swinney and Kirby Smart as one of three active head coaches in the country to have won a national championship. To Joel Klatt, this makes the Ohio State head coach one of the most elite in college football.

Klatt explained that one selfless decision might be directly responsible for the success Ohio State enjoyed in 2024 — which was capped with the Buckeyes’ first national championship win in a decade.

“We knew he was an elite offensive coach, an elite offensive play caller,” Klatt said. “However, what becomes even more impressive to me is when somebody views a situation and makes an adjustment that doesn’t necessarily seem like the most obvious adjustment. His superpower was calling plays. … It was uncanny, and it was brilliant.”

However, Ryan Day chose to hand over the play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Chip Kelly this past season. To Klatt, that changed everything.

“That was the key difference in this season,” Klatt said. “I don’t think Ohio State gets through all the adversity that they were able to get through unless Ryan Day can be the CEO. If he’s calling plays, he doesn’t have the opportunity to sit down with the defensive coaches after the Oregon game and really go through the switches necessary, both schematically and philosophically, of how to make the defense better, because the defense post-Oregon loss was excellent — the best defense in the country.”

Klatt also commended Day’s recruiting ability. To find instant-impact players from the high school ranks like Jeremiah Smith, to secure Caleb Downs, the best defensive back in last year’s portal cycle, to anchor his secondary. Not to mention starting quarterback Will Howard.

However, if Day doesn’t get to be the CEO-type head coach Klatt sees him as — he doesn’t get to build that roster.

“That is the number one skill of a head football coach in our sport, is to build the roster, talent acquisition,” Klatt said. “He did that, and I don’t think that he can do it as effectively if he’s worrying about calling plays all the time. This idea to give up your superpower (play-calling), and to take more of a CEO role and to do that as well as he did in the first year that he attempted — it speaks volumes for him.”