Paul Finebaum explains what loss in The Game means for Ryan Day's future at Ohio State

On Saturday, Ohio State lost The Game against Michigan for a third straight season. In the wake of that loss, there have been numerous questions about Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day.

During the Matt Barrie Show, Paul Finebaum said that Day is the story of the game and attempted to explain what this loss means for Day and his future at Ohio State.

“The big story of this game is really Ohio State and the Ryan Day conundrum,” Paul Finebaum said. “People are asking, ‘Is his job in jeopardy?’ No, it’s not in jeopardy. ‘Is he on the hot seat?’ No, he’s not on the hot seat. But it’s not that simple, and you know that, Matt.”

As the head coach at Ohio State, Ryan Day has a 39-3 record in Big Ten play. However, he’s only 1-3 against Michigan.

“You don’t follow a guy that goes 7-0 against Michigan and go 1-3, and yesterday was the worst loss because not only did Ryan Day lose, he was outcoached by a guy most people had never heard of until three weeks ago outside of that program in the Big Ten, and that’s humiliating and there’s no scraping it away. Ryan Day can give the hard look and say all the things that, quite frankly, nobody cares about. I don’t want to hear Ryan Day talk about what a crushing loss it was. We all watched the same stupid game. What does it mean for his future?” Finebaum said.

“It means he better beat Michigan next year at home because at some point when you have the best player on the field, and two years in a row you have the second best player in the country in his backfield, and this was competitive but it’s not enough. That’s the standard at the elite programs and Ohio State is one of the two or three elite programs in the country.”

Matt Barrie jumped in to point out that this has come with incredibly talented teams that are easily beating other teams but can’t manage to beat Michigan. In turn, there are some who want to move on from Ryan Day. However, for his part, Paul Finebaum thinks that Day should leave if he gets a good opportunity.

“Former players don’t matter because they’re emotional and that’s how they are…I think he’s got a real problem, though, and somebody suggested if he had a great opportunity to go somewhere, he should, and he should. Because I don’t like the path ahead. He’s played for the national championship, he’s been in the Playoff multiple times, he’s not getting in this year, we don’t really need to have that conversation,” Finebaum said.

“And I think he’s a very good coach but you can’t lose that game. It’s just that speaks for itself and there’s no alibi and he’s got a new AD coming in and, Ryan Day, I’d get out of there while you can.”

Ryan Day ‘sick’ after losing to Michigan

After losing The Game to Michigan, Ryan Day admitted that he felt sick about how things went on Saturday.

“Just sick. The fact that we came up short in this game — the whole year for it and we came up short,” Day said.

“I try to keep what we talk about in the locker room to ourselves. But we’re all disappointed. We know what this game means to so many people. And to come up short is certainly crushing. Not only just because you invest your whole year into it, but we know at Ohio State what this game means. There’s a locker room in there that’s devastated. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort. But again, we didn’t win the rushing yards, we didn’t win the turnover battle. So, you’re not going to win a game.”