Ryan Day 'needs' to beat Michigan in 2023

Some perceive Ryan Day to be on a hot seat at Ohio State. But why is that? Especially when he has won 88% of his games since partially taking over in 2018? In the opinion of Andy Staples at On3, it all comes down to perception.

Staples commented on Day’s status in Columbus when he joined Thurday’s edition of ‘The Hard Count’ with JD PicKell. He started by saying that, from an overall standpoint, the Buckeye’s recent responses to Day’s few shortcomings are overblown considering how close they were to a national championship just last season.

“Here’s the deal with Ohio State. It’s very interesting. (There’s) so much psychological damage from those two losses to Michigan. But, if we’re being real here, Ohio State is one defensive stop from being the national champion. Because they would have beaten TCU,” Staples said. “So where are they really? And where they are is they’re one of the best teams in the country still.

“They do need to beat Michigan. Yes, but do they have to beat Michigan to win the national title? Well, I think we learned last year that that’s not true,” continued Staples. “They could have won the national title despite having lost to Michigan. It will be much easier, starting next year, to do that because there’ll be a 12-team playoff and they won’t have to beat Michigan.”

Even so, Staples does think that winning over Michigan again is vital to how Day is viewed inside The Shoe. He said that winning a national title is obviously more important than defeating their bitter rivals but, based on the last two seasons, he says it’s something that Day needs to get done sooner rather than later in order to quiet the noise.

“For Ryan Day’s sake? He needs to beat Michigan,” stated Staples. “Don’t allow those John Cooper comparisons to fester. Don’t do that.

“Job description is important,” Staples said. “When you’re in a job, it’s very important for your bosses or your employers or your stakeholders to tell you exactly what the expectations are. So let me tell you what the expectations are for Ryan Day at Ohio State: Win the national championship. That’s it. Those are the expectations. And, the longer he goes without one, the madder they get. So he needs to put them in a position to win the national title. Now, did he do that last year? He absolutely did. So you keep doing that and you’re fine. But you do, probably, need to beat Michigan.”

The other part of this equation for Day is the improvement of the Big Ten over his tenure and how it’s going to continue to develop moving forward. As of now, Michigan is priority number one for Ohio State. In a few years time, though, Staples thinks championship level football will be much harder to come by if the Buckeyes aren’t careful.

“Here’s the other thing. If you can’t beat Michigan? Look at Penn State right now. Penn State’s ‘dude-factor’ is getting higher. It feels like they can be competitive with those two this year,” explained Staples. “USC’s coming into the league. They’re recruiting really well. You’ve got Luke Fickell at Wisconsin now. Luke Fickell helped Urban Meyer build Ohio State into the monster that it is.

“Ryan Day’s level of difficulty is going up,” he said. “So it’s not going to be that easy to dominate, not like it was the first couple of years in the league. Now it gets more challenging.”

You can’t ask much more of Day than what he has done over his time in Columbus. 45 wins compared to six losses, a 3-0 mark in Big Ten Championships when appearing, and three playoff berths with one title game appearance is nothing to turn your nose up at.

Still, there’s a little less confidence in Day now than there was a year or two ago. In order to snuff that out, Staples suggests that Ohio State beat Michigan and, from there, compete for the big prize.

“Again, if he has them in position to win the national title every year? He’s fine. If you have a few years where you’re not? You’re not fine.”