Ryan Day reveals which Big Ten coach he would struggle against in a fight

Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day recently made an appearance on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast. There, he praised new Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule and talked about their time together at Temple.

In that conversation, Day joked that he’s never fought Rhule, so he doesn’t know if he’d beat him or not. This prompted a pretty obvious follow-up question. Which Big Ten coach would he struggle in a fight against?

“I would say probably, you know who would be — PJ [Fleck] would be hard because the guy’s got so much energy,” Ryan Day said.

“He’s got a high motor. I feel like he would just keep going, coming at you, you know what I mean? You have to have a plan to like choke him out or something.”

Despite the joke about choking him out, Ryan Day did take the time to emphasize that he has no hard feelings for PJ Fleck.

“He’s another great coach and a great guy.”

It was pretty smart of Day not to bring up Jim Harbaugh in this context. At the same time, there is a similarity in Fleck and Harbaugh’s energy that could be incredibly irritating.

Truthfully, there are very few coaches in the Big Ten who would be easy to fight. Luke Fickell was one of Ohio’s best wrestlers. Pat Fitzgerald was a stud linebacker. Ryan Walters and Mel Tucker were defensive backs. The list goes on.

So, Ryan Day is right. Fighting PJ Fleck doesn’t seem like fun. But what coach would be fun to fight?

Ryan Day on the 12-team playoff

Not everything Ryan Day talked about on Bussin’ With The Boys was a joke. He also talked about the 12-team playoff and how that’s going to affect the Big Ten’s chances of winning, after only ever winning the four-team format once.

“It makes me sick every day to think about it. And I’ll just go back through you know, you think about ‘19 but this last game … It’s just it’s one play here, one play there, but it doesn’t happen. And so, you know, you have to own it. And it’s hard. It’s hard to take but you have to regroup and learn from it. And like you said, Keep swinging,” Day said.

“I think that the 12-team playoff will be interesting. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how that all plays out. The first four teams get a buy, get home field advantage. That’s cool playing in the Big Ten. That could be a game in December on the road, you know, so there’s a lot to be determined here. Now that’s two years away, but looking forward to seeing what that looks like.”