Stephen A. Smith, Cam Newton debate if Ryan Day is coaching for his job

Another day of waiting led to another rehashing of a popular college football topic. On Friday, ESPN’s First Take disagreed on whether or not Ryan Day should be the head coach moving forward in Columbus.

Host Stephen A. Smith and former NFL quarterback Cam Newton debated Day’s future at Ohio State ahead of their appearance in the College Football Playoff. The two were on opposite sides.

Newton began by saying that he is not or should not be coaching for his job in the playoff considering what else he has accomplished there over six seasons. That’s especially so considering he doesn’t see any other options for the Buckeyes to replace him with that would be better.

“No! He’s 66-10!” Newton said. “Doesn’t matter what the people say. I’m going to tell you anyway! There’s a scarcity at coaching in the whole sport of football. When you’ve got a good coach, you’ve got to keep ’em. You’ve got to be patient. When I’m looking at Coach Day, he’s a great coach!…In my eyes, he’s going to be a legacy coach at this university, right.

“I will say this. I say, Coach Day – if you’re going to fire Coach Day this year if they were to lose? Well, go on and fire Dabo Swinney too then. Who are you going to go get? It’s a scarcity for real good coaches.”

However, Smith differed in his own opinion. For him, Day could have been gone already with how the program has measured under him as of late against Michigan, in the Big Ten, and within or out of the CFP. That is certainly so this season with him reminding everyone just how much this fall has cost in cash.

“Stop it! What is wrong with you? What’s wrong with you?,” Smith said. “Patience, patience, patience?! I’m sorry. You’ve got Tressel. You’ve got Urban Meyer. I mean, you’ve got cats winning national championships and this brother rolls up in to Ohio State. He can’t even beat Michigan!…With a $20 million roster? $20 million, $20 million?! That’s what you had. You came into 2024 and everybody’s talking about a national championship. How many NFL-caliber players stayed at Ohio State for this upcoming season? Eleven! You’ve got 11 cats that were considered NFL-caliber players, got a $20 million roster.”

With that, Smith thinks Day is coaching for his tenure to continue there starting tomorrow night in The Shoe. If they don’t achieve anything, he thinks there’ll be other options for Ohio State who can do better than that based on their expectations.

“It’s Ohio State,” Smith said. “Don’t tell me there aren’t going to be a bevy of candidates clamoring for that job. You’ve got a bunch of cats that would leave other programs to get an opportunity to come to Ohio State.”

“If Ryan Day – and I’m not saying the man can’t coach. I’m not saying the man doesn’t deserve to be a head coach. I’m talking about Ohio State! If this man gets bounced out of there this weekend, if this man ends up? He’s got to go! He got to go!” Smith said. “This is Ohio State. The standard is the standard. You can find somebody to lose Michigan. You can find anybody who can’t compete for the national championship…Nah, bro. I can get somebody else to do that. I can get somebody else to do that.”