Urban Meyer on pressure for Ryan Day at Ohio State: 'It's just unrealistic expectations'

Ryan Day took over Ohio State as head coach with tremendous expectations after Urban Meyer’s tenure. Day led the Buckeyes to Big Ten titles in 2019 and ‘20, both times making it to the College Football Playoff, but they missed out on a conference crown last year and this fall.

While Ohio State made the playoff this year as the No. 4 seed, the Buckeyes have a tough matchup with No. 1 Georgia, the defending national champions. Is pressure mounting on Day? Meyer says it could be out there, but it comes with the territory when coaching in Columbus.

The former Ohio State head coach and three-time national champion recently opened up to ESPN about Day and Ohio State’s recent lack of success against Michigan, which is also back in the playoff after winning back-to-back Big Ten crowns.

“It was a bad game,” Meyer told ESPN. “It was The Game, but it was a bad game, so you’ve got to move forward. I’ve been asked that question: Is something going on there? I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ The guy’s lost five games in four years. They’re always recruiting one of the top two, three, four classes in the country. Structurally, the place is fantastic … It’s just unrealistic expectations. But when you’re talking about Ohio State and four or five programs in America, that’s the way it is.”

Day is 45-5 as a head coach, which virtually any coach in America would sign up for over the course of four-plus seasons. However, without a national title like his predecessor, fans could get uneasy.

Meyer went 83-9 at Ohio State and won the inaugural College Football Playoff and won two titles before that while with the Florida Gators. Realistically, it’s tough to measure up to one of the best coaches in the sport’s history.

“We’re not gonna overreact,” Day said during his National Signing Day (NSD) presser, via Lettermen Row. “As much as that (Michigan) loss hurts, we’re not gonna overreact on it. It’s not worth it. We have a game against Georgia ahead of us that we’re focusing on. We’re hammering recruiting and looking to adapt to what’s going on across the country.

“I know the program is in a great place even though we did lose that game, and it hurts. I mean, that’s our goal every year — you can’t walk away from it. But, at the end of the day, we have some really good people in this program. We have really good talent and really good coaches who recruit really good people.”