Desmond Howard suggests Ohio State replace Ryan Day with Chip Kelly 'if things go awry' in 2024

With the pressure of this season that’s on Ryan Day, Desmond Howard thinks his successor could already be on the sidelines in Columbus.

During an appearance on ‘Get Up’ on Friday, Howard wondered if Chip Kelly, the new offensive coordinator at Ohio State, could end up being set to be the next head coach of the Buckeyes.

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Desmond Howard is already getting a head start on narratives when it comes to Ohio State and Ryan Day.

"Some fans will say, 'Well if we got rid of Ryan Day, who will we hire?' They went out and hired Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator. So if things go awry, I think they… pic.twitter.com/w7sy5U7fDo

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 23, 2024

“Some fans would say, ‘Well if we got rid of Ryan Day, who will we hire?’ They went out and hired Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator,” Howard said. “If things go awry, I think they have somebody who’s behind Ryan Day where they can say, ‘Chip Kelly can be the next coach too.'”

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Day brought in Kelly, a colleague and his own former coach at New Hampshire, as their second offensive coordinator of the offseason. What he didn’t know if that, to some like Howard, he also potentially hired who would follow him at Ohio State.

If the Buckeyes did move on from Day, Kelly may be one of their better immediate options for them to consider. Much of that depends on how his debut goes calling their offense this fall. Even so, he still has the resumé to justify it from 11 seasons as a head coach at Oregon and UCLA. He has an overall record 81-41 (.664) while in the Pac-12, including a national title appearance with the Ducks in 2010. That’s not even mentioning his time and experience in the NFL.

Again, this even being an opinion shows what’s on the line for Day. So much is riding on this season going very well for Ohio State. The amount of offseason investment within the program has only further strained what has to happen during it in their sixth full season of his tenure.

“It’s like this. I think the people at Ohio State just pushed all of their chips to the center of the table,” said Howard. “They went and spent about $13 million on free agents – well, college football’s version of free agency with the portal and NIL.”

Day may very well keep his job while Kelly could be content not being a collegiate head coach again in his career. That’d be the preferred option considering what that suggests happened this fall for Ohio State.

Still, with where it stands coming into the season, Howard knows what’s at risk for the head coach of the Buckeyes.

“I think that Ryan Day, he’s on the hot seat right now,” said Howard.