It's fair to be frustrated with Ryan Day, but it's not time to give up on him and Ohio State

Ryan Day arrived at the podium in the bowels of Autzen Stadium after Ohio State’s 32-31 loss to Oregon on Saturday night, knowing how most of the country — and many of his program’s fans — perceive him. Another close loss in a big game only reinforced that perception.

Day can’t win the big game.

As Day scooted up to the table and pulled the microphone closer to his face, you could hear Oregon fans, who stormed the field after the thrilling win, chanting “let’s go Ducks!” The Oregon celebration for Dan Lanning’s first signature win as the Ducks’ coach was just getting started.

For Day, it had to have felt like a nightmare that just won’t end.

Many Ohio State fans are at the end of their ropes with Day and are exhausted from coming up short in these games. You’ve read this stat everywhere you’ve looked since Ohio State walked off the field in Eugene: Day is now 2-6 against top-five teams as Ohio State’s coach.

Tempers run hot in the moments after a game. The comments sections on videos, articles and message boards about the game were a war zone. Day, hopefully, avoided reading them.

A few days have passed now, so let me offer a calm perspective: It’s 100 percent rational to be frustrated with Day. It’s even rational to wonder whether he will ever get over the hump and accomplish the goals that had once been routine for the Buckeyes. It’s even rational to start to let the comparisons to former Ohio State coach John Cooper to invade your thoughts. But here’s what’s not rational: giving up on Day and this Ohio State team. Not right now.

I wrote last week Ohio State was playing Oregon for its reputation. And, frankly speaking, that reputation is justifiably shot at the moment. But the thing about reputations are they can be restored, that people — and programs — can be redeemed. Look at how quickly the narrative switched on Lanning, who now may be considered a top-three coach in college football?

The benefit of the 12-team College Football Playoff era is that regular-season games in October — regardless of how big they feel in the moment — don’t hurt the team’s quests to accomplish big goals. Ohio State is in the middle of the pack of the Big Ten standings currently, but it still plays Penn State, Indiana and Michigan. Ohio State (basically) controls its own destiny to make it to Indianapolis. If Ohio State wins out, it will likely play Oregon again and what happened on Saturday won’t matter anymore. The only one that will matter, if that time comes, is the one in Lucas Oil Stadium.

Saturdays’ game, though, is all the context we have right now. So let’s dive into it.

Did Day blow it or is Oregon really, really good? Cases can be made for both.

Let’s start with blowing it. Ohio State was on Oregon’s 28 down by a point with less than a minute left in the game. It still had a timeout in its pocket. The game ended with Ohio State quarterback Will Howard running up the middle in an attempt to set Ohio State up with a field goal to win the game. Instead, he held the ball too long and unintentionally ran the clock out.

Ohio State’s clock management at the end of that game was bad. It had a veteran quarterback who lost track of the clock after the Buckeyes wasted valuable time when Day — who no longer calls the plays and should be more in tune with game management — was caught off guard that the clock restarted after an Oregon penalty. Freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith got called for offensive pass interference, which backed it out of field goal range. That was a tough break, but the coaching staff wasn’t prepared to regroup following a penalty the Buckeyes could have overcome. Ohio State ran out of time with a timeout in its pocket. Rough look.

Now let’s get to Oregon just being really, really good. Are there two teams in college football this season who played a more high-level, back-and-forth football game for four quarters than that all season? The Georgia–Alabama game was entertaining, sure, but teams traded playing awful halves before an exciting ending.

Elite players for Ohio State and Oregon made plays the entire game, and when the dust settled, the box scores (and scoreboard) were close to identical. Ohio State had 21 first downs and Oregon had 18. Ohio State had 467 yards and Oregon had 496. Howard passed for 326 yards and two touchdowns and Dillon Gabriel threw for 341 yards and two touchdowns. Ohio State rushed for 141 yards and Oregon rushed for 155 yards. Oregon scored 32 points and Ohio State scored 31. Of course the game came down to the final seconds.

When two legitimate top-five teams play each other, one has to lose. That’s sports. This time, it happened to be an Ohio State team that flew across multiple time zones and played in front of what had to have been one of the loudest, most passionate crowds in Autzen Stadium history. Oregon has really good players, too, and it’s fact the Buckeyes won’t face a collection of talent that impressive again until it either facing Oregon again in the Big Ten title game or one of the giants from the SEC in the Playoff. 

Receiver Evan Stewart went wild. Gabriel was clutch. Jordan James ran hard. Matayo Uiagalelei was a menace on defense. The Ducks are loaded, played well and won the football game. Sometimes things aren’t that deep.

Had Smith not had an offensive pass interference and Ohio State kicked a game-winning field goal instead, how much differently would you feel about Day? How much differently would he have had to coach to get that done?

Most importantly, was Ohio State not winning that game reason to give up on Day?

It’s certainly understandable if you feel like you want to. This is, after all, not an isolated incident. Ohio State has lost three-straight games to Michigan, it couldn’t close in the Playoff Semifinal against Georgia a few years ago and now the Buckeyes have lost to Oregon two times in the recent past. Also, Ohio State has a senior class — many of whom returned to Ohio State instead going pro to actually win something in college — who have yet to beat Michigan or win a Big Ten title. That’s a lot of losing for a program that isn’t accustomed to losing this much.

There are also reasons to be concerned about this Ohio State team moving forward. It lost left tackle Josh Simmons for the season, cornerback Denzel Burke got burned multiple times by Stewart and the defensive line situation is a topic for an entire column. Ohio State has a $2 million defensive coordinator who hasn’t fielded a good enough defense in any of these major matchups. Oh, and this Ohio State team was supposed to be a super team. It was supposed to impose its will on everyone, even teams as talented as Oregon. It didn’t and you have to ask yourself why and whether it even can?

Could it be Day? Certainly. He spent the entire offseason adding to this roster for a season in 2024 that would make people forget what happened the last three years. So far this season, it’s just more of the same. That’s brutal.

Day’s job isn’t to smash Iowa and Michigan State. It isn’t to have a really high winning percentage by beating up on overmatched opponents. It’s to win top-five matchups and beat Michigan. He’s failed repeatedly do both of those things. There’s no getting around that.

But giving up on Day in the middle of the season with this roster? Don’t do that. Ohio State is going to be playing more high-impact games against big-time opponents. This Buckeyes team is all but certainly going to make the Playoff and will have more chances to win that big game, perhaps on a stage that matters much more than the one on Saturday. And guess what? Most elite-level coaches have bad winning percentages against top-five teams because, as it turns out, beating those teams is really, really hard.

If Day loses to Penn State or Michigan or Oregon again? This an entirely different topic. If Ohio State’s season ends with a $20 million roster missing the Big Ten title game, give up. Post whatever you want on the Internet. Do your worst.

But this Oregon loss isn’t the reason to jump ship.

This Ohio State team’s story is still being written.