Paul Finebaum, Heather Dinich weigh if Ryan Day, Steve Sarkisian has more pressure in CFP

Paul Finebaum and Heather Dinich debated the pressure gauge for Ryan Day and Steve Sarkisian in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

As Ohio State and Texas square off, both coaches have pressure to win it all based on last season’s results and expectations. Surely Day had a lot on his shoulders after the Michigan loss, but certainly removed a little of the burden with two playoff wins.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

Still, it’s fair to wonder who has more pressure once one of these coaches inevitably falls short.

“It’s 100% Sark because he’s carrying the banner not just for his program, but for the entire SEC,” Dinich said on Get Up. “Now, Finebaum, the SEC King, might disagree with this, but look, it’s not a great year for the SEC when Alabama and Georgia are not playing well, and they have not been great. Alabama’s not even in this conversation, the entire league took a hit. And I think it’s fair, too, to criticize it a little bit. And so Sark to me is under pressure to carry the banner for the entire conference.”

Finebaum disagreed and said Day had more pressure. Although he did acknowledge Sarkisian is carrying the weight of an entire conference.

“Well, I understand what she said, even though I choose not to listen,” Finebaum said. “But I still think Ryan Day has some pressure. Now, I agree with Heather completely. I don’t think the weight of the world is on his shoulders anymore, but he has the best team. He has the most talented team. 

“A lot of people have already given him the trophy, so I do think there is pressure there. But Sark is also a very successful coach, and a loss here wouldn’t really hurt him, but it would hurt the SEC.”

If anything, Ohio State and Day need to start fast. That’s been the method in the first two playoff games and the Buckeyes simply ran away from Tennessee and Oregon.

“We’ve always wanted to have fast starts and we all know that,” Day said. “I do think that, you know, we’ve talked about, you know, early in games, you know, you want to set the tone for the game, you know, as an individual but also as a team, as a unit.”

“You know, both games, we’ve started off with the ball and we’ve gone right down and scored. So execution fuels emotion. That certainly has a big part of it. They go together,” Day said. “We’ve executed well on those first couple drives and that’s had a big part of it. Defense has got some three-and-outs early in the game. We’ve been able to jump on the last two opponents.”