For Ryan Day and Ohio State, expectations have peaked and the pressure builds with a matchup at Oregon

It’s probably fair to say that Ryan Day is the first coach in college football history to amass a 61-8 record, yet still have something to prove. And it’s not just nationally, but with his own intense, and occasionally desperate, fan base.

It’s never easy succeeding a larger-than-life legend, a bill that fits Urban Meyer. So Day knew the challenges that came from the advantage of getting the keys to the Buckeyes Lamborghini.

He’s been derided as being born on third base by getting Ohio State as his first head coaching job, but he’s a former New Hampshire quarterback who overcame, at age 9, the death of his father by suicide, to grind his way to the top.

Six seasons in, Day, 45, has succeeded. Well, except for the part where some people point more to those eight losses than those 61 victories.

Day is 1-6 against teams in the top five of the College Football Playoff rankings. He is 1-3 against Michigan overall, including losses in each of the last three years. He is 1-3 in the College Football Playoff.

Ohio State has a reputation for steamrolling weaker opponents. Day has never lost to an unranked team and is unbeaten against every Big Ten team that isn’t located in Ann Arbor. That’s not nothing.

Ryan Day and the Buckeyes travel to Eugene to take on the No. 3 Oregon Ducks on Saturday. (Jason Mowry/Getty Images)

It even can beat the occasional highly ranked team, but the joy seems not to last. In 2020, it took down Clemson in the College Football Playoff … only to get blown out by Alabama in the title game.

Last season, it won late at Notre Dame, which was No. 9 at the time, but no one was overwhelmingly impressed because the Irish rarely win big ones either and Day spent the postgame seemingly challenging Lou Holtz to a fight.

And so, even as Ohio State (5-0) has blown out Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall,…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-10 20:28:50

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