Flush with money and talent, Ohio State and Ryan Day aim to be BIA, ASAP

Ohio State, perhaps the most spectacular college offense over the last half-decade, couldn’t crack an egg in the Cotton Bowl. Harrison, the nation’s top receiver, opted out of the game. OSU’s starting quarterback all season, Kyle McCord, had transferred out, and a true freshman QB from Pierre, S.D., Lincoln Kienholz, was running for his life against Missouri’s defense.

“We got put in a tough spot, and we didn’t respond well enough,” OSU coach Ryan Day said afterward. “We didn’t help the young kid at all. And that’s why we lost the game.”

OSU lost 14-3 — its fewest points since a 31-0 loss to Clemson in the 2016 College Football Playoff. That was OSU’s last game, incidentally, where Day wasn’t a part of the coaching staff. Urban Meyer then hired Day in 2017 to juice the passing offense, and Day did so with J.T. Barrett.

Day’s next three starters — the late Dwayne Haskins, Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud — all became first-round NFL Draft picks. With Day as head coach, OSU made the CFP in 2019, 2020 and 2022. Last year, it stood 37 yards away from beating Michigan.

With 30 seconds left — no timeouts — McCord threw as he got hit. His pass for Harrison was off. UM defensive back Rod Moore intercepted it, waved goodbye to the Buckeyes, and went on to win a national title.

OSU endured misery in the Cotton Bowl, and Day got bold. His actions just might win the Buckeyes a national title in 2024.

Paired with two well-funded, aggressive NIL collectives, Day went after many of the nation’s top transfers — and landed them, including Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins, who rushed for more than 3,000 yards over his first two years and opted to join a Buckeye team that already has TreVeyon Henderson.

Day also pulled off the coaching coup of the cycle, hiring his mentor, Chip Kelly, to run OSU’s offense. Kelly left the UCLA head coaching job to make $2 million under his protégé.

And remarkably, the duo kept all five of their scholarship quarterbacks. Kansas State transfer Will Howard — the odds-on favorite to start, though not a slam dunk — naturally stayed. But so did McCord’s two backups — Kienholz and Devin Brown — plus two five-star freshmen, Julian Sayin and Air Noland. OSU used two fields to develop five guys. (NU used three fields to develop three.)

“If you wanna come to Ohio State, you’re gonna wanna compete,” Day said May 15 on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus. “And that’s the way we do it in the offseason, that’s the way we do it on the field. We want to compete at the highest level. The cool thing is, you make it here, you make it anywhere.”

This is college football’s Cadillac team in 2024, and now — without winning a single title since 2014 — the program best-positioned to challenge Georgia’s supremacy in the sport. Michigan tapped — in more ways than one — everything it had in St. Harbaugh The Martyr’s final year. Alabama adjusts in the wake of Nick Saban’s retirement. Texas hasn’t earned anyone’s trust yet. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney has gone full ostrich on transfers, comically calling high school signees “transfers” from K-12 institutions. OK. He’s lost 12 games over four seasons for a reason.

This leaves Georgia’s machine and Ohio State. Day and his 87.5% win rate has positioned the Buckeye franchise for the future. Kelly’s hire inches Ohio State’s offense back toward a middle ground between a pass-heavy attack and Meyer’s tendency to turn all of his QBs into Tim Tebow. Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ pass scheme allowed opponents just 145 yards passing last season, and he brings back a secondary full of all-stars, plus Alabama transfer safety Caleb Downs.

“Our DBs are BIA — Best in America,” Knowles told OSU beat reporters this spring.

Talent. Money. Coaching. Heck, OSU even signed a transfer punter from Buffalo. It should all work, right?

Right. Which is why Coaches Hot Seat has Day ranked ninth in its hot seat rankings, sandwiched between Shane Beamer and Pat Narduzzi, while UGA’s Kirby Smart is 134th.

Day has a new athletic director — Ross Bjork — who was hired by Ted Carter, the new OSU president. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

“They’ve really embraced what being a Buckeye is,” Day said of Bjork and Carter on 97.1. “They certainly come with different experiences, bring different things to the table, have certain vision that they want to see happen in the future, but they’ve really embraced the community.”

Though there are exceptions — Nebraska is one — new brass usually means trickier relationships and expectations. And much like Ohio State had a close-up of view of Day’s work when it became clear Meyer had to move on, everyone will get a good look at Kelly’s work, too.

And Dan Lanning’s work at Oregon, for that matter.

OSU opens with three walkover non-conference games — Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall — and inert Big Ten foes Michigan State and Iowa before an Oct. 12 tilt in Eugene. It’s the trip the Buckeyes didn’t make in 2020 when the Big Ten, in the wake of COVID, canceled all non-conference games. The following year, Oregon thumped Ohio State good, 35-28, despite Stroud’s 484 yards passing.

In 2024, OSU will have to handle Oregon’s speed and swaggy vibe inside Autzen Stadium. Kelly helped make that program what it is. Lanning’s intent is to finish what Kelly started, and get Oregon to a national title.

The Ducks’ trajectory is a different column. But they replace the threat Michigan posed for the last three years. Yes, OSU still has the Wolverines two days after Thanksgiving, and Penn State Nov. 2. And with the timely death of Big Ten divisions, it’s possible — likely! — that OSU goes 12-0 in the regular season and faces one of those three teams in the league championship game.

The CFP expansion also creates another standard for OSU to meet. Day will be expected to make the top 12 — every year. No exceptions.

It’s a high-pressure environment.

“It’s a double-edge sword,” Day said on 97.1. “You have to celebrate the victories…but at the same time, you have to identify the issues, because the issues are still there. That’s the job of the coaches and the players to identify what the issues are, even when you won a game by 28.

“Then you go to a matchup game that may come down to one or two plays and those two one or two plays may affect the outcome of the game.”

Tough job. Enviable job. Day and Co. have one goal: BIA, ASAP.