Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said Thursday that he is “absolutely” confident that Ryan Day will be back as football coach in 2025.
Calls to fire the sixth-year coach rose among Ohio State fans after the Buckeyes lost to Michigan for the fourth straight year. Bjork, in an interview on 97.1 The Fan, said Day is the man for the job, regardless of how the Buckeyes perform in the College Football Playoff. They host Tennessee in a first-round game on Dec. 21.
“Coach Day is awesome,” said Bjork, who came from Texas A&M to replace the retiring Gene Smith last summer. “He’s great to work with. He totally gets it. He loves being a Buckeye. So, we’re going to support him at the highest level.”
The 13-10 loss to Michigan followed by an ugly melee between the teams put the coach in a precarious spot. He and his team were booed off the field by the home fans. Bjork ended up releasing a statement expressing his support for the coach.
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“The reason we had to say something after [the Michigan] game is, we’re still breathing, we’re still alive,” Bjork said. “The season’s not over. The book is not closed.”
Thanks to the playoff, Day has a chance to redeem himself with Ohio State’s huge fan base with a win against the Volunteers — and perhaps more in the 12-team tournament.
How Ohio State can move on and bounce back from Michigan loss
Regardless of what happens, Day will be back next year, according to Bjork.
“Coach Day and I just hit it off so well,” Bjork said. “I’ve been really, really impressed. Every single time I talked to him, I learn something. He’s innovative. He recruits at the highest level. He’s got a great staff.”
Day wouldn’t directly address his job status last weekend.
“When you first come off those types of things, there’s a lot of emotion,” he said, referring to the Michigan loss. “And then as time goes on, you’ve got to get refocused because you know what you’ve done in the past does not affect what’s going on moving forward. Everything is out in front of us.”
Failing to consistently beat Michigan is one of the few flaws in Day’s coaching record. Hired as a member of coach Urban Meyer’s staff in 2017, Day was the hand-picked successor when Meyer retired after the 2018 season. Compiling an overall 66-10 record, he is widely admired in the coaching community.
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“Great respect for what he’s done in his coaching career, what he’s done there at Ohio State and the success that they’ve had year-in and year-out,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said.
Day is in trouble now because losing The Game is considered an unforgiveable sin by Buckeyes fans.
“What we have to do is this whole ‘championship or bust’ mentality, you want that as the goal, but it has to be about the process,” Bjork said. “To me, we’ve got to maybe change some conversations a little bit. I think we need to maybe just approach things a little bit differently.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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