They say you never want to follow a legend, but rather follow the guy who followed the legend.
At Ohio State, however, that’s kind of difficult because OSU has had a College Football Hall of Fame head coach at the helm for 67 of the last 68 years. And who knows, Luke Fickell may make it a clean sweep when he’s eventually done as well.
Ryan Day now becomes the latest Ohio State head coach to follow a legend.
With Urban Meyer announcing his retirement Tuesday afternoon, he will cast an unmatched shadow in Ohio State history. In seven short years, Meyer’s legacy can stand with any before him, and tower over most.
A national championship, seven first-place division finishes, three conference championships, three bowl wins, and possibly a Rose Bowl win to put a very Scarlet and Gray bow on the gift that Meyer has been for OSU.
Meyer didn’t lose his first regular season conference game until his fourth year at Ohio State.
He finished 82-9 at Ohio State with a 54-4 mark in Big Ten games. Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh lost four conference games in 2017 alone.
Urban Meyer has left impossible standards to follow, his .901 winning percentage is placed on an impossibly-tall pedestal.
That’s probably why Ohio State went out and found the only man with a higher winning percentage at OSU than Meyer.
Ryan Day went 3-0 to start the season as the Buckeyes’ head coach, and while the opponents weren’t noteworthy, that doesn’t mean people weren’t taking note of Day’s approach and performance.
Meyer has called Day elite since last year, well before he was thrust into the position of acting head coach during fall camp.
Players and coaches responded well to him, and if you ask those who have interacted with Day, there really are no bad reviews out there.
There is plenty of caution – like hiring a guy who has just three games of head coaching experience – but Day’s future is as bright as any assistant coach in the nation, so Ohio State just decided to keep him home and turn his future into theirs.
Is it a gamble? Sure.
Hell, there were plenty of pundits who thought hiring Urban Meyer was a gamble.
That ended up being as much of a gamble as a one-colored roulette wheel.
There will be people who think Ohio State is above hiring an assistant coach. There used to be people who thought OSU was above hiring a coach from I-AA as well, but that worked out okay the decade before this one.
Should Ohio State have done a national search?
What makes you think they didn’t? This wasn’t a surprise to OSU. Talks were happening back in the summer, so there was an entire college football season to soak in the possibilities. The list of potential head coaches was small, so it’s not something a search committee would need to be involved in.
Day had the advantage of being at Ohio State already, but that also shouldn’t disqualify him from the job.
Ohio State could have spent much of the season watching other coaches, but in each of those instances, the university would have had to imagine those coaches at OSU. With Day, they got to see their imagination brought to life every day. And none of it was bad.
Things are about to get much more serious, however, as imagination turns to reality.
How will Ryan Day do at Ohio State? Likely just fine. Same as Matt Campbell or most anybody else mentioned as a possibility.
Doing “just fine” isn’t really the goal, however, which is why making as seamless a transition as possible is also important.
When Day was the acting head coach, he said his goal was to rock the boat as little as possible. Now that this is his boat, he’ll be the one at the wheel. He will make some changes but will also look to continue the course that Meyer set for him.
Following a legend is never ideal, nor is losing one.
If the foundation is solid, however, then the transition can be made easier.
Ryan Day is viewed as an up-and-coming superstar in the coaching business and Ohio State didn’t want to let him achieve his stardom somewhere else.
Hiring him is definitely a risky wager, but letting him go may have been an even bigger gamble.