Today’s Topic: Which Traits Did Ryan Day Look For In A Coaching Staff?
Even before he was a head coach, Ryan Day knew he was going to be a head coach.
As he said when he was announced as Ohio State’s next head coach, that’s why you put the whistle around your neck.
Following the 2017 season, he apparently had an opportunity to become the head coach at Mississippi State, but thought better of it.
Even before then, however, he was likely keeping a list in his mind of possibilities for his first coaching staff as a head coach somewhere.
When that first head coaching opportunity became Ohio State, the possibilities became even greater, yet more specific.
“The first thing I decided is I felt like we needed a couple of veteran guys here, guys who have been through the fire before,” he said. “They know the league, they know the conference, they know college football. Then I wanted to have three other guys who were younger, some younger guys to complement those guys.”
With this being Ohio State, however, Day also had the same desires that his predecessor Urban Meyer had. If possible, Day wanted Ohio ties.
“Wanted guys who wanted to be here,” he said. “Ohio ties. Big Ten ties. Guys that we thought were going to make our players better.”
It wasn’t just geography and an Ohio background that Day was looking for. If that was the case, we’d all qualify.
Knowing Ohio is important in recruiting and building relationships with the high school coaches, but there’s also the intangibility of unapologetic DNA when it comes to the rivalry with Michigan.
When it’s part of your upbringing, you impart it in everything you do.
But you still have to be able to coach and you still have to be able to motivate your players. Coaching is a relationship business, and Day wanted guys capable of building relationships with the players that will last well beyond the three or four or five years they are wearing the Scarlet and Gray.
“The two things we talk about all the time as an assistant coach, if your players love you, they’ll do anything for you,” Day said. “You’ve got to build that relationship. Guys that are relationship oriented. Then how do you make them better? If these guys think they’re getting better every day, they feel themselves getting better, they’ll go through the roof for you. [I wanted] guys that are competent and do a great job at coaching and also that are relationship oriented.”
