Ohio State Fans Forced Head Coach Ryan Day to Get 24/7 Armed Security
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit has taken a lot of heat over the last few days for his controversial thoughts on the College Football Playoff selection criteria and which teams should and shouldn’t have been in the 12-team field this season. He also may have made some enemies with his colleagues on “First Take” (Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe) after calling out the show for trying to get Ohio State head coach Ryan Day fired after losing to Michigan in the Buckeyes’ regular-season finale over two weeks ago. Herbstreit didn’t do himself any favors during his Monday appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” either after he put Ohio State fans on blast and criticized their radical behavior after the way they reportedly have been treating Day, an admitted close friend of his, over the last couple of weeks. “I hear things that he and his family go through,” Herbstreit said. “Especially Nina, his wife. His son, who gets death threats from multiple, multiple people. And what it’s doing to them as a family. … When I hear that, it really frustrates me that he has to deal with putting an armed guard outside of his house 24/7 for his own fanbase. That hurts my heart that that is a reality for the Ohio State coach. “Any time you hear me talk about the lunatic fringe, I get frustrated with that group of fans. Every fanbase has them. I just think the Ohio State fanbase, because they’re so passionate, I think that very local minority of 15 or 20% is as strong at Ohio State as it is anywhere.”
Some of Ohio State’s fans will give Herbstreit a pass for his comments given he’s an alum of the school and has a large platform in which he uses to praise the team most of the time, but others may take what he said personally. Depending on who you ask, there’s plenty of pressure on Day to deliver a national championship this season to save his job given his struggles to beat Michigan (he’s lost four of his five meetings with the Wolverines.)
A win over No. 1 Oregon in the CFP quarterfinals on New Years Day, however, may cool the temperature on Day’s seat a bit.
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