Ohio State Assistant Coach Goes into Damage Control Mode as Ryan Day Faces Ultimatum Despite $52.3M Safety Net

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. For Ryan Day, being the custodian of bluebloods, Ohio State is almost perpetually going to be a poisoned chalice. While he has managed to dissipate a lot of heat and disdain enveloping him from both inside and outside Columbus, he is still not in the clear. Far from it, actually. Mauling Tennessee in the CFP round 1 may have afforded him enough grace for a year, perhaps, in tandem with his massive buy-out. But the conventional wisdom is that Ohio State’s loss to Michigan last month largely stemmed from poor offensive scheming and strategy.

ture their superstar skill-position guys at WR. The defense did show up, as it has all year long. However, there was one outlier game when the opposition drove up and down the Buckeyes’ defense rather comfortably. That was the game against Oregon, which they lost 31-32 in Eugene. As the team prepares to face this foe once again, DC Jim Knowles leveraged insight on what’s changed since. He hinted at shouldering a level of responsibility for his head coach’s predicament.

Speaking to the media ahead of their Rose Bowl date with Oregon, Knowles was asked how hard it was to “re-engineer” and “re-assess” his defense after that loss at Autzen

One thing Coach Day cannot be undermined for is his adaptability and adjustments. After the debacle against Michigan, which Colin Cowherd thought kept him under duress, he went back to the drawing board. The experience garnered from that failed strategy led to changes. These changes weren’t even too convoluted—Ryan Day just did what fans were yearning for him too. OSU opted to throw it more, realizing they have got Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka! Tennessee bore the full force of OSU (42-17) at its best, and Oregon may be next.