Sacramento Kings
Ryan Day Coaching Record and Career Highlights
- After winning four College Football Playoff games by an average of 17.5 points, Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes are at the top of the college football world.
- Ryan Day is 70-10 as the Ohio State head coach.
- Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes are favored to win back-to-back national titles.
What a difference a few weeks can make. Ohio State football coach Ryan Day went from being unable to win the big game after yet another loss to rival Michigan to holding up the College Football Playoff trophy after leading the Buckeyes to the national title. The Ryan Day coaching record has Day winning 87.5% of his games since being hired at Ohio State.
The best could be yet to come as the BetUs college football odds have the Buckeyes favored at +450 in the odds of winning the national championship during the upcoming season.
Let’s look at how Day led Ohio State to the top of the college football mountain.
Ohio State Coach Has His Day In the Sun
The Pressure Is Off Of Ryan Day After CFP Title
It looked like business as usual when Ohio State squandered a chance to play for the Big Ten title with a home loss to a mediocre Michigan team in the final game of the regular season. Ryan Day’s coaching history featured a troubling record in big games.
Under the previous four-team College Football Playoff format, Ryan Day’s Ohio State team might not have even received an invitation to the CFP. With the field expanding to 12 teams, the Buckeyes earned the No. 8 seed and even got a home game in the first round of the CFP.
Day came into the season in the top ten on the list of the highest-paid college football coaches. With two years as an NFL offensive coordinator under his belt, could a bump in pay be coming to stave off the NFL suitors?
What Was Ryan Day’s First Coaching Job?
Day was a quarterback at New Hampshire from 1998 to 2001. After his final game, he ranked second in program history with 7670 passing yards.
He didn’t have to go very far for his first coaching gig. He was hired as the tight ends coach at his alma mater during the 2002 season. The Ryan Day coaching history starts in Durham, New Hampshire.
Day spent the 2003 and 2004 seasons as a graduate assistant at Boston College before taking a GA role at Florida in 2005.
He returned to Boston College to coach the wide receivers from 2007 to 2011 and also had a pair of stints as an offensive assistant at Temple.
When looking at teams coached by Ryan Day, his big break came when fellow New Hampshire native Chip Kelly hired Day as the quarterbacks coach with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles in 2015. Day was named to the same spot when Kelly was let go by the Eagles and hired to coach the San Francisco 49ers.
Day Arrives In Columbus
After two seasons of coaching in the NFL, Day got the chance to return to college football. It started in 2017 when he was named the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Urban Meyer for the 2017 season.
Meyer’s lack of accountability for assistant coach Zach Smith’s disturbing abuse allegations led to Day becoming the interim head coach at Ohio State in 2018.
Before Meyer returned, Day had a 3-0 record as the acting Ohio State football coach. It was announced that Meyer would retire after the 2019 Rose Bowl and that Day would become the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Piling Up The Wins
From 2018 to 2020, Ohio State was 17-0 in Big Ten games with Day as the Ohio State head coach. His record after the 2020 season was 23-2, with losses in the 2019 Fiesta Bowl and the 2020 College Football Playoffs title game.
Ironically, the only time an Ohio State football team coached by Ryan Day lost more than one conference game during the regular season was in 2024, when Ohio State lost to Oregon and Michigan.
Getting Hot At the Right Time
When the College Football Playoffs began, it was quickly apparent that Ohio State would be a tough team to face.
It began with a 42-17 win over Tennessee in the SEC, followed by a 20-point victory over top-seeded Oregon at the Rose Bowl.
It was a more demanding assignment in the semifinals, with Ohio State’s defensive leader, Jack Sawyer, returning a fumble for a touchdown as Texas was close to tying the game.
Ohio State won the national title by beating Notre Dame 34-23. The Ryan Day coaching record shows that was his 70th win as the head coach of the Buckeyes.
Day is just 45. Will he stick around long enough to be among the winningest college football coaches?
A Look At the Numbers
Day has a 70-10 record at Ohio State, including a 46-5 mark in Big Ten play. Four of those losses came to Michigan. That is pretty impressive stuff when looking at the Ryan Day coaching record.
Since the start of the 2021 season, only Georgia and Michigan have had a better winning percentage than Ohio State. During that stretch, Ohio State is 13-7 against ranked teams and 27-3 at home, with the same record as a home favorite.
Ohio State is 29-23-3 against the college football spread in the last four seasons and 28-22-3 as the favorite.
A Look Ahead
The transfer portal was very kind to Ohio State a season ago, and the Buckeyes are back at it. Washington State quarterback John Mateer, Purdue tight end Max Klare, and Minnesota offensive tackle Phillip Daniels are among the transfers who have already committed to Ohio State.
Ohio State opens the 2025 season with a home game with Texas. While the Buckeyes don’t face Oregon or Indiana in Big Ten play, there is a home game with Penn State and a trip to Ann Arbor against Michigan.
