After Michigan’s latest beat down of Ohio State, the Ryan Day hate is REAL. Initially, the focus was solely on the rivalry game. However, it has now shifted towards Coach Day’s approach with the team and his coaching standards. As the team prepares for a crucial game against Tennessee, which could determine their fate in the playoffs, a new controversy is emerging surrounding Day and his role as the head coach. The fans are in a split, with some believing that it is long overdue, while others view it as an exaggerated response. Nevertheless, the drama continues to intensify. The question remains: can Day recover from this setback, or has the mounting pressure become overwhelming for him?

It’s not a new thing for any team to fall short, but when it comes to teams like the Bucks and the amount they spend on their coaches, a rivalry game loss is not something they expect from them. Even Desmond Howard highlights the things Ryan Day messed up while coaching the Bucks this season, which even left Cam Newton straight-up mind-blown, as his shocking reaction to his statement reflects it all.

“When you look at Ryan Day, at the end of the day, his contract, he’s one of the highest-paid coaches in all of college football. He knows What the expectations are that come with that type of salary and taking a coaching job Ohio State now has won a lot of games, but listen, brother, he won a lot of games against teams whose rosters were better than their rosters, but when he knows the rosters are evenly matched, then he has struggled.” That’s true to some extent that Ryan Day does have a $10.02 million salary to justify, but the team is a running contender in the playoffs; at least that should give him the benefit of the doubt. The only teams the Bucks lost against were Oregon and Michigan, that too with a very close margin.

Moreover, talking about a better rooster, does this mean Penn State doesn’t have a strong rooster, or is Nebraska the one with a weak-player team? Both the teams are bowl-eligible, and Penn State is in the playoffs, so, yeah, for sure, Rooster is not the problem. Plus, what about the time when Ohio State won against Indiana? It looks like losing against Michigan is the only problem, and winning against the Vols is the sole opportunity for Ryan Day and the team to come out of this misery.

More misery adding up on Ryan Day’s concern

This time it’s not just about winning the game but also about saving your pride. The constant pressure surrounding Ryan Day is not just alarming him but also creating tension over his tenure with the team. However, all of this might go away if the team successfully secures a win against Tennessee, but it looks like even that is not in their hands. Coach Day’s hopes solely depend on how his star quarterback, Will Howard, performs against the Vols crazy defense, but analysts feel that it’s not going to be an easy ride for them.

While talking about Bucks and Will Howard’s fate against the Vols on The McShay Show, analyst Todd McShay brings out some past stats of Howard’s, which can be concerning for the team, as he says, “For the past two seasons, Will Howard is 3-6 in games with 30 or more passing attempts. This year, he had the win against Michigan State, but he lost to Oregon and Michigan. The only teams he beat last year were Troy and UCF. The other losses are mostly against ranked teams. I don’t think they want him throwing the [football] more than 30 times.”

Will Howard’s pass attempts inconsistency be an alarming factor for the team? See, Howard has a decent record of averaging 26.2 passing attempts per game, with a completion rate of 72.3%, 2,860 passing yards, and 27 touchdowns, but then during his game against Northwestern, he completed 15 of 24 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns, with a 62.5% completion rate. But they won the game. So is this a strategic move by coach Ryan Day to limit Howard’s pass attempts to bring accuracy to the game? Or just a mere representation of poor gameplay?

Now for that, we need to wait and see if keeping Howard under 30 passes can mess with Tennessee’s 232 yards per game defense and give Ohio State the edge.