Poor Ohio State! No matter what they do, it doesn’t seem to be enough. In the 2024 season, HC Ryan Day and the Buckeyes gifted the fans a huge glow-up. Even though fans got really upset after their 10-13 loss to the arch-rivals Michigan, the program made up for it. And who has been the protagonist of the comeback story? Has to be their HC Day. 

After all, there was a time a man walked on thin ice on the verge of losing his job. From the edge to gifting Ohio State the National Championship title, Day has done it all. Impressed with the HC, the program gifted him an extension. But looks like someone got triggered. That’s none other than Pat McAfee as the Buckeyes now deal with a mass exodus of coaches.   

Ryan Day’s massive payday falls under Pat McAfee’s critical radar

The Buckeyes might be still not over the celebrations of their big title. That’s when Day was rewarded with a brand new contract by Ohio State, earning $12.5 million per year over seven years. Do you know this makes Day the second-highest-paid head coach in all of college football, right after Kirby Smart? This was picked up by the former Indianapolis Colts punter-turned-analyst McAfee on his podcast. McAfee said, “Congratulations. Ryan signed a 7-year extension averaging 12.5 million per year. Quick math, $87.5 million to him.” Not just this, another Buckeyes coach had an upgrade. 

Day and Co. promoted their wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to offensive coordinator. The guest of the evening, ex-Buckeyes, AJ Hawk, seemed to be quite happy with the Day’s contract but he still seemed to have doubts about Hartline. As he said, “But Brian Hartline I want to see if he is going to call the plays…he has never called the plays for Ohio State.” That’s when McAfee pounced on the chance to dish out his take on the situation. The fact that the Buckeyes gave up in their Jim Knowles’ pursuit, did not sit well with McAfee.

“Riddle me this. Couldn’t find an extra million for Jim Knowles. But we can find $12.5 million for Ryan Day,” the analyst gave a side eye to the winning champions. On the flip side, the Penn State Nittany Lions could afford to dish out an average of $3.1 million in base pay annually over the three-year term of the deal to Knowles. That’s when Hawk tried to cool things down by saying, “Maybe they don’t want to cross that $3 million threshold for coordinators.” However, McAfee can’t be blamed for holding such an outlook, after all, coaches fell like dominoes in Columbus.   

The departure spree in Ryan Day’s coaching roster 

Well, the Buckeyes might have been prepared to lose players in the transfer portal. But turns out that the coaching roster too caught the transfer fever. There has been a mass exodus of coaches that plagued Day’s program. It started with their defensive coordinator Jim Knowles who swapped wagons to Penn State for the same position. When the 59-year-old coach arrived at Ohio State in 2022, his assignment was to fix a defense that ranked 53rd nationally the prior season.

From there to winning the national championship title, Knowles has come a long way. However, they refused to pursue him any harder and he went to the Nittany Lions for a lucrative offer. Following in Knowles’ footsteps, Chip Kelly joined in and left the Buckeyes after one season. Kelly’s next stop is to become the offensive coordinator for Pete Carroll with the Las Vegas Raiders.

After two costly losses, the Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye left for the Arizona Cardinals. He had been in the last year of a contract with Ohio State that expired in January. As per the reports, teh 41-year-old coach has reportedly interviewed for the same role with the Chicago Bears. Even though, people like Pat McAfee might have an issue with Ryan Day’s contract, not to forget, that the Buckeyes HC has contributed to a noble cause.

As reported by The Silver Bulletin, “After signing his contract, Ryan Day made a $1M donation to mental health programs at The Ohio State University Medical Center.” Under fire but undeterred, Ryan Day is shaping not just a top-tier football team, but also a stronger, more connected community.