Ryan Day will be glad to see the regular season in the rear-view mirror. One fateful Saturday towards the epilogue rewrote the entire book on Ohio State’s season. His self-proclaimed “worst thing that’s ever happened” took a familiar maize and blue form. For the 4th consecutive year, Coach Day and the Buckeyes’ faithful had to live out the transcendent horror of losing The Game to Michigan.

This time, though, it cut deeper than ever. The two teams were worlds apart on paper. The Buckeyes being 3-touchdown favorites is a proponent of this. Alas, the games are played on the gridiron and not paper, after all. OSU fell short, and Ryan Day was chastized in the aftermath. What this chastation transpired into, though, was not absolvable under any circumstances.

Every fanbase has a lunatic fringe. The Buckeyes’ version can sometimes be a little more lunatic and a little less on the fringes. The Blueblood program has one of the biggest followings in the country. A faction of these “fans” crossed the line. According to intel relayed by Yahoo Sports, Ryan Day had to hire armed personnel to ensure the safety of him and his family. He allegedly received death threats after the Buckeyes lost to their arch-nemesis. In light of this becoming conspicuous, OSU legend Urban Meyer alluded to these events and explained why he was not surprised.

Urban Meyer knows the Ohio State program inside out. He’s had his fair share of run-ins and the occasional berating from this very fanbase despite his success as HC. In an interview with WBNS 10TV ahead of the Buckeyes’ Rose Bowl date with the Oregon Ducks, Meyer spoke about how some of the criticism that came the way of Ryan Day was valid. Although he exclusively spoke in terms of the criticism for his coaching, and not the peripheral idiocracy that ensued.

“The attacks or the criticism that Coach Day and Chip Kelly got for lack of creativity and not getting the ball to your best players was somewhat justified against the Wolverines,”  he said. Meyer also acknowledged the changes Ryan Day and OC Chip Kelly made to their offensive game plan against Tennessee in round 1 of the CFP.

If there’s one aspect of Ryan Day’s coaching acumen that’s elite, it’s his adaptability. He and his coach Kelly went back to the drawing board and utilized their pass attack a lot more, leaning on his outstanding wide receiving corp. The result was an emphatic 42-17 win against the Vols. The Buckeyes are now firmly back in the Natty conversation. Owing to this upheaval, Urban Meyer has picked them to win the Rose Bowl.

Urban Meyer reckons Ryan Day will continue his vindication in Pasadena

Urban Meyer has resided with his old stomping grounds in the rematch from October and then played at Autzen. Oregon edged out 32-31 winners after a lapse in judgement by Buckeyes’ QB Will Howard on the final play of the game. Meyer suggests the margins will remain just as tight but fall in favor of OSU.

“I have Ohio State [by] a walk-off [field goal],” he claimed. Winning. Meyer wiped the dust off his coaching hat and gave the reason for his discernment.

“Ohio State was shocked by the speed at the receiver [position] when they first played Oregon”, he said. “It’s probably been two years, certainly this year, [since they] faced anything close to Oregon’s receivers. When I was watching the game, they were running right by Ohio State’s corners and their safeties. This is the advantage of playing a team again. [I’ll tell] you how I’d handle it. The defensive backs at Ohio State would not face another scout team receiver for the rest of 2024. Because you can’t get shocked. They were shocked by that speed. The corners will be playing against Emeka [Egbuka], Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith this whole week of practice up until the game.” The fans will hope that’s exactly what went down in training.

The performance against Tennessee has rightfully dissipated a lot of heat around Ryan Day. However, he’s still not out of the proverbial frying pan. A win against Oregon is imperative to ensure the off-season is kind on the criticism front. That said, beating Oregon will maybe raise the bar once again, which was lowered after the Michigan debacle. Only a National Championship can truly keep the skeptics at bay. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Being the custodian of a program of Ohio State’s stature is perennially going to be a poisoned chalice for any head coach.