How Title Favorite Ohio State Unraveled As Ryan Day Was Outcoached

The Buckeyes had the talent to repeat as national champions, but missed adjustments and stubborn decisions ended the run before it truly began.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day watches from the sideline during the Cotton Bowl against Miami. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

ARLINGTON, Texas — At some point over the coming days of the new year, Ryan Day will pull up the tape of Ohio State’s 24–14 loss to Miami in the Cotton Bowl quarterfinal.

He will dissect every play as he usually does. He’ll figure out why, in retrospect, he called a screen play that quarterback Julian Sayin flung with abandon for a 72-yard pick-six that changed the complexion of the game. He’ll come to the realization that it took him far too long to use a bit of tempo or to start using an extra blocker to chip either of the Hurricanes’ ferocious defensive ends, Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain Jr. 

Day will, perhaps, smile at star receiver Jeremiah Smith’s seven catches, 157 yards and a score. Then he’ll realize none of the team’s other highly compensated skill position group members mustered anything against a defensive unit that was shockingly the superior group to his own that bordered on the historic across the last five months.

Eventually, after he watches and rewatches every play from every angle, there may be a bit of fear that washes over Day. Despite his status as one of the three active coaches who can lord over their peers with a title ring, he just got outcoached by the one guy who was roundly mocked every Saturday for his game management skills in Mario Cristobal. 

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Worse, the cherry on top of that off-putting sundae of comeuppance served as part of the program’s third straight loss playing on New Year’s Eve, is that Day completely blew it the past two games with the best team in college football to cost them a conference title and a second straight national championship.

“There wasn’t a whole lot to say to them,” a solemn Day acknowledged in the bowels of AT&T Stadium of his message to the Buckeyes afterward.

Indeed, the comatose Ohio State locker room was so quiet after the game that you could easily hear every movement from those still packing up their handful of belongings to take back to Columbus. Barely a word was uttered unless being prodded by reporters with similarly hushed questions about how such a promising College Football Playoff run ended in a one-and-done exit few saw coming.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t execute the way that we needed to to win the game, and that’s what it is,” safety Caleb Downs said. “We can’t change it now. So, I mean, we’ll go from here.”

Where, exactly, the program goes is much more of a mystery in the wake of such a devastating loss and especially so with the expected departure of Downs to the NFL and several others to either graduation or the transfer portal.

Mostly though, there will be some real self-reflection needed after the team processes things a bit more at their insulated Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

That starts with Day, who must somehow find a way to mentally pull his team back together for 2026 after a few months of internal insistence on going a perfect 16–0 this season gave way to an 0–2 December. Just a month ago, the group thought it was on the cusp of history by becoming the first in school history to grab back-to-back national titles.

“We know they put a lot of work and time into this thing. It’s our job as coaches to make sure that we figure out ways to put them in a situation to be successful,” Day said. “We’ve got to take a hard look at that and figure out what it is that we’ve got to get done to get better.”

Top of the agenda is what to do about the play-calling for Ohio State moving forward after what could charitably be described as an ill-timed return to the job by Day against Miami following offensive coordinator Brian Hartline’s departure for USF just before the loss to Indiana in the Big Ten title game.

In addition to looking out of sorts in that game, the transition from Day as the all-conquering CEO coach who finally got the monkey off his back against rival Michigan to one whose group barely mustered three of 10 third-down conversions and a paltry 1.9 yards per rush against Miami must be reexamined. 

Had he been more on top of things and not simply insisted on spending the past 25 days practicing with greater effort and urgency that his players said they did, maybe the outcome on Wednesday night would have gone much differently. 

Maybe, even, Day could have been savvy enough to recall last season’s offensive coordinator instead of Chip Kelly winding up in the same position at conference rival Northwestern. Certainly, something has to change as the byproduct of Ohio State going into halftime scoreless for the first time since 2016.

Ohio State running back Bo Jackson rushes with the ball against Miami. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“Started executing better in the second half. But ultimately, wasn’t good enough. Didn’t put up enough points,” Sayin said. “We’ve got to be better on offense from an execution standpoint. It starts with me. We’ve got to be better and put up more points than 14.”

Easy to say and harder to do in such pressure-packed situations like the playoff, but if anyone is capable of navigating such a tricky path, it surely is Day. He is one of the highest-paid coaches in the country for a reason, and his ability to problem solve on offense was a large reason why he was handed the reins of the program in the first place.

The good news is that, barring unforeseen circumstances, he should have a championship contender again next season, with Heisman finalist Sayin another year wiser and Smith again looking like a No. 1 overall pick but is forced to return to school for one more go-around. The young offensive line will have another chance to learn from its issues in the Cotton Bowl (or get fortified through the transfer portal), while freshman tailback Bo Jackson remains a nice building block in the ground game. 

Until kickoff next fall though, it will be a long offseason in Ohio as Day watches and rewatches a missed shot at history and grapples with all that entails in a job at Ohio State that is completely unforgiving.

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