NFL Rumors Will Persist as Long as Ryan Day Wins at Ohio State
The confluence of the first NFL head coach firing of the season and Ohio State's 6-0 start dismissing all questions about Ryan Day's qualifications to succeed Urban Meyer has birthed the first of what will prove many conversations about Day's eventual interest in the NFL.
Day is just 40 and he's coaching a monster program with every conceivable asset and advantage at his disposal.
So why would he ever leave?
Here are three reasons:
- The allure of coaching at the highest level. The NFL is pure football. There's no recruiting. No booster bashes to attend. No responsibility for players getting degrees or obeying the law off the field.
- The Ohio State job is a meat-grinder. Urban Meyer lasted seven years. Jim Tressel lasted 10. John Cooper endured 13 and Earle Bruce managed nine. Compare photographs of any of them when they took the job to when they departed and you'll notice that all aged like a two-term U.S. President.
- Day is young enough he can ride the wave of Ohio State's dominance for five-to-10 more seasons and still have the energy to tackle the challenge of trying to win a Super Bowl.
But because Day came to Ohio State from the NFL, serving in 2015 and 2016 as quarterbacks coach on Chip Kelly's staffs in Philadelphia and San Francisco, there's considerable concern among OSU fans that he'll eventually bolt for the pros.
Jay Gruden's firing in Washington on Monday brought questions to Day on Tuesday about that Redskins' opening.
Day said he's had no contact with Washington, which chose Dwayne Haskins with the 15th overall pick in April after Haskins threw 50 touchdown passes in Day's offense at OSU.
Day said he would not address any questions now or in the future about other jobs, which is a very savvy way to duck the matter without saying he's married to Ohio State.
Day young enough to play out string at OSU, then try NFL
Fox NFL analyst Chris Spielman, on the Wednesday edition of the Spielman & Hooley podcast, that Day will likely find his way to the NFL eventually.
"I think that Ryan Day will be an NFL head coach," Spielman said. "There is no doubt in my mind. It's just a matter of when. That could be 10 years from now. It could be 15 years from now....I think he will be an NFL head coach at some point in his coaching career."
At Ohio State, Day doesn't lack for facilities, tradition, recruiting base, budget, league affiliation or fan support.
If Day wanted to be in the NFL, he could be there right now.
A season after joining Meyer's staff in 2017, Day had the chance to become offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans.
Day has turned down NFL opportunities before
He turned down that job, the same one he held with the San Francisco 49ers under Chip Kelly before coming to Columbus, and -- presto -- just over a year later fell into Meyer's job when health concerns and a 3-game school suspension for inadequate stewardship of a rogue assistant coach precipitated his retirement.
Earlier this season, Day took a question about his good fortune in following Meyer and inheriting a stacked roster:
“You’re at a place where the margin for error is like about this much,” he said, holding his fingers less than an inch apart. “And so there’s pluses and minuses to everything. But this is a wonderful place, and what was built here ahead of when I got here and then even the last couple years when I was here by coach (Meyer) is tremendous."
"...But with that comes great expectations, and that’s understood when you come in. It’s every day. People are expecting to win every game. Every place has its own challenges, and not one is easier than the other. It’s all different, but why you put a whistle around your neck is to have an opportunity like this.”
Tuesday, Day said he's turned down jobs in the past simply to avoid moving his family one more time.
"That’s the thing that I don’t know if people realize," he said. "You have to move your family — we have a young family. When you’re moving them all over the place, it is the worst thing to go home to your family and tell them we’ve got to move again; they’ve got to be the new kid again and your wife has to figure out a new set of friends again. It’s just not good."
