Ohio State AD safeties coach Ryan Day will return in 2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said Thursday he is “absolutely” confident Ryan Day will be back as the Buckeyes’ football coach in 2025.

Calls to fire the sixth-year coach rose among Ohio State fans after the Buckeyes lost to Michigan for the fourth straight year. Bjork said in an interview on 97.1 The Fan that Day is the man for the job regardless of how the Buckeyes fare in the College Football Playoff. They host Tennessee in a first-round game Dec. 21.

“Coach Day is great,” said Bjork, who came from Texas A&M to replace the retiring Gene Smith last summer. “He’s great to work with. He totally gets it. He loves being a Buckeye. So we’re going to support him at the highest level.”

The 13-10 loss to Michigan, followed by a nasty close game between the teams, put the coach in a precarious spot. Day and his team were booed off the field by the home fans, and Bjork ended up releasing a statement expressing his support for the coach.

“The reason we had to say something after the (Michigan) game is we’re still breathing, we’re still alive,” Bjork said. “The season is not over. The book is not closed.”

Thanks to the playoffs, Day has a chance to redeem himself with Ohio State’s huge fan base with a win against the Volunteers and maybe more in the 12-team tournament.

Whatever happens, Day will be back next year, according to Björk.

“Coach Day and I just hit it off so well,” Bjork said. “I’ve been really, really impressed. Every time I talk to him, I learn something. He’s innovative. He recruits at the highest level. He has a great staff.”

Day would not directly address his job status last weekend.

“When you first come off things like that, there’s a lot of emotion,” he said, referring to the Michigan loss. “And then as time goes on, you have to refocus because you know what you’ve done in the past doesn’t affect what’s going on going forward. Everything is out in front of us.”

Failing to consistently beat Michigan is one of the few blemishes on Day’s coaching record. He is 47-1 against all Big Ten opponents except Michigan, but is 1-4 against the Wolverines.

Day was hired as a member of coach Urban Meyer’s staff in 2017 and was the hand-picked successor when Meyer retired following the 2018 season. With an overall record of 66-10, he is much admired in the coaching community.

But Day is in trouble now because losing The Game is considered an unforgivable sin by Buckeyes fans.

“What we have to do is this whole ‘championship or bust’ mentality, you want that to be the goal, but it has to be about the process,” Bjork said. “To me, we need to maybe change some conversations a little bit. I think maybe we just need to approach things a little differently.”