Ohio State head coach Ryan Day leaves door open for coaching in NFL

It took six years, but the Ohio State Buckeyes got to the mountaintop with head coach Ryan Day this season, winning the 2024 College Football Playoff.

But with a national title now in his possession, would Day consider bolting college football for the NFL? 

“I would never wanna say, ‘I would never consider it,’ because you don’t know how things can change. I was in the NFL for two years and had a great experience there, and it’s a great league. But right now, the impact we can make on young people is, to me, more impactful in college,” Day said on the latest edition of “The Steam Room.”

“And that’s why I got into this game, was to do that and that’s what I want to do.”

Day was a quarterbacks coach in the NFL for two seasons: 2015 with the Philadelphia Eagles and 2016 with the San Francisco 49ers. Both of those assistant coaching stints came under head coach Chip Kelly, who’s now Day’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ohio State.

Day arrived in Columbus in 2017, serving as the Buckeyes’ co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under head coach Urban Meyer. He was then Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and acting head coach for three games in 2018. Day was promoted to full-time head coach for the 2019 season in the wake of Meyer’s retirement.

Since Day became the full-time head coach in 2019, Ohio State is a combined 67-10 with five 11-plus-win seasons, four College Football Playoff appearances and no more than two losses in a single season.

Prior to the 2024 College Football Playoff, Day’s Buckeyes lost on their home turf to the archival Michigan Wolverines, who were unranked, marking their fourth consecutive loss in the iconic Big Ten rivalry.

Ohio State then rebounded, blowing out the No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers at home in the first round, handling the No. 1 Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals, edging out the No. 5 Texas Longhorns in the semifinals and knocking off the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the National Championship.

What’s next for Day with the Buckeyes? Make a class of one a class of two.

“Woody Hayes is the last one to win multiple national championships at Ohio State. That’s something I’ve now set for myself,” Day said. “To be the next head coach to win multiple championships at Ohio State. There’s still a lot more to be done.”

Five of Ohio State’s nine championships came with Hayes as head coach (1954, 1957, 1961, 1968 and 1970). Paul Brown (1942), Jim Tressel (2002), Meyer (2014) and Day (2024) won the other four.

The next time Day and the Buckeyes will be in action is Aug. 30, when they host the Longhorns in Week 1 of the 2025 college football season, a rematch of last season’s semifinal round matchup.

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