Under Day, OSU takes off
Since his arrival as a coordinator, and now coach, Buckeyes potent
Much has been made of Alabama’s transformation from a dynasty built on Nick Saban’s calling card lock-down defense to one powered by a prolific offense.
No. 3 Ohio State, which faces the top-ranked Crimson Tide on Monday night in the national championship game, has undergone an offensive evolution of its own in recent years.
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer’s desire to rejuvenate an attack that was shut out in the 2016 playoff by Clemson led him to Ryan Day, who provided exactly what the Buckeyes needed to become more potent and — as a huge bonus — ended up being an ideal successor to his former boss.
“When he got here, I had the opportunity just to see him coach. I knew we were going to be different,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “His football IQ overall is phenomenal, but offensively it’s at another level. He’s a creative thinker. His ability to analyze and dissect, you know, the chess game, so to speak, is really, really outstanding.“
Day was hired as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive
coordinator by Meyer in 2017, just days after the Buckeyes lost 31-0 in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal to Clemson. Since then, Ohio State’s offense has taken off. Not only have the Buckeyes become more productive, but the way they play has helped make the program a more desirable destination for blue-chip QBS.
Sort of like Alabama.
“We had a pretty prolific offense with that we were doing, but we needed to recognize what was happening around us,” Smith said.
After the shutout loss to Clemson, Meyer cleaned house and hired Day, who was coming
off a two-year stint in the NFL, and former Indiana coach Kevin Wilson to be co-offensive coordinators.
“When we came here it wasn’t like we were putting ideas in. We were learning what Coach Meyer wanted us to do, period,” Wilson said.
Day said his discussions with Meyer were mostly about how best to utilize talent.