Day to remain part of offense
In-demand assistant has coordinator added to his title.
Ryan Day is staying COLUMBUS — at Ohio State, and as a reward he is now an offensive coordinator, coach Urban Meyer announced by news release Tuesday.
It might seem confusing, but Day will share the duties with Kevin Wilson, according to Meyer. Both were hired by Meyer a year ago, with Wilson, the former coach at Indiana, being named the coordinator and Day, fresh off two years in the NFL, being named the co-coordinator.
As a source close to the situation clarified, the “coordinator” and “co-coordinator” titles always have been a matter of semantics to Meyer. He believes in having two coordinators on offense and defense so that there is continuity from one year to the next should one opt to leave. Recent examples were Luke Fickell sharing defensive coordinator duties with Chris Ash and then Greg Schiano, and Tom Herman sharing offensive duties with Ed Warinner.
With Day gaining interest from several schools this past December to be a head coaching candidate, and then reportedly being offered the offensive coordinator
job for the Tennessee Titans over the weekend by new Titans coach Mike Vrabel, Meyer opted to remove the “co-” from Day’s title. Day will remain with the Buckeyes after revamping the passing attack in 2017 from what had been a stagnant scheme the previous year.
“Ryan is clearly a very talented coach who has been an outstanding addition to our program,” Meyer said in the release. “He has been approached by other schools numerous times this off-sea- son for coordinator and head coach opportunities, and by the National Football League for a coordinator opportu- nity.
“I am pleased that he has elected to continue to work on this staff and to lead, men- tor and coach the terrific young men we have in this program.”
Soon after being named to the OSU staff last year Day spoke of wanting to settle down for a couple of seasons since the Columbus area was his stop in a fouryear run that had taken him and his family from the east coast (Boston College and the Philadelphia Eagles) to the west coast (San Fran- cisco 49ers) and then almost back again.
“Ohio State is an outstand- ing place to be a coach, and Columbus is a great city for a young family,” Day said in the release. “I really enjoyed my first season with this program and I’m looking forward to the 2018 season and the opportunity to coach a very talented and hungry group of players.”
Whether he will receive additional financial remuneration for the promotion remains to be seen. Day signed a two-year contract last year that saw him make $400,000 in his first season at OSU, with a bump to $800,000 for the coming year which begins Feb. 1. He also enjoys various perks granted assistant football coaches plus participation in a bonus program.
As for the “hungry group of players,” he will be at the fulcrum of the coming battle for the starting quarterback for the Buckeyes, who are replacing four-year regular J.T. Barrett. Sophomore Dwayne Haskins Jr. is considered the front-runner, with junior Joe Burrow and redshirt-freshman Tate Martell in the mix headed toward the start of spring drills in March.