If he has it his way, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day will be one of the longest-tenured coaches in program history. In an interview with Eleven Warriors for a story published on Friday, Day, who has been the program’s head coach for eight years and compiled an 82-12 record, revealed he plans to coach at Ohio State for at least another 10 years.
“We want to continue to do this for a long time … we all want to do this for another 10 years,” Day told Eleven Warriors. “It’d be hard for someone to convince me there’s a better job in the country. Yeah, sure, it comes with expectations, and it comes with a lot of pressure. Everybody says that, and people say, ‘Oh, you’ve got a tough job.’ Yeah, but I have a great job.”
It hasn’t always been easy for Day at Ohio State. After losing his fourth straight game to Michigan during the 2024 season, it seemed as though he may even be on the hot seat, despite his stellar win percentage and playoff appearances during the 2019, 2020 and 2022 seasons.
However, ever since that stunning 13-10 loss to Michigan to close out the 2024 regular season, Day has established himself as one of the best coaches in the sport.
Day led the Buckeyes to the national championship during the 2024 season, and last year he helped them win 12 games in the regular season for the second time in his tenure. Perhaps most importantly, Day picked up a crucial 27-9 win over Michigan to end the season.
For most of the eight years he has been the head coach at Ohio State, rumors have circled that Day may want to eventually be the head coach of an NFL team. With college football having complexities involving players getting paid through both NIL and revenue sharing and eligibility rules undergoing constant changes, one would think now would be the time a coach may try to get out of the college game. At least for now, it doesn’t seem that is the case for Day.
“Don’t think for a second it’s easy, because try losing a game and it’s tough,” Day said, “But this job allows me an opportunity to have an impact on people, and that’s what life’s all about, so that’s why I feel fortunate, and I think the NFL is a completely different experience than college. Not that college doesn’t have its own frustrations right now, to say the least, but at the end of the day, they’re still 18- to 22-year-olds, and they’re still in very formative years of their lives.
There’s more challenges now probably than ever before, but that’s OK. That’s why we have a job. (Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork) and I talk all the time, if there weren’t these problems, we wouldn’t have jobs. So we’ve got to solve them, but I enjoy that part of it. And I also have two young girls that are coming up through high school that love it here and want to stay here for a while.”
