Ryan Day is on the brink of...something
The Buckeyes have made a series of noteworthy moves for the upcoming season. How will this all shake out?
If you were to rank which college football programs have had the most interesting offseasons of 2024, Ohio State would rank near the top.
The drama of coaching changes and potential changes at three out of our four playoff contestants have taken the top headlines, but Ohio State has done a LOT of fascinating things in preparation for what will clearly the most important season of Ryan Day’s career.
I don’t know how else to read the signs other than to say that Day seems to have the institutional support to make a serious go at evolving the program and preparing them for a breakthrough season…yet he’s clearly operating under pressure to evolve the program and perhaps in ways he would have chosen for himself. If they don’t beat Michigan next season to conclude a Big 10 Championship season, I bet he doesn’t survive.
Consider this tidbit from recently which quickly proved prescient:
This was later confirmed to be Bill O’Brien. This poster’s accuracy there makes it interesting when he points to a number which is in line with numbers I've heard at some other programs that have clearly been “going for it” for 2024. That number is the $13 million to help push this team to another level for the coming season. That’s quite a bit of cash and must be coming over the top of existing commitments for the rest of the roster.
That number has gone into retaining a number of players who otherwise might have taken their chances in the NFL Draft, adding players (Alabama transfer Caleb Downs would join the party a few days after this tweet), and reshaping the coaching staff. We’re talking about a serious investment that probably came with strings attached from donors in the form of “you will hire an offensive coordinator who actually allows you to back off and take a more macro view.”
Let’s dive into the particulars and how this might work out for the Buckeyes’ 2024 season.