Day ranks No. 6 on Sporting News top 25 coaches list
Ohio State has unquestionably positioned itself among the few true elite college football programs under head coach Ryan Day the past couple seasons, but deciphering exactly where the third-year Buckeye coach ranks among his peers is a slightly more difficult task.
Sporting News has tackled it for us this week though, as the publication ranked its top 25 FBS college football coaches ahead of 2021, with Day coming in just outside the top five at No. 6 on the list.
“A strong argument can be made for Day as a top-five coach considering the advances the Buckeyes have made in dominating the Big Ten while maintaining the recruiting standard Urban Meyer brought to Columbus,” Bill Bender wrote. “There has not been a drop-off, and Day is the coach we'd bet on to become the next active coach to win a national championship. Expect Day to be in the top five, perhaps even top two, by 2022.”
Day’s standing increased one spot from the same list last year, where he came in at No. 7 ahead of the 2020 season.
There were few surprising names to appear ahead of Day on the list, with Alabama’s legendary Nick Saban taking the top spot, and Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney following right behind at No. 2 –– both reprising their same rankings from last year.
Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley improved two spots on the list to move from No. 5 to No. 3 ahead of 2021, and so did Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, who went from No. 6 to No. 4.
The coach that saw the most drastic improvement among the top five was Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, who jumped from No. 10 to No. 5 from 2020 to 2021.
“Fisher pushed the Aggies to the edge of the College Football Playoff conversation last season, and he's assembling a roster that should be able to compete for a national championship,” Bender wrote. “The Alabama hurdle remains, but Fisher has built that culture with three straight bowl wins and progressive recruiting classes in talent-rich Texas. He's back in the top five as a result.”
ALSO: Ranking Ohio State’s 2021 opponents by difficulty: No. 11 – Tulsa
Out of the entire top 25, Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell had the largest jump of the bunch, moving up 37 spots from the previous year to claim the No. 13 rank among college football head coaches.
In the Big Ten, Indiana’s Tom Allen and Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald also saw their stock go up quite a bit in terms of this list after stellar 2020 seasons. Allen moved up 20 spots to come in at No. 21, and Fitzgerald climbed 17 places to end up at No. 12.
Penn State’s James Franklin is the second most highly-ranked Big Ten coach behind Day, coming in at No. 11 after ranking within the list’s top 10 in 2020.
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh saw his stock slide a bit as well following a disappointing 2020, as the Wolverine coach fell four spots to wind up at No. 15 this year.
“Overrated? This is still the right spot for Harbaugh, who took a pay cut in the offseason and still has been unable to catch up to rival Ohio State,” Bender wrote. “The Wolverines were 46-42 in the seven seasons leading up to his arrival. He's been an upgrade, but can the program reach its first Big Ten championship game? How much time does Harbaugh have left? These questions remain in Ann Arbor.”