COLUMBUS, Ohio - Early Monday morning it was announced that the Washington Redskins had fired head coach Jay Gruden. Gruden, who had been the man in Washington since 2014, found himself without a job following the Redskins’ 0-5 start to the 2019 season.
Almost immediately, the rumor mill started up and TV shows and radio programs began speculating on who Washington may be looking at to fill their head coaching vacancy. One name that got connected immediately was that of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.
On paper, it would make sense for Washington. You bring in the guy who worked with Dwayne Haskins as a starter and behind the scenes for three seasons that could help to smooth out his transition from college to the pros. The Case Keenum experiment has returned very little so far, and with the team looking at Haskins as the future, it would be logical for the Redskins to bring in one of his college coaches.
The only problem with that? Ryan Day has absolutely no interest.
“I appreciate you asking. And I think being in a place like Ohio State anytime there's success, things like this are going to come up. I don't really ever want to talk about any of that stuff. I love it here,” Day said. “This is where I want to be. Whether it's good, bad or indifferent, even for the next five, 10, hopefully 20 years, while I'm here I really don't want to comment on any of that because I don't think it's good for anybody.”
This clears up any speculation from national media that Day wants the job or would even accept if it was offered to him. To take it a step further, pressed about the issue again, Day reaffirmed that he hasn’t had any contact with the Washington Redskins about their head coaching vacancy.
“Like I said, no, but I'm really not going to talk about any of that,” Day said. “I really don't want to have any conversation about that.”
And a move like this wouldn’t make sense for Day only nine months into his career as the head coach at Ohio State. This is a top three (or top one, depending on who you talk to) job in the country that, if he succeeds at, would be able to provide for him and his family for the rest of his life.
The pedigree of Ohio State coaches having long careers in Scarlet and Gray is a proud tradition. Since 1951, the Buckeyes have had five permanent coaches (besides Day) that have been with the program for an average of 13.6 years. Even if you take out Woody Hayes’ incredible 28 year career, that’s still a 10 year average for Earle Bruce, John Cooper, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. Many college jobs and the majority of NFL jobs experience a much higher turnover rate than Ohio State has been blessed with over the last handful of coaches, so Day knows that this opportunity provides job security like no other.
Not only is there job security, but Day is much younger than that of Cooper, Tressel or Meyer when they began their coaching tenures with the Buckeyes. If Day coaches until he turns 65 like Hayes did, he would be at the helm of Ohio State through the 2043-44 season. Asked about coaching that long for the Buckeyes, even Day doubts he may be here that long.
“Oh boy, I don't know if I could make it that long, but a good problem to have,” he said.
This long-term situation is something that Day has looked for ever since his family had to go through a dramatic change in the last few years. Going from Philadelphia in 2015 to San Francisco in 2016 before finally settling in Columbus in 2017, the three moves in three years was a tough time on his family.
“When we had to move our family three times in three years. That was not good. And that's the thing that I don't know if people realize. You have to move your family -- we have a young family,” Day said. “When you're moving them all over the place, it is the worst thing to go home to your family and tell them we've got to move again; they've got to be the new kid again and your wife has to figure out a new set of friends again. It's just not good.”
As Ohio State enters their first off week of the season, it has given Day some time reflect at the halfway point of his first season. Sitting at 6-0, there have certainly been a lot more positives than negatives to look at, but this week will be focused on improving on what they haven’t been able to execute through the first half.
“We're kind of in a self-evaluation phase right now on both sides of the ball, schematically, things like that. But also individually and as units we're really taking a hard look to see what are some things we've done well in these first six weeks and what are some things that we need to improve on? So the big focus is on self improvement this week,” Day said. “Each coach is giving tangible things for each of the players to work on. It may be something that's on the field. It might be something off the field. It might be something academically, something along those lines. But the idea is, what have we done well and what do we need to improve on.”
Even if these are just small changes Ohio State is making in preparation for games against Northwestern and Wisconsin, these moves are all part of the culture Ryan Day is trying to instill in his program, one that he’s hoping will be his for a long, long time.
