You don’t have to be an Ohio State hater to be able to recognize that if Buckeyes head football coach Ryan Day doesn’t either win the Big Ten or reach the College Football Playoff, his goose will be cooked. ESPN’s Desmond Howard just so happens to be both.
On Friday’s edition of Get Up, Howard addressed the idea that Day was on the hot seat. Howard agreed with the assessment, pointing out that Ohio State has invested a lot of money and effort into ensuring that they have an elite football team this year.
The Michigan football legend concluded that if “things go awry” they might fire Day and promote someone from within the staff to replace him.
Desmond Howard suggests Ohio State could replace Ryan Day with Chip Kelly if ‘things go awry’ in 2024…
(via @GetUpESPN, h/t @awfulannouncing) https://t.co/zcqwXbr8Zo pic.twitter.com/z52NIQrJ6d
— On3 (@On3sports) August 23, 2024
Specifically, he believes that newly-minted offensive coordinator and former head coach Chip Kelly will be the man for the job.
“Some fans would say, ‘Well if we got rid of Ryan Day, who will we hire?’. They went out and hired Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator,” Howard said. “If things go awry, I think they have somebody who’s behind Ryan Day where they can say, ‘Chip Kelly can be the next coach too.’”
After back-to-back Big Ten title and College Football Playoff appearances in his first two seasons, which included a national championship runner-up performance in 2020, the past three seasons for Day have seen their Big Ten title dreams crushed by arch-rival Michigan.
Three straight losses to the Wolverines have resulted in three straight years without a trip to the Big Ten Championship Game, and only one trip to the College Football Playoff in that span.
What is the minimum that Day needs to do in 2024 in order to keep his job? Would the Buckeyes really fire him for Chip Kelly if things get bad?
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