Column: Ryan Day’s post-Texas press conference highlighted his fatal flaw

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There was a lot to take away from Ryan Day’s post-Texas press conference on Wednesday.

While the majority of the beat avoided asking anything regarding a tough question, as per usual, one answer from the head coach stood out among the rest.

When asked if Ohio State should have allowed Texas to score at the end of the game, Day responded with the following:

The Buckeyes called their second timeout before a 2nd-and-7 for Texas with the ball at Ohio State’s 20-yard line with 1:30 remaining. On the ensuing play, Arch Manning completed a pass to Emmett Mosley V for 19 yards, placing the ball right at the goal line.

Ohio State was then faced with a decision: allow Texas to score immediately (1:23 remaining) to conserve as much time as possible for the offense, who would then only need a field goal to win the game, or try and make a defensive stop having already allowed 149 yards in the fourth quarter alone.

Day chose the latter, and two plays later Hollywood Smothers was in the end zone. Ohio State, meanwhile, now had zero timeouts and only 28 seconds to work with.

The game was effectively over.

Julian Sayin attempted a couple of deep balls, with his final heave being intercepted by the Longhorns. Their final drive actually netted -5 total yards, as Austin Siereveld was called for a holding penalty on the very first play of the series.

In hindsight, Day said that they should have let Texas score. Therein lies the problem: hindsight.

The biggest issue throughout the Ryan Day tenure at Ohio State has been the inability to make decisions proactively. Day and his staff have been exclusively reactionary, only able to address glaring flaws with the team until after it has already costed them a loss.

The obvious correct decision in the moment was to let Texas score. The defense is basically brand new, and the unit had been unable to get a single stop in the fourth quarter. On top of that, the offense had been sputtering so badly that they couldn’t manage to stay on the field for any significant amount of time. The defense, as a result, was gassed.

If your options are to put your trust in the hands of Jeremiah Smith or your exhausted, struggling defense, the answer should be pretty apparent.

Day and his coaching braintrust were unable to come to that conclusion in the moment, and it cost them the game. It’s great that he’s able to see that was the incorrect decision in hindsight, but hindsight won’t take the loss off the final record.

This has been the fatal flaw of Ryan Day’s time at Ohio State.

The only time the Buckeyes were able to overcome this flaw in 2024 was a result of a player-led meeting that forced the staff to reckon with themselves and make corrections before they cost themselves another game. At no other point in Day’s run has any sort of problem been addressed until it is too late.

Every team has its issues, but for whatever reason Ohio State seems to be the only program at the highest level who is either unaware or unwilling to make changes until the inevitable happens.

We saw it in 2020-21 with the decision to retain Kerry Coombs as defensive coordinator.

Ohio State’s 2020 defense ranked 122nd in FBS allowing 303.6 passing yards per game. It was clear from the jump that Coombs was in over his head as the defensive coordinator, but Day elected to bring him back for the 2021 season.

Shocking to absolutely nobody except seemingly Day himself, Coombs continued to suck in 2021. The Buckeyes allowed 400 yards of offense to Minnesota in Week 1 before allowing 500 yards against Oregon in a loss in Week 2. Ohio State then demoted Coombs in favor of Matt Barnes, but the damage was already done.

We saw it again last season with the slow-play offense.

Day himself claimed that Ohio State playing slow last season was all part of the plan to prepare his team for the College Football Playoff and limit reps for his guys. The Buckeyes, he said, would be able to ‘turn up the gas’ when the time came.

Turns out changing your entire offensive scheme after playing one way for an entire season — and doing so against your toughest opponents — is actually not an easy thing to do, as many outside the Woody feared. Ohio State proceeded to score 10 points and 14 points in losses to Indiana and Miami, respectively, to end the season.

There have been countless other examples of times where everyone with eyes could see an issue crop up that would certainly cost them a game at some point, and almost every single time it has manifested itself.

There are even examples this season where, should Day and his staff not make the necessary changes, the Buckeyes will lose again when the competition gets tougher.

Ohio State is currently not playing its best players — another trademark of that 2020 defense that insisted Tuf Borland was a starting linebacker when they had Cody Simon on the bench.

Guys like Payton Pierce and Beau Atkinson are outclassed by Riley Pettijohn and Khary Wilder at their respective positions. Brandon Inniss has done incredibly little in his four years with the program, and should likely give way to someone like Chris Henry Jr. or Brock Boyd. Legend Bey, meanwhile, simply needs to see the field more than the one singular snap he saw against Texas.

Will Day and the Ohio State staff make the necessary changes to the depth chart needed for this team to be at its best, or will they wait until it’s too late yet again and waste another talented Buckeyes roster because they are too afraid to hurt some feelings?

Based on Day’s answer to how the end of the Texas game was handled, I will not hold my breath for the former.

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