How do you know when a coach’s reserves of goodwill have run bone dry?
You listen.
It sounds like it did inside of Ohio Stadium in the second half against Oregon.
Boooo!
The fans will tell you when they’re fed up. They’ll jeer, and then they’ll leave early, just as they did in the second half of Ohio State’s 41-28 loss to Oregon.
"Beyond disappointed," Day said.
The previously listless Ducks rattled off 38 straight points, and Oregon got its confidence back. Its competence, too. Too late, perhaps, but credit Dan Lanning for not losing his locker room after his team experienced what Ohio State is going through now.
ahead of Tennessee
The internet beast being what it is, you can find a few headlines about Ryan Day being on the hot seat, if that’s the sort of knee-jerk reaction you crave with your Sunday brunch.
Hey, no judgment here, hot-seat enthusiasts, but the grounded take would be that Day’s honeymoon from a 2024 national championship has gone belly up, and he’ll have to start anew the process of earning trust from a ravenous fanbase that looks at a 6-3 record and wants to gag.
Day needs a scapegoat for this season. Which coordinator will he choose?
Better yet, why stop at one?
Ohio State gets poor return on $50 million roster
Day won’t bother touting the excuse that Ohio State is down its starting quarterback, because nobody wants to hear it. Anyway, Julian Sayin’s injury doesn’t explain the full-system meltdown the Buckeyes endured the past two weeks.
No unraveling is complete without a special teams breakdown, and Ohio State got punked by an Oregon fake punt jump pass that went for 30 yards.
Ohio State is a Northwestern or a Michigan loss away from hitting total hysteria.
This season is a flop. A bust. A failure. All the words you’d expect to hear in this space.
The jarring truth no blue-blood wants to hear is that in this rough-and-tumble landscape the sport is now in, nobody is immune to a busted season.
Even those who accept that reality don’t have to like stomaching performances like this.
A $50 million roster ought to be able to respond to an injury to QB1 better than Ohio State did the past two weeks.
In the first few years of college football’s free agency period, Day stuck to his sign, retain and develop strategy, just as Kirby Smart did down south.
Then, last offseason, he dipped deeper into the transfer portal and reeled in his biggest transfer class to date. Was he inspired by Indiana and trying get older quicker with transfers? Did Ohio State simply have that many needs?
Whatever the case, the Buckeyes learned as many others have that a highly rated transfer class is no golden ticket to the playoff.
Adapt or die, Ryan Day said. How's that going?
Here’s the part of the portal plundering most people gloss over: A big transfer class usually coincides with a bounty of transfer exits.
More than 30 Buckeyes transferred out after last season. Many weren’t the types of names that made national news, but it was all part of a high-turnover offseason.
Day explained himself this way: Adapt or die.
“Some dinosaurs figured out how to continue to adapt, and some died,” Day said in the offseason. “I guess that's a little extreme, but I think it's kind of the way it is in college football."
The turnover was not confined to the roster.
Day installed a new offensive coordinator after Brian Hartline left to become South Florida’s coach. There’s what you get, and there’s what you needed. Day hired Arthur Smith. He apparently needed Chip Kelly. He’ll need to rethink his staff for next season.
Day has NFL minds running Ohio State's offense and defense. The Buckeyes' record offers a humbling reminder that an NFL brain trust does not always pair well with college ball.
“We have to evaluate everything,” Day said.
Put roster strategy on that list.
Months before the season arrived, Day acknowledged he'd be relying on a lot of new faces, at a job where there’s no grace for growing pains.
"Half of your team is new, they haven't played a down of football here, and we're not allowed to lose a game,” Day said in the spring. “So, we're going to adapt. We're not going to die.”
The program’s not dead, but this season is.
“To lose three games is unacceptable,” Day said. “And I own that.”
“Now,” he added, “we got to weather this storm.”
It’s pouring losses, and Day’s bucket of goodwill sits empty.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The boos say it all: Ryan Day has burned through Ohio State’s goodwill
