Comparing Ryan Day's 8-0 Start to Urban Meyer, Earle Bruce and Carroll Widdoes

In 130 years of Buckeye football, only Carroll Widdoes, Earle Bruce and Urban Meyer were able to begin their careers with perfect starts through their first eight games.

Day became the fourth on Saturday, joining the elite group of coaches, but his eight-game start might be the most dominant of the group.

Here's a look back at each coach's first eight games.

Carroll Widdoes – 1944 

After the departure of Paul Brown, Carroll Widdoes was named Ohio State's 16th head coach. Coaching during the thick of World War II, Widdoes became the first Buckeye head coach to win his first eight games. At the time, the 269 points his team scored was the most through eight games in program history.

The most lopsided win over those eight games was a 54-0 victory in the season opener against Missouri, but more impressively than that, Widdoes' Buckeye team faced three ranked teams in his first eight games and and came through the tests unscathed with a 13-point win at No. 19 Wisconsin was the smallest margin of victory. 

The 1944 team finished the season undefeated and Widdoes' 1945 squad won its first three games to bring his record to 12–0 as a new head coach before suffering his first loss.

Earle Bruce – 1979

How do you replace an icon like Woody Hayes? If you're Earle Bruce, you win your first eight games by a combined score of 278-80 and defeat No. 17 UCLA in Los Angeles.

Bruce surpassed Widdoes' record point total of 269, but was just a touchdown shy of his points differential.

The biggest blowout during Bruce's first eight games was a 59-0 whooping of Wisconsin. The UCLA game mentioned above was the closest game during that stretch as the Buckeyes won 17-13.

Urban Meyer – 2012

When Urban Meyer arrived in 2012, the program was at a crossroads. Jim Tressel left the program under less-than-ideal circumstances after the 2010 season and the program had its first losing season in 23 years under interim coach Luke Fickell.

Under the laser focus of Meyer, his first Ohio State team willed its way to a perfect start, though the Buckeyes had two major scares in their first eight games. The first close call was a 17-16 victory of No. 20 Michigan State in East Lansing while the second was an overtime win over Purdue in Ohio Stadium when Kenny Guiton led the Buckeyes back from an eight-point deficit in under a minute in relief of the injured Braxton Miller.

Even despite the close games, Meyer's first team still outscored its first eight opponents by a score of 312-194.

Meyer, of course, went on to win his first 24 games as Ohio State's head coach, a program record that would be difficult to top for Ryan Day.

Ryan Day – 2019

Of Ohio State's 25 head coaches, none has started as hot as Ryan Day.

Yes, Day inherited a team loaded with talent and three of his eight wins came as an interim, but the New Hampshire native has guided the team to a program best 431 points through eight games with his team beating its opponents by an average score of 54-13. The closest game to date was a 40-28 victory over No. 15 TCU.

Day's teams have cracked 70 points twice and have never scored less than 40 in a game. The Buckeyes have outscored their opponents by 326 points, meaning Day's squads have outscored teams by two touchdowns more than Meyer's team scored in total.

Of Ohio State's 25 head coaches, Day has the most points scored, largest margin of point differential and is defeating his opponents by an average score of 54-13.

It's a long way to 24 straight, but it appears that Day has the program heading in the right direction.