The fourth episode of The Ryan Day Podcast is now live.
In his new podcast with The 1870 Society, Day sits down with former Buckeye defensive lineman and 2014 national champion Michael Bennett to share insight on the Ohio State football program. The fourth episode of his namesake show was released on Wednesday to members of the collective.
While full episodes of The Ryan Day Podcast will remain exclusive to 1870 Society members, we’ll share some of Day’s most interesting comments with Eleven Warriors readers after each release.
In episode four, Day discussed several topics with Bennett, including what led him to become a football coach and how he looks to motivate his players to succeed with relationships based on connection and respect.
“I Always Liked Coaching”
Day became Ohio State's head football coach in 2019. However, his career as a coach started 17 years earlier in 2002 – the same season the Buckeyes won their second most recent national championship, a 31-24 overtime win over Miami (Fla.) in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona.
Indeed. Before Day was promoted to head coach of the Buckeyes, the Manchester, New Hampshire native was Ohio State's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2017 and 2018. Before that, he was an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers (2016), the Philadelphia Eagles (2015), Boston College (2014-15), Temple (2012), Boston College (2007-11), Temple (2006), Florida (2005), Boston College (2003-04) and New Hampshire (2002).
Overall, Day has collected almost 22 years of coaching experience at the collegiate and professional levels. As Day reflected on those positions in the podcast, the 44-year-old said he is thankful for the adventure, as a career in coaching was always something he had wanted to do.
"I always liked coaching," Day said. "I was the catcher on the baseball team, the quarterback on the football team and the point guard on the basketball team. I had good leadership skills. I wasn't afraid to get out in front of stuff. I think part of that was losing my dad at a young age. I had to take a bit more of a mature role in my family, and I liked to do that (elsewhere). I liked leadership roles. I liked challenges. I had a chip on my shoulder. My leadership style wasn't, 'Come on, let's do this together.' I would get in faces. Some didn't like it, but in the end, people respected it. As college ended, (I knew) this was what I wanted to do."
While he stresses the importance of educational excellence to his players, Day admitted he wasn't always the best student in college. That was because he spent all of his time with New Hampshire's football coaches, learning the ins and outs of the industry before he eventually entered the ranks.
“How do you learn to become a football coach? It's law school for lawyers, medical school for doctors and different options like that. But if you want to become a coach, where do you go? It's apprenticeship.”– Ryan Day on how he became a football coach
"When I was at the University of New Hampshire, what I would do is spend the whole day in the football office," Day said. "I'd sit there with the coaches, and I would watch film with them. I would go through the game plan. I would do all of that. In the fall, maybe my GPA wasn't very good. And then I would come back in the spring and have to get it up. ... In my last three years of college, I think my GPA was around 2.0, maybe even 1.9 in the fall, and then would be 3.5 or 3.7 in the spring because I was always in the football office in the fall.
"How do you learn to become a football coach? It's law school for lawyers, medical school for doctors and different options like that. But if you want to become a coach, where do you go? It's apprenticeship. In that environment (at New Hampshire), I learned from Chip Kelly and Sean McDonnell, who was our head coach. There were such great football coaches in so many areas. To learn about the game, you learn about how to handle people, you learn about leadership, you learn about recruiting, you learn about so many different things, and that's really how I ended up in coaching."
“We All Need Truth Tellers in Our Lives”
After two decades as a college football coach, Day believes he has found his identity as a program leader. He is a coach with a standard of excellence. He also strives to build relationships with his coaches and players built on connection, respect and trust.
Having standards as a “players’ coach” is a delicate balance, Day said.
“We all need truth tellers in our lives who tell us about our blind spots. In this position, being head coach at Ohio State, a lot of people tell you what you want to hear. But you need to be around folks who tell you sometimes what you don't want to hear and how you can get better,” Day explained. “We work on it, and I still work on it – to find that balance. We have to win every game at the highest level. There's no margin for error. It can't be any more intense. It can't be any bigger. The stakes can't be any higher. But at the same time, the reason you coach is to help young men reach their dreams and goals. It's to motivate young men.
“We have to win. If we don't win, they will find new coaches. That's the way it is. But ultimately, that's not why you coach. You coach to have an impact on young people because that's what will last in the end. That balance is very important. It's something I look at every single year.”
“There's no margin for error. It can't be any more intense. It can't be any bigger. The stakes can't be any higher. But at the same time, the reason you coach is to help young men reach their dreams and goals. It's to motivate young men.”– Ryan Day on how he coaches his players
Across four seasons and change, Day has handled the balance well, as Ohio State is 49-6 in the head coach's brief tenure. Moreover, he has led the Buckeyes to two Big Ten championships, three College Football Playoff appearances and a national runner-up finish to Alabama in 2020.
Off to a 4-0 start in 2023, Day hopes Ohio State can add to the program's recent postseason success in December and January.
Join The 1870 Society
The 1870 Society offers Buckeye Nation exclusive access to their favorite Ohio State teams while creating the earning potential and opportunities that the university's athletes deserve and have earned from countless hours of training and practice to be the best in their respective sports.
For as little as $1.99 per month, you can become a member of The 1870 Society and gain access to The Ryan Day Podcast. Each of The 1870 Society’s nine membership tiers, based on monthly contributions, comes with additional perks ranging from an authentic Buckeye Leaf sticker and a photo autographed by a player to tickets and pregame field access to an Ohio State football game and tickets to a “Heisman Lunch” featuring past Ohio State Heisman Trophy winners.
