It took six years, but Ryan Day's Ohio State staff finally seems stabilized.
He was never going to clean house following Urban Meyer's planned exit after 2018, wrecking a perfectly serviceable transition - it's a big part of the reason only Greg Schiano, Bill Davis, Alex Grinch and Taver Johnson left the building.
Urban at his best needed specific types of guys to lean on and make the whole Urbanification of his programs work. Jim Tressel famously hired coaches who never made it anywhere else on their own unless another Tresselite was involved.
Day's preferred staff makeup? This would be his first. We would all get to find out together. His most trusted advisor had just returned to the college coaching ranks at UCLA. But he had ideas.
He backfilled himself with Mike Yurcich, Schiano with Greg Mattison, Grinch with Jeff Hafley and Davis with Al Washington. Only Yurcich didn't last longer than a season on merit; it's always a tough gig doing your promoted boss' old job with him as the supervisor.
The Yurcich experience might have been what led him down the Tressel path of placing a marionette between himself and his position of expertise. Letting go is hard.
As for the other post-2018 departures, a cold bag of wet hamsters would have been an upgrade to what Davis was doing to the linebacker room, Grinch is far more entertaining coaching literally any other program's defense and Taver has only ever panned out when reporting to Tressel. He's in that aforementioned Tresselite club.
Hafley was generationally effective in his single season - the OSU defenses of 2018, 2020 and 2021 were among the most porous we've ever seen, while his 2019 one turned out to be the exception. Knowing how he now feels about the current-era college head coaching experience - he never should have left Columbus.
Kerry Coombs returned to cover for Hafley, which was a promotion to the precise level of his incompetence - basically everyone's professional destiny if they're fortunate. Hat tip, Oregon. Related note - the Ducks might have to run more than two different plays this season to beat Ohio State again. We celebrate progress here, even if it isn't accompanied by Gold Pants.
Throughout the first half-decade of his boss role, Day's untouchable coach on the less familiar side of the ball has been Larry Johnson. He carries an Associate Head Coach title, which is not insignificant - he led the team to a win in East Lansing when Day was sequestered with Covid.
On the side of the ball he's micromanaged post-Yurcich, it's been Brian Hartline, now a co-OC.
The most tenured figurehead the Ohio State football program has is muscle man Mickey Marotti, who carries an Associate AD title and got his start in strength and conditioning with Earle Bruce's final squad in Columbus nearly 40 years ago. Mark Pantoni has held down the recruiting operation since Urban's first un-retirement.
All of which suggests those guys will leave on their own terms as long as Day runs the program, and they have separated themselves from the realm of being holdovers. There are no more holdovers in 2024, just tenured staff. This wasn't the case as recently as the somber flight back from Arlington. It took that Cotton Bowl - but not a third straight loss to Michigan, apparently - for staff stabilization to take place.
Any growth lessons DAY might have compartmentalized or ignored shouldn't be relegated to awkward silence with HIS MOST TRUSTED ADVISOR NOW in the building.
The last holdovers might have been on PIPs but the timing suggests immediate termination - in a couple of cases, egregiously overdue - marking the calendar flip the precise moment Day finally severed his own era from the previous one which ushered him to Columbus originally to relieve us from the Tim Beck experiment, rather than play the central character in succession planning.
Our first-time college head coach began his tenure on the figurative 3rd base in the FBS ballpark. Relax, this is only condescending when Jim Harbaugh says it; it's undeniably true - and despite the advantaged position (most guys get these jobs as a rebuild; he inherited the Rose Bowl champions) Day was thoughtful enough to encourage some of the cronies to find work elsewhere. It was a strong start!
Then some stuff happened, both to him and by him. Day lost his most successful hire to-date after one excellent season and had to replace him during a year when traveling, transitioning roles, getting acclimated to new leaders was, uh, harder to do than usual.
It's said the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second-best time is right now. No one planned for 2020 to happen, and the timing for OSU football was holistically abysmal. Cost them a national title and probably a Heisman Trophy are on the list.
Ohio State has cycled through way too many defensive leaders and schemes and Day knows it, which was why he pursued and retained an anchor in Jim Knowles. If he and Larry can sort out some of their conflicting philosophies (the Jack, rotations and alignments to name a few) that side of the ball could make the question marks about the offense largely inconsequential while alleviating 2025 drop-off following matriculations.
Which gets us into the real questions this season. We've been distracting ourselves with the QB position, the right side of the offensive line and linebacker play - three position groups under the care of Day, Hartline, Chip Kelly, Carlos Locklyn, Justin Frye and Keenan Bailey. I would bet against those units being stagnant or declining.
The real issue begins and ends with how Day manages the CEO role. His sixth season brings another offensive coach he should trust implicitly, who also provides a consigliere of his own. Urban had two in Schiano and Kevin Wilson; now Day has one with credibility no one else on earth has with him.
Any growth lessons he might have compartmentalized or ignored shouldn't be relegated to awkward silence with Kelly in the building. Executive decisions, the propensity to not trust enough guys or trusting guys who absolutely shouldn't be trusted shouldn't happen in a vacuum anymore, or more relevant - happen because one guy was doing four jobs on game day.
Allowing tight ends who don't block to command playing time. Keeping next year's starters on the bench in the 2nd halves of games when they're up 35 points. Special teams which never grade out above a D- in any game for multiple seasons - we're a decade removed from Alabama getting absolutely rocked in the Sugar Bowl by OSU special teams play and as of last season they could barely line up for a punt properly. That was allowed to become normal.
A chief executive hoping to be retained by the board does not allow those things to happen, linger or become normalized - and six years after taking over the big desk the football program finally has someone in that role. He's got plenty of experience, as a play caller, QB coach, offensive coordinator, lead recruiter and head coach.
The CEO role at Ohio State should not be Day's level of his incompetence - he's just too smart, determined and familiar for this to be too big for him. This is what staff stabilization looks like. He just had too many roles previously, giving himself an unsustainable workload.
And the new CEO won't allow that to happen to the head coach again.
