Could Ryan Day leave Ohio State for the NFL? Here’s his answer
Thousands of fans showed up to Ohio Stadium on Sunday, January 26, 2025, to celebrate with the 2025 CFP National Championship Ohio State Buckeyes. OSU beat Notre Dame 34-23 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Monday, January 20. Ryan Day leads the fans in an OH-IO.David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ryan Day’s name was probably already on the minds of NFL teams before he led Ohio State to a national title, so accomplishing that feat only makes him more desirable.
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The Buckeyes head coach has spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, starting as a tight ends coach at his alma mater New Hampshire in 2002.
But he’s not foreign to the professional level, spending a year with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015 and the San Francisco 49ers in 2016. Those were his last two stops before Urban Meyer hired him as OSU offensive coordinator in 2017, and then-athletic director Gene Smith promoted him to head coach two years later.
But could he one day feel the urge to return? Day addressed that on “The Steam Room’ podcast” hosted by TNT’s Ernie Johnson and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.
“I would never wanna say, ‘I would never consider it,’ because you don’t know how things can change,” Day said.
“I was in the NFL for two years and had a great experience there and it’s a great league. But right now the impact we can make on young people is, to me, more impactful in college. That’s why I got into this game is to do that and that’s what I want to do.”
Day’s words revealed a more important motivation now that he’s finally broken through with his first national championship.
At just 45 years old, he’s 70-10 (46-5 Big Ten) as a head coach and 5-3 in College Football Playoff games.
His resume includes two Big Ten titles, a 2019 Big Ten Coach of the Year award, 36 NFL Draft picks — including 10 first-rounders — and numerous award winners and All-Americans.
This past season was only the second year of his tenure in which the Buckeyes didn’t have a Heisman Trophy finalist.
Now he’s added a national title to that list, making him the third straight OSU head coach to do so following Jim Tressel (2002) and Meyer (2014). Overall, he’s the fifth Buckeyes coach to win it. But there’s one specific man who sits at a table Day hopes to one day join.
Regardless of how many NFL teams may call, Day’s focus is on chasing legends of the past and maybe making a little history along the way.
“Woody Hayes is the last one to win multiple national championships at Ohio State,” Day said. “That’s something I’ve now set for myself. To be the next head coach to win multiple championships at Ohio State. There’s still a lot more to be done.”
