It only takes a couple of losses to Michigan to get a certain part of the Ohio State football fanbase whipped up in a frenzy. Case in point: Buckeye head coach Ryan Day has an overall record of 45-6 with three College Football Playoff appearances, a national title game appearance, and just two losses total in Big Ten play.
The problem, of course, is that those two losses were to arch-rival Wolverines and there are a lot of Ohio State fans that are calling for Day’s job because of it. It might be a vocal minority, but it is a very loud vocal minority.
Former Ohio State quarterback and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit was asked about Ryan Day and where the program is by Dave Briggs of the Toledo Blade and came to the head coach’s defense while also being very critical of the “lunatic fringe” fans that seem to always complain about something.
“The 15 percenters, they get mad at anything,” he said. “That percent is going to be mad at something always. [Day] could win the Michigan game, go to the playoff and lose, and they’ll be mad about that. That group is just a bunch of jackasses who kind of embarrass all of us as Ohio State fans. So I don’t really care, honestly, what that group thinks. But the people who matter, the logical people who actually have a brain and understand the sport, they love what Ryan Day has done. The fact that this is even a topic is almost comical.”
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit calls out a "lunatic fringe" of Ohio State fans who are not satisfied with coach Ryan Day's performance the past two seasons. https://t.co/grpuRczFbD
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) May 19, 2023
Something tells me those same Ohio State fans are the same ones that love to hate on Kirk Herbstreit for trying to be unbiased rather than the alternative of going all homer in the national media former Michigan receiver and fellow ESPN analyst, Desmond Howard.
Look, we all want to beat Michigan, win the Big Ten, and a national championship every year. The reality is that it’s just not realistic for that to occur more often than not.
Day has the program in a good spot and don’t be surprised if the fruits of his labor are realized in that not-too-distant future.
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