Last summer Ryan Day offered up the words that are so easily used against him now: “Maybe at some places, 11–2 with a Rose Bowl victory is a good year. It isn’t at Ohio State.” He just went 11–2 again—this time with no Big Ten title, another rivalry loss to Michigan and a College Football Playoff loss. It was his second straight championship-free year. This will prompt some discussion of soul-searching in Columbus, and maybe somebody will mention the fact that Day’s record at Ohio State is 45–6.
I’m just a writer, but I always thought winning 88% of your games was pretty good.
Day gets paid nearly $10 million per year to coach a strange form of professional football wherein the employees are unsalaried because they are required to attend college, so I don’t expect anybody to feel bad for him. But I do feel bad for fans who watch their team win 45 out of 51 games and then grumble that the coach should be fired. Where is the joy in that? If your team winning 90% of its games leaves you unhappy and unfulfilled, you have stopped watching sports for entertainment and started to see them as a servant who is late to bring you your tea.
