...from offensive coordinating duties.

On today's Live Show of THE Podcast, Austin Ward pointed out something that Doug Lesmerises also said on the postgame Buckeye Talk podcast. In fact, I'm stealing the line of Day firing himself from OC duties from Doug.

Austin Ward:

'Scoring 3 points in the 2nd half against Michigan isn't good enough, I think we know that to be true. And they missed opportunities to score way more and take advantage of Michigan in the 1st half; they scored 20. Okay, that's what it is. I don't think it was good enough. And I think a lot of this is coming from the play calling structure with Ohio State.

I know that Ryan Day does not want to give up that responsibility. He has acknowledged to us (Austin, Birm) in the past that it may be something that he has to ad some point do. More than ever, with everything else that is involved in college football, that the time has come for him. It's too difficult for him – he doesn't seem to be getting into he flow of games – other opponents seem to have figured them out. I don't know where the mesh concepts have gone, I don't know where the pop passes end around, creativity has gone for Ohio State. He (Day) doesn't seem to have an understanding of the right buttons to push from the field anymore. That's my opinion of that.

<Bobby Carpenter interjected>

It's hard to call plays from the field, too. That's another element. Most OC's call the plays from the box.

<Austin Ward>

I was talking about this with Bill (Landis), in the playoff era solely, I don't know of anybody that has won the National Championship calling offensive plays from the sideline. Urban didn't do it, Nick Saban definitely didn't do that, Dabo didn't do that, Ed Orgeron didn't do that. <snip> Lincoln Riley (calling plays from the sideline) hasn't won those big games, Chip Kelly (Day's mentor, my emphasis) hasn't won those big games.

<Bobby Carpenter>

That's a pretty good sample right there.

This is something I've kind of gnawed on all weekend since the game ended. My knee-jerk reaction is that Day should be gone, he doesn't get the rivalry. But, I actually think he does and my initial response was wrong. I didn't grow up in Ohio either, but, I've lived here since my early 20s (1999, to be precise). I feel this every bit as an Ohio native born fan. 

Ryan is in the forrest right now. The forrest of NIL, egos, rivalry, pressure of being a HC – and he's trying to call plays in big moments, from the sideline. He can't see what we see watching the games sometimes. He is also a self-made man, he didn't get where he is because of his last name. He didn't get his shot in life because of his lineage. He earned his way there. That said, when you climb this far, it may be hard to look in the mirror and say to yourself – this is something I have to give up because I can't do everything else and this.

But, this is a conversation Ryan is going to have to have for the betterment of the program, I think. And this isn't something that just arose this week. We've seen it in talent equated games before. Clemson (2019), Alabama (2021), Oregon (2021) and Michigan (2021, 2022). I can imagine being on the sideline during a game of that magnitude is a lot like being a general in a war. If you were trying to be a general that leads at the same time as being a strategist, it might all crumble under the weight. I think that is what is happening here to OSU.

Just my take.