Co-offensive coordinator Ryan Day prior to the Ohio State- Oklahoma game on Sep. 9. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Photo Editor
Ohio State co-offensive coordinator Ryan Day will likely be the next Urban Meyer assistant coach to be hired elsewhere as a head coach. It just won’t happen this year.
Meyer said Wednesday during his press conference on Early Signing Day that Day turned down an offer to be a head coach at a program in the Southeastern Conference.
“Coach Day had the opportunity to potentially be a head coach in the SEC and decided to stay at Ohio State,” Meyer said. “He’s done a phenomenal job for us. There have been other coaches on our staff have opportunities to move on and they haven’t, so this coaching staff is very strong right now.”
Day was hired last January and inked a two-year contract with Ohio State. He was paid a base salary of $400,000 this season, but that will increase to $800,000 next season.
There were a total of six SEC head coach positions open this offseason. Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas and Ole Miss have all filled those positions. It’s unclear which one of those positions offered the job to Day.
Day told reporters in the locker room after the Big Ten championship game that he had not been contacted by another school for another job at that point.
Day, also the quarterbacks coach, was largely responsible for a turnaround of the Ohio State offense in 2017. The Buckeyes averaged the fifth-most points per game in the country with 42.5 and the passing offense ranked 28th in 2017 with an average of 274.2 yards compared to 81st in 2016 with 213.9 yards.
