Ohio State coach Ryan Day has the Buckeyes on the precipice of a return to the College Football Playoff, but following a fourth straight loss to rival Michigan on Saturday -- the latest coming with OSU falling 13-10 to UM despite entering as a 20-point favorite -- plenty of questions have arisen about his future leading one of the sport's most noteworthy programs. One day after the stinging defeat, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork did his best to quiet the noise in the system.
"Our full focus right now is on the College Football Playoff and making a strong run," Bjork told the Columbus Post-Dispatch. "We have a ton to play for. We have a great team made up of talented players and great young men. Coach Day does a great job leading our program. He's our coach."
Bjork pointed to program stability, recruiting (Ohio State has the No. 3 class in 2025 ahead of Dec. 4's Signing Day) and donor support (a $20 million roster) as all remaining strong under Day's leadership. Bjork said he is more focused on supporting Day as he prepares for the playoff rather than spending time litigating the circumstances surrounding another heartbreaking loss to the rival Wolverines in The Game.
"Our program is built to last, and Coach Day has done that," Bjork added. "He has put us in a great spot. ... There will be time to dissect what happened in the game, but you've got to go back to work. When you focus on bigger goals and bigger picture, then you just have to keep working, and that was his spirit when I talked to him today."
Ohio State is 63-10 (45-5 Big Ten) in Day's six full seasons as coach; 40% of those losses have come to the Buckeyes' greatest rival. Another loss to Michigan clearly weighed on Day on Saturday afternoon. The 45-year-old, who said earlier in the week that the string of losses to Michigan were up there with the death of his father as the worst things to ever happen to his family, was emotional and had tears in his eyes.
"We're very disappointed. Never thought this would happen right here," Day said. "We're expecting to win this game and go play in the Big Ten Championship Game, and neither of those things happened. We don't know what's going on now. It's just too soon to try to figure out what's next. But once we have more information in about a week, we'll figure that part of it out."
Bjork is in his first year on the job at Ohio State. He was hired away from Texas A&M over the offseason and assumed the AD role previously occupied by Gene Smith on July 1.
Day arrived in Columbus in 2017 from the NFL ranks to be co-OC under then-coach Urban Meyer. He served as acting head coach during Meyer's three-game suspension in 2018 and immediately succeeded Meyer following that season after Meyer retired. Ohio State has made the College Football Playoff three times under Day -- 2019, 2020, 2022 -- and will again be in the 2024 field as an at-large team.