Urban Meyer gets a lot of love for going 7 - 0 vs Michigan and rightfully so but as we all know UM was not really a good team during the time he was coach. By time he came around, Tress had already almost had them in the dirt. He also coached in a completely different landscape. No NIL, no transfer portal and Urban still underachieved most years outside of beating UM. Oh and UM wasn't cheating. You put the same Day as head coach in those years and I truly believe he has more than one NC with those rosters.
Day came in as a first time coach and had the program playing at a SUPER high level then all the bad luck started. He has had to consistently deal with injuries and horrible calls in big games. He is also dealing with the struggle to keep depth with the transfer portal and recruiting in a world where schools can openly recruit with $. Urban could recruit with "I'm Urban Meyer" and it worked. He didn't have to worry about a school like Miami coming in and offering millions to your recruits.
Day's time at OSU as head coach as gone like this;
2019 He was able to pull Justin Fields as a transfer and gets the benefit of his immediate eligibility. He had that team good enough to win it all but we all know how that team got hosed against Dabo. Then at the end of the year he loses his DC after just one season.
2020 He had to deal with the COVID year. He replaces Hafley with Coombs which everyone thought was a good hire at the time cause we all love Kerry. The Coombs hire started showing itself not to be a good one but the team still makes it to the CFB again and to the NC game. We all know how the NC game went but you have to also think about the fact that they didn't have a lot of starters on offense due to injury and other things and deal with Coombs being dumb enough to try to have a LB guard the best WR in CFB in pass pro. Overall those it was still a successful year. During that season he would have had UM looking for a new coach but we all know they ducked the game and the COVID year is probably the best thing that ever happened to that program.
2021 Year starts rough with a new QB who was nursing an injury and Coombs still being a horrible DC. Year looks like it is turning around after Day makes the decision to basically fire Coombs after only 3 games and C.J. gets healthy but then the team runs into a post-COVID UM team that is filled with veterans and as we know now are straight up cheating. This is also the Quinn Ewers reclass year that totally screwed up QB recruiting and put the Team the in the position they are in with that position right now.
2022 Hires Knowles and it looks like the DC might be fixed. Things start going South as the scheme starts to show holes toward the end of the year but the team is still undefeated going into the UM game. Run into another veteran filled UM team due to the COVID year who is still straight up cheating and loses again. Still ends up in the CFB against GA going into the game with a vulnerable defense and without the team's starting 2 RBs. Then starting TE gets hurt early and we all know what happened with MHJ and the overturned targeting call that would have basically put OSU in a position to put the game away. Even with all the injuries and blatant missed call the team was still a missed FG away from winning the NC.
2023 Knowles fixes the defense but due to some early draft exits on the OL and the Quinn Ewers situation the offense isn't at its usual level. The OL starts to get "good enough" but the QB position doesn't develop the way it needed too. The team is also again facing injuries at key positions. The team still manages to be undefeated going into the UM game who is exposed for cheating. They have still build a pretty good roster on the back of success from cheating and are still filled with veterans due to the COVID extra year. Defense plays pretty well during the game but due to mistakes from the QB the team loses again. This year the team should have been lead by Ewers and I am confident in saying with him under center the team beats UM. The Cotton Bowl happens and this team isn't close a full squad especially the offense. Restructured OL, 2nd string RB and starting QB in the portal, the best WR and arguably the best player in CFB doesn't play, a starting LB is out, starting TE is not full strength then the team is down to a 3rd string true freshman QB who has thrown like 5 passes all year. The loss was definitely ugly but Day wasn't working with the same team he had in Nov. The Team that played UM wins the Cotton Bowl low def.
