Unsung Heroes: Ryan Day's Final Game As Interim Head Coach vs. TCU in 2018

Welcome to the seventh edition of Unsung Heroes, where I delve into the archives to find some of the best individual performances in Ohio State football history.

Surprise! This week’s edition of Unsung Heroes is about a coach instead of a player. Don’t get used to this. It’ll be as irregular as Ohio State having an interim head coach (hopefully that’s the case).

A lot of Buckeyes fans look back at this game as a closer than needed win. I see it as the prologue to Day’s official tenure as OSU head coach. Many will look at the disparity of recruiting rankings and the fact that TCU finished 2018 with a 7-6 record punctuated by a tedious 10-7 overtime victory in the Cheez-It Bowl against Cal, a game that featured nine combined interceptions and was infamous dub the Cheez-INT Bowl, and say OSU should’ve blown the Horned Frogs out. But to assume that is a mistake.

Entering the week 3 game many pundits believed this game had playoff ramifications. TCU entered 2-0 and ranked 15th in the polls. After beginning the previous season unranked, they started the 2017 season 7-0 and rose to as high as #4 in the rankings before losing their first game to Iowa State, then getting romped two weeks later in Norman against Oklahoma. They still wound up in the Big 12 Championship game, losing in a rematch to the Sooners, but finishing the season with a captivating 18-point comeback victory against Stanford in the Alamo Bowl to finish 11-3.

In addition to all the hype surrounding the game, with College Gameday present outside of Jerry World, the game being broadcast in primetime on ABC, and playing in the same venue where Ohio State had won the national title four years earlier, many TCU fans saw this as an opportunity for revenge. They still clung to the belief that TCU was robbed of a playoff spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff in 2014 in favor of Ohio State. While neither team had many players that were active during that event, it remained a narrative for prognosticators and fans alike.

Gary Patterson, the Horned Frogs headman since 2000, is one of the best coaches of the 21st Century. He’s taken TCU from Conference USA to the Mountain West to the Big 12 and has won regardless of which conference his squad plays in or what teams he faces. With a 172-70 career record, he’s the fourth winningest active coach in FBS history, behind Mack Brown (251 wins), Nick Saban (243 wins), and Kirk Ferentz (174 wins). He was among the first coaches to adapt the 4-2-5 (also known as the nickel defense) as his base alignment. Since he wasn’t able to reel in the 4 and 5-star recruits, he compensated for his team’s lack of size in the trenches and at linebacker by putting as much speed on the field as he possibly could; even taking low-rated and under-recruited high school players that played on offense and converting them into linebackers and defensive backs.

With the prevalent rise of the spread offense in the subsequent years, more and more teams adopted the 4-2-5 concepts implemented by Patterson to better matchup against teams that used three, four, and five-receiver sets on nearly every offensive play. Nowadays it’s more unusual for college teams to run traditional 4-3 or 3-4 defenses than to run 4-2-5 or 3-3-5 nickel alignments.

Patterson’s teams have finished in the top-25 in ten different seasons, and the top-10 in seven of those seasons. He’s led TCU to two unbeaten regular seasons, three BCS/NY6 bowls, with victories in both the 2010 Rose Bowl and the 2014 Peach Bowl. Former Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore, the winningest quarterback in FBS history, compiled a 50-3 record during his four-year reign as the trigger man for the Smurf Turf Broncos, but two of his three losses came at the hands of TCU (17-16 in 2008 and 36-35 in 2011).

The defenses Patterson carefully crafted finished as the #1 unit in all of college football five different times (2000, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010). While he’s never won or made an appearance in a national championship game, the fact that he’s had TCU as a legitimate threat in three separate years (2009, 2010, and 2014) is remarkable in its own right.

Now with that explained, I hope you have a clearer picture as to how good of a coach Patterson is. Which is why it makes Ryan Day’s performance against TCU in his third and final game serving as the interim coach for the suspended Meyer all the more impressive.

Long-time veteran coaches like Bob Stoops, Mack Brown, and Mike Gundy struggled to find weaknesses in Patterson’s defenses; which is saying something when you realize that the Big 12 is notorious for its lack of tackling, coverage, stopping the run, basically anything that has to do with defensive aptitude. For a 39-year old offensive coordinator who wasn’t even the official head coach, you would assume Patterson would eat his lunch. But beneath Day’s warm fatherly persona lies a cold, malicious assassin.

If I had to say one thing Patterson takes pride in over everything else, it’s his ability to rattle quarterbacks and get them out of their comfort zones. TCU has almost always been amongst the top of the leaderboards with regards to takeaways. Patterson preaches to his secondary to play bump-and-run coverage and to jump the short and intermediate routes to try and make a play on the ball rather than sitting back to make a tackle. He’s willing to take a chance and get beat deep if it means the opposing quarterback isn’t going to have his check downs open.

The best method to try and beat this approach is to run double moves and throw the ball deep. Easier said than done, however. Most teams aren’t built to throw ten to twenty deep balls per game. But then again, most teams don’t have a guy like Dwayne Haskins.

Ohio State received to begin the game. On Haskins’s second pass of the game, he demonstrated how well he could throw the deep ball by hitting Austin Mack for a 48-yard strike down to the TCU 2-yard line. Unfortunately for the Bucks the next three plays were a 1-yard loss, a batted down pass, and an Austin Mack drop (that wouldn’t be the only one for him). Sean Nuernberger made a 20-yard field goal to put the Bucks up 3-0.

TCU’s first possession exhibited what their game plan was built around. They knew they were at a severe disadvantage in the trenches with Nick Bosa and Chase Young on the edges; so they wanted to use pace as an equalizer. TCU wasn’t known as an up-tempo offense entering the game, but that wasn’t evident when their offense took the field. They snapped the ball when there were still at least 30 seconds on the play clock four different times on their opening drive. It allowed them to reach the red zone after less than 3 minutes of game time. The Horned Frogs scored a touchdown, but it was nullified due to a holding call. They would be forced to attempt a 31-yard field goal that was pushed wide right. Ohio State still had the lead.

OSU’s second possession resulted in a couple first downs, but they eventually had to punt. Drue Chrisman pinned TCU at their own 7-yard line. Two plays later, Nick Bosa hit TCU QB Shawn Robinson from his blindside, forcing a fumble that was initially pounced on in the end zone by Dre’Mont Jones, before it squirted out of his grasp and was recovered for a touchdown by DaVon Hamilton.

When the replay was shown on the telecast from behind the end zone, it was clear that Jones’s right foot was touching the out of bounds line in the back of the end zone while he was making contact with the ball. By rule, Jones touching the ball while out of bounds should’ve resulted in a safety rather than a touchdown; but alas, the replay booth never stopped play before Nurenberger’s successfully made extra point, and OSU took a 10-0 lead.

TCU’s response was impeccable. They went on an 8 play, 86-yard drive punctuated by TCU backup running back Sewo Olonilua’s 6-yard touchdown run. 10-7 Bucks.

The Bucks’ third drive saw them move to TCU’s 40-yard line. They hadn’t had trouble moving the ball, their main issue was finishing the drive. On a 3rd and 1, Day called for a wildcat package that had Parris Campbell lined up at quarterback. He repeatedly clapped his hands, but the snap never came from Michael Jordan, causing Rashod Berry to fall forward and receive a five-yard false start penalty. Haskins’s 3rd and 6 throw to Terry McLaurin was overthrown, and Chrisman was called upon to punt again.

TCU’s next drive ended with a punt that was downed at the OSU 5-yard line. Despite the bad field position, the Bucks were still able to move the ball to TCU’s 43 before the drive stalled yet again. Parris Campbell was stuffed for a 6-yard loss on a 1st and 10 end around. Austin Mack dropped his second pass of the game on 2nd down, and Haskins’s 3rd down pass was knocked away from McLaurin. Another punt, this one downed at TCU’s 7.

On TCU’s 2nd down play, running back Darius Anderson took the handoff and scampered 93 yards for the touchdown. It was the longest run play in TCU football history, as well as the longest rush allowed in Ohio State football history. 14-10 Frogs.

Once more, the Bucks moved the ball with ease, driving down to TCU’s 13, but stalled when it mattered. Johnnie Dixon was held on a 3rd and 9 incompletion in the end zone that wasn’t penalized, and Nurenberger made a 30-yarder to make it 14-13 TCU. The Bucks would get one more possession before halftime, beginning at their own 10, converting a 3rd and 16 along the way, before attempting a 38-yard field goal that Nurenberger missed wide left.

Despite the fact that OSU had moved the ball on every drive, they were still being outgained 298 to 287. Patterson bested Day in the first half. The Buckeyes trailed 14-13 and failed to score an offensive touchdown, and the lone touchdown they did score should’ve resulted in a safety. Day was going to have to make significant halftime adjustments to both finish drives with touchdowns and also stop TCU’s offense.

It didn’t look promising to start the 2nd half. On just the third play of the second half Nick Bosa went down with a groin injury. That would be the last time he ever played for OSU. TCU had nearly put up 300 yards in the first half, and now the best player on defense, probably the best player on the entire team, is out. Things were beginning to appear grim.

TCU scored on their second possession of the half with Darius Anderson scoring his second touchdown, this one from 16 yards out, to put the Frogs up 21-13. Since DaVon Hamilton’s touchdown, TCU had outscored OSU 21-3, and looked to have all the momentum on their side.

After another exchange of punts, the Bucks finally began to take over. Parris Campbell took a tunnel screen 63 yards to the house. Finally something to cheer about. Day decided to go for 2 to tie the game. Michael Jordan snapped the ball at Haskins’s feet. He rolled right, looked back left and threw a throwback screen toward Rashod Berry that failed miserably. The score remained 21-19.

Three plays later, Shawn Robinson’s shovel pass was intercepted by Dre’Mont Jones, who returned it 27 yards for the pick-six. And just like that, the Bucks had reclaimed the lead 26-21.

On the ensuing kickoff, TCU tried a throwback from the right side of the field to the left. They returned it for a touchdown, but the play was negated due to an illegal forward pass. TCU return man KaVontae Turpin threw the ball from the 8-yard line and Jalen Reagor caught it at the 12, four yards beyond. Nice try, Horny Toads.

This play forced TCU to start at their own 4 due to the half the distance infraction. They would move it to the 23 before stalling. It ended disastrously for them, as their punter Adam Nunez dropped the ball and had it partially blocked, resulting in a 2-yard punt. Haskins threw a 24-yard dart to K.J. Hill two plays later to give the Buckeyes a 33-21 lead. Within the span of four minutes, the Bucks had scored 20 unanswered points.

I’ve already dragged this on long enough. Each team scored one more touchdown. Ohio State’s penultimate drive of the game was nine plays that featured eight runs and lasted nearly five and a half minutes. They punted back to TCU with just under three and a half minutes to play, with the Frogs down 12. Five plays later, Shawn Robinson was intercepted by Malik Harrison to essentially end the game. Buckeyes prevail 40-28.

This was the first glance, I believe, of what makes a Ryan Day-coached team so dangerous. They might stagger around for a while, but within the blink of an eye they can bury you. It happened in this game, happened against Miami Ohio with a 42-point 2nd quarter, happened against Michigan State during a 24-point 2nd quarter, happened in the second half of both games against Wisconsin, and happened against Michigan.

The Patterson defense I praised so much in the beginning of this post, well Haskins dissected them for 344 yards, 2 touchdowns, and zero interceptions, averaging 14.3 yards per completion; and that's with four drops by Austin Mack, who had a rough night outside of the 48-yarder he reeled in on the opening drive.

Had TCU won, would OSU have hired Day to succeed Urban? Probably so. The succession plan seemed to have been prepared weeks in advance of Urban announcing his retirement. But a lot of Buckeye fans were skeptical of the decision. OSU hiring a 40-year old non native-Ohioan who’s never been a head coach before and had only two years of coordinator experience? Now imagine if the Bucks lost to TCU and how much more skepticism, and probable backlash, Gene Smith and Urban would’ve been met with. You’re promoting the guy that beat Oregon State and Rutgers but lost to the only team he faced that had any semblance of a pulse? It wouldn’t have been pretty. (I actually wrote a post about why Day was the right hire when the announcement was first made, which you can read right here.)

We’ve gone from Tressel to Meyer to Day. It’s a coaching transition that reads like Shakespearian dialogue. But the lineage goes farther back than that. Ohio State has had nothing but Hall of Fame coaches since the middle of the Korean War. Woody is the gold standard, but when Earle Bruce going 9-3 every year and John Cooper being on the doorstep of the national title on a regular basis is your team’s “down years”, no other team compares to that level of consistent success.

Look at every blueblood or current powerhouse: Alabama was average during the ten-year stretch between Gene Stallings and Nick Saban. Clemson was a mid-tier ACC team before Dabo poached superstar recruits like Sammy Watkins, DeAndre Hopkins, and DeShaun Watson. Georgia had rough stretches in between Vince Dooley and Mark Richt, even had some down years with Richt at the helm, and still haven’t won a natty since 1980. LSU was inconsistent as could be in the 80s and 90s before Saban took over. Oklahoma was downright terrible in the 90s. Notre Dame was putrid during the Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis eras. Outside of 2016 and 2018, Michigan has been good at best since Lloyd Carr retired, having endured the Rich Rod and Brady Hoke regimes. Penn State had the most notorious, inhuman scandal in the history of college football that forever tarnished the career of their only iconic coach. And don’t forget the current state of affairs for past juggernauts like USC, Texas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida State, Miami, etc.

When you look at things through that perspective, Ohio State has been the most consistent team of the past sixty years without competition. They’re the only team that hasn’t had a season where they lost more than seven games. They’ve had one—I repeat, one—losing season since 1960, the year when watching the first televised presidential debate was considered revolutionary; and that was with an interim Luke Fickell having to lead the team. Nobody else can even sniff that amount of consistency. It’s why I see this game against TCU as something truly remarkable. Ryan Day, a man who hadn’t even blown out forty candles on his birthday cake when this game occurred, who had never been a head coach prior to the season opener against Oregon State just fourteen days earlier, outcoached and out-schemed one of the best coaches of the 21st Century, a man whose first coaching job was as a grad assistant at Kansas State in 1982 when Day was three years old, in what was a de-facto home game for the Horned Frogs (Cowboys Stadium is 18 miles from the TCU campus).

We have it good, my friends. We have it damn good.