First off, I'd like to say I am not on either side of the extremes in regard to Coach Day. I don't want him fired, he deserves at least 2 more years (assuming he wins 10+ games in the regular season next year). But I'm also not happy with him and the results right now.
It is okay to NOT be happy with a coach but also NOT want him fired
Anyways, I digress. The main reason I wanted to make this thread was to question some of the philosophies on how we measure success from our program and coaches. I've realized in the last couple of days that when I look at our Head Coach, I don't care what his record is. Good or bad. I have seen a lot of Day defenders saying "he's 45-5! An amazing coach!" Yes, he's won 90% of his games, that is great, and I am not taking that for granted.
But which of those 45 you win are far more important than those other 5. Look at Urban Meyer's tenure, he lost 9 of his 92 total games at the helm of this program. But when you think about Urban Meyer you think about the BIG wins, not the bad losses.
I think about 2014 at Penn State, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Oregon. I think about 2016 at Oklahoma, TTUN. I think about 2017 Penn State, 2018 at Penn State, TTUN.
Sure, Urban had some VERY bad losses. Clemson 2016, Iowa 2017, and Purdue 2018 come to mind, some may throw in 2014 Virginia Tech as well.
Here's the point. Urban Meyer won 91% of his games at Ohio State, Ryan Day has won 90% of his. But if Day stepped down tomorrow, why would he be remembered so differently? Because these are his iconic wins: 2019 at TTUN (?, that team wasn't that great, but I'll throw it in there. Winning The Game is big) and 2020 Clemson. Those are the only two games I would consider BIG wins. But his bad losses? Well, 4 of 5 are very memorable because all of them were unacceptable.
2019 Clemson. That's the best OSU team since 2014, horrible redzone offense and failure to capitalize early cost us a national championship appearance (similar to what we saw last Saturday).
2020 Alabama, that Bama team was loaded, even with a good DC we probably lose that game, COVID issues. I'll let that one slide.
2021 Oregon, inexcusable, at home, Great QB, Great WR's, enough talent to have a great D. Wasted by bad coaching.
2021 TTUN, bad preparation, bad coaching all year. Inexcusable to lose that game.
2022 TTUN, *sigh* welp. This one is a whole new level of bad. It's not one where we can look and say "wow, the defense was just missing tackles all over" or "geez, QB couldn't make a throw." Nope, none of that. What are we all saying? We are saying "what in the world happened to our aggressive lights out play caller that we've come to know and love?"
See there's a difference between a HC making bad hires (2015 OC & 2018 DC for Urban, 2020 DC for Day) and the HC himself losing you a game. When I sat in the lower level of Section 30 on Saturday and watched my Heisman favorite QB beg his HC to go for it on 4th and 5, only to get stood up and punt. That really made my blood boil (we found out today that was supposed to be a fake punt, but still).
To bring this all to a close, here's my final point. I'd take a few bad losses, upset losses here and there in exchange with big big wins and championships. Hell we'd all sacrifice a couple of games in the last few years if it meant better big game performances. I'd sacrifice that Notre Dame game, I'd be fine with that Oregon loss. If the highs were as great as the lows. See that's the difference between Day and Urban. Day is more level. Beat everyone you overpower, but lose games against teams you are even with or slightly better than. Urban would lose to teams he absolutely shouldn't lose to, but he'd also win some massive games against far more talented teams. Personally, I'd take that any day.
I'd much rather Day be 43-7 over his career, but 3-0 against TTUN and a title. Even if it means lower lows and higher highs.
At the end of the day, we are going to be fine. This sucks, big time, it's inexcusable to lose to those punks. Especially two years in a row. But don't be an ass to players, recruits, or coaches online. That just makes everyone look even worse.
As always, Go Bucks.
