Over the weekend, The Athletic reported that Ohio State University senior officials have "begun discussions about a coach-in-waiting arrangement" for offensive coordinator Ryan Day to follow Urban Meyer as head coach of the Buckeyes.
Day led Ohio State to a 3-0 start as the interim coach while Meyer served a suspension for his handling of allegations of domestic abuse against former wide receivers coach Zach Smith. He joined Ohio State in 2017 as the team's co-offensive coordinator following two seasons in the NFL as Chip Kelly's quarterback coach at Philadelphia (2015) and San Francisco (2016). The offense so far this season has been explosive under his leadership and with Dwayne Haskins under center, so the fact that he's receiving positive attention is no surprise.
The idea of him being named a "coach-in-waiting" though, has not been a part of Urban Meyer's thinking.
"Ryan Day is a great coach, but I haven't given any thought to that," Meyer said Monday during his press availability.
Urban Meyer on Ryan Day and the concept of having a coach-in-waiting: "Ryan Day is a great coach, but I haven't given any thought to that."
— Kyle Rowland (@KyleRowland) September 24, 2018
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith also offered a response to the report on Sunday, indicating that there is no end in site for Meyer's tenure, and noting that he expects the 54-year old national championship-winning coach to lead the Buckeyes for "quite some time."
"We obviously are appreciative of Coach Day's great work, and hope he continues to be one of our offensive coordinators for a long time, but we are more than confident Coach Meyer will be our head coach for quite some time," Smith said.
Recent coach-in-waiting scenarios at big-time programs have had mixed results. Will Muschamp was named the coach-in-waiting at Texas when he was Mack Brown's defensive coordinator but left for the head coaching job at Florida before Brown retired. Jimbo Fisher was named the coach-in-waiting at Florida State after one year on Bobby Bowden's staff, taking over as head coach after two additional seasons as the Seminoles' offensive coordinator and eventually leading FSU to a BCS National Championship.
Ohio State plays at Penn State on Saturday.
