Ryan Day Backed by Ohio State AD Gene Smith After Back-to-Back Losses to Michigan

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has publicly backed head football coach Ryan Day despite back-to-back losses to archrival Michigan, telling ESPN's Heather Dinich that he is his "CEO" and that they've spoken about what they "need to do better."

"My standards are high; our team standards are high," Smith said.

"So we talk about how do we get better and how do we make sure we are able to win the championships that we aspire to win? We look at each individual contest that got in the way of that, and we're trying to figure out what's the strategy to mitigate that. When we lose, it's highly disappointing, but I break things down and look at things objectively, and we have good conversations about what we need to do better."

Day has been the Buckeyes head coach since 2019. He's led Ohio State to the College Football Playoff semifinal three times (2019, 2020, 2022) and a national championship appearance once (2020).

Ohio State has finished in the Top Six of the Associated Press poll in all four of his seasons but has notably fallen to reigning back-to-back Big Ten champion Michigan each of the past two years after winning 15 of the past 16 games in the rivalry.

Michigan has notably crushed Ohio State in each of these matchups, defeating the Buckeyes 42-27 in 2021 before winning 45-23 in 2022.

The first loss prevented OSU from making the CFP field. The second game did not as Ohio State snuck in as the No. 4 team. The Buckeyes gave eventual national champion Georgia all it could handle before losing 42-41.

The offense has been mostly sensational under Day, with the Buckeyes finishing third, 11th, first and second in points per game in each of the last four years, respectively.

The defense has not been as good, as evidenced by the Michigan losses and the performances in the College Football Playoff. OSU finished fourth in points per game allowed in 2019 in Division I FBS play, but the team regressed to tied for 43rd in 2020. The Buckeyes have been 38th and 24th in the past two years.

Day understands that Ohio State needs to improve defensively, specifically in limiting explosive plays, per comments to Dinich:

"The rivalry game's obviously very, very important," Day told ESPN.

"When you look at those games, and you see these single plays that really cost us the game. When you're talking about on defense, giving up explosive plays, certainly that's very, very important. That's how games can go sideways. And so we have to identify that, get that fixed, and that hurt us in the Georgia game as well. That was something we talked about a lot in the offseason, or we're continually talking about now in the spring, but I really like the team that we have coming back."

Day also said he believes his team has the talent to accomplish its goals.

"When you look at the roster, all you want to do is identify, OK, does this look like the teams we've had in the past?" Day said. "Do we have enough talent to reach our goals year after year? And the answer is yes. We definitely have it."

Ohio State will open the 2023 season on the road against Indiana on Sept. 2.