Urban Meyer Shades 'Idiots on Social Media' for Ryan Day Criticism After OSU's Title

There is a small fraternity of people who understand what it is like to face the pressure-cooker that is being the head coach of Ohio State football.

Urban Meyer is one of them, and he called out some of the "idiots on social media" who attacked Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day before the latter led the Scarlet and Gray to College Football Playoff national championship.

"I coached a long time and a lot has been made of it and Coach Day and the pressures of coaching at a place like Ohio State," Meyer said during an episode of The Triple Option (h/t Dan Morrison of On 3). "I made the comment that that's not gonna change. The thing that has got to change and has changed is the idiots on social media that don't sign their name to stuff."

While nobody questioned Day's overall record, much of the football-related criticism from both frustrated fans and outside commentators came from his inability to accomplish any of the program's goals prior to the championship run.

After all, Ohio State hasn't defeated hated rival Michigan since Day's first season as head coach in 2019. It also hasn't won the Big Ten since the 2020 campaign. And, until this year, it fell just short of winning a national championship during CFP appearances during the 2019, 2020 and 2022 seasons.

This year's loss to Michigan seemed like a breaking point. The Buckeyes were heavy favorites against a team that struggled to move the ball on offense all season and still found a way to lose 13-10 with an overly conservative gameplan.

It wasn't just Buckeyes fans calling out Day at that point despite some of the revisionist history suggesting as much that has taken place since the national championship. There were national columns from some of the sport's most prominent voices saying it was time for Ohio State to move on, and it was not difficult to see why.

Yet Meyer specifically highlighted the criticism that took things too far and went beyond football, especially since, as Morrison noted, Day had to hire security at his home and deal with his family hearing about the program's perceived failures.

"When you start involving families, you're pushing it too far," Meyer said. "Booing because you don't get first downs and you lose to the rival, that's part of the game. That's all fair. But you've got to keep the families out of it."

Fortunately for Day and the Buckeyes, much of that criticism will now relinquish. They just made an incredible run through the first 12-team CFP and defeated top opponents in Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame.

Every win featured a double-digit margin, and Day and many of the players cemented their status in Ohio State history as a result.