OSU media flack alleges that a QB coach was skipping bowl prep meetings
I just heard [Austin Ward alleging a position coach at the 'most important position on the field' was skipping meetings] on the podcast and had to rewind to make sure I heard that correct. Most important position on the field is alway QB, and that’s one hell of an accusation for Ward to drop on a whim about Dennis. I hope Ward can bring some substance to back up that comment, but I doubt it’s ever addressed again.
Now, my opinion of 11Ws commenters and writers is exactly what you think it is, however whatever they lack in critical thinking skills and grooming habits they make up for in knowledge of their own media ecosystem. While I doubt Austin Ward, or any of OSU's media flacks really, are beacons of journalistic integrity, it probably is right that he's a mouthpiece for the Woody Hayes Center and that him blurbing that out in a post-game podcast is because someone from there wants that information out in the ecosphere.
The Dennis in question would be Corey Dennis, who is son-in-law to Cayman Nebraska's sugar daddy and who's been the target of the fanbase's ire for some time. It wouldn't be a surprise to see a major shake up in the coaching staff, and at the very least you gotta think Dennis and also-maligned special teams coach Parker Fleming are on the outs.
Having said all that, OSU is probably going to be fine, all things considered. Their worst season in a decade was still only two losses and they'll have scads of talent. And to Day's credit, cleaning out the defensive staff worked out overall - Knowles is a good coach, 2022 aside. That said, their once-cavernous margin for error is shrinking a lot, and the pressure is clearly getting to Ryan Day. He was/is genuinely good at scheming up an NFL passing spread, but he also now has to be a program CEO and that's made him into a brittle bitch-baby whose first instinct is to snitch instead of overcome on-field adversity.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:05 PM ^
... and just like that, Ryan Day's eyebags grew three times larger.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:05 PM ^
Keep shooting excuses into my veins
December 30th, 2023 at 5:33 PM ^
Funny how for years, OSU fans told Michigan fans to:
”Stop making excuses.”
”Accept that you were beaten by a better team.”
”Stop bitching and just get a better team.”
”Take your loss graciously, and take it like a man, otherwise you’re embarrassing yourself.”
Which stage of grief would you say they’re in at this juncture?
December 30th, 2023 at 6:55 PM ^
Even better, go lurk the Cotton Bowl comment threads on 11W.
Take a drink everytime a commenter dubs Day, "Cooper 2.0."
Actually, don't, because you'll wind up in the hospital right quick!
December 30th, 2023 at 4:06 PM ^
OSU is starting to remind me of pre-2021 Michigan. No-show coaches (Bob Shoop anyone?), losing big games, bad bowl performances. Yet something tells me Third Base isn't gonna hit on the wholesale changes needed like Harbaugh did.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
Harbaugh has always been willing to make changes, including some changes to offensive scheme and staff that one might not expect for an offensive-minded coach.
Ryan Day is an offense guy, so there is some question about what he'll be willing to do on that side of the ball. But perhaps the larger issue is that it's an open question whether he can really lead the program.
He still has and will get time, but all it takes is one middling season. OSU can axe him because they absolutely *can* get a star coaching candidate and with how they recruit the cupboards will be stocked for anyone to come in and win right away.
This last means that, for this reason alone, I expect Day to have a shorter leash than other coaches with similar levels of success. OSU has some institutional norms and won't want to give the impression that they're a hair-trigger program like Texas A&M, but by the same token if Day eats 3 losses next season or something and there's a star coach out there, they can upgrade right away. It's not a rebuild like some other programs would need to endure.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
I wouldn’t want to follow Urbz. There is nowhere to go but down (see also, Florida). Meyer is world class, as a coach and an asshole. Day is probably a decent guy to have a drink with but he is a bumbling conspirator and his peak as a coach is probably OC for Boston College.
December 30th, 2023 at 5:54 PM ^
Probably pining for some time back at Maryanne's! Better looking at the anti-Cheers, place where "nobody knows his name!"
December 30th, 2023 at 7:25 PM ^
Ryan is a regular at Gary’s Old Town Tavern.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:58 PM ^
I'll even expand on that, if they lose TWO games next year, or lose to UM again, he's cooked.
Best way I can describe it is the Michigan losses took away Day's armor, but that loss against Mizzou was a legit wound for him. The leash is very, very short moving forward.
December 30th, 2023 at 6:45 PM ^
Patience is certainly wearing thin but I wonder if the 12 team playoff changes things a bit. Day could lose two next year and still make the playoffs and I’m not sure that gets him fired. Even if one of those losses is to Michigan.
But if they do fire him man it could get fun rooting for them to botch a coaching search.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
Maybe Third Base Day will change to dark brown Just For Men to see if that makes everything better.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:15 PM ^
60% of the time it works every time
December 30th, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
If he wasn’t ar practice, where was he? Possibly looking for a job?
December 30th, 2023 at 4:17 PM ^
Anyone check the bottom of the mosh pit?
December 30th, 2023 at 4:18 PM ^
I'm guessing hookers and blow
December 30th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
That's the part that intrigues me! I happened to watch that same bit because it cued up on YouTube after I enjoyed the Cotton Bowl highlight and when Austin Ward said that, I had the exact same reaction at the 11W poster.
It could be any number of benign things - recruiting visit, sick kid, etc. On its own, it seems like just a trivial anodyne thing to say but when taken into context with all the other noise surrounding OSU football right now, it definitely hints at some major rumblings of discontent and it could be prelude to bigger news on the horizon. The main takeaway is that I do think it very likely that someone in the WHAC wants that bit about Corey Dennis out there, and it'd be especially spicy if the "leaker" was Day himself (I have no reason to declare that, but apparently irresponsible speculation is what we're doing now, so...) Nonetheless, regardless of what this all means, I think we can at least feel very very very very minor empathy, if not sympathy, at how ostensibly small things can get blown up into The Worst Thing Ever. hehehe.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
I can’t follow any of this.I feel like I walked into the middle of a conversation.
You didn’t major in Journalism I think.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:39 PM ^
I agree, OP was tough to get through. Main takeaway is that Urban's son in law is the QB coach, and an OSU insider said on a podcast that he was skipping meetings (not sure if that means throughout the season or just before the bowl game).
December 30th, 2023 at 5:29 PM ^
yeah and also thanks OP for making me look up cayman nebraska, which I figured had to be some kind of GoJG reference...
it wasn't
don't do it
December 30th, 2023 at 8:03 PM ^
I disagree, I believe OP is actually a crime journalist from the 1930's with all that hard-boiled language and insider talk. I felt like I was getting a real scoop from the "flacks" with "scads" of talent! And of course for those cool cats who aren't palookas, the obvious answer to "Cayman Nebraska's Sugar Daddy's Son-in-law" always pointed to Urban Meyer... get wise!
December 30th, 2023 at 4:21 PM ^
Day’s gonna need to order extra hair dye to hold off the gray this off season
December 30th, 2023 at 4:28 PM ^
Sounds like he was busy over at catapult getting all the practice footage of Missouri, and Michigan for next year of course.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:30 PM ^
We have broken that program.
It's hard to believe that at this time last year, they were a foot away from essentially winning the National Championship. Now they are a leaking, sinking ship.
December 30th, 2023 at 5:54 PM ^
This is exactly what I thought last night watching the game. Listless, unengaged, uninspired. Players bailing or sitting out.
They define themselves through winning or losing v us. Losing has a culture all its own, and I think it’s come to Columbus.
December 30th, 2023 at 7:03 PM ^
I don't think OSU was a sure thing to beat TCU last year (any more than we were), but yeah. Definitely a different mood around that program.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:35 PM ^
Flack?
Don't use weird slang in a headline it makes it almost impossible to read.
Especially when there's someone already named Fleck...
December 30th, 2023 at 5:50 PM ^
It's not weird slang. It's a commonly used synonym.
December 30th, 2023 at 4:44 PM ^
A lot of interesting info is coming from buckeye podcasts. Their starting center was benched for the bowl game for saying on a podcast that the oline wasn’t getting a lot in terms of NIL
December 30th, 2023 at 4:46 PM ^
Ryan Day is not a good recruiter- Ohio draws talent just because it’s the Buckeyes. He’s not getting the amount of great talented athletes that Meyer and Tressel could draw. Look at the QB position- how many times did we see one 5* after another come through that position. The cupboard is bare. McCord was not the guy and he had zero backup. Talent has dwindled at Ohio.
December 30th, 2023 at 5:09 PM ^
Maybe it's more development than recruiting? Their WRs have been amazingly good and the RBs are supposed to be good. McCord was a 5* but didn't get much playing time before this year because Stroud played late in blowout wins to pad his statistics. McCord's backups didn't get much playing time, and the team wasn't getting blowout wins this year (at least, not like past years). Their O-line is a problem area. Their D was statistically good this year but didn't seem to have the standout D-line talent that they had in the past.
December 31st, 2023 at 12:25 PM ^
Agreed. McCord could have been the guy with more experience. But as you pointed out, Day screwed up his development over the previous two years. And then continued to screw over the QB room's development by not giving those backups any playing time or special packages either.
December 30th, 2023 at 5:37 PM ^
He may not survive enough years to hang a hundred on us.
December 30th, 2023 at 6:31 PM ^
Certainly not if the new pace is going to be three points or thereabouts anyway...
December 30th, 2023 at 5:32 PM ^
I read that coaches had to send some players out of the locker room and back onto the field for Carmen Ohio. That is utterly disrespectful of the players. Dislike OSU all you want ... disrespect your Alma Mater, and disrespect the students in the band who works their tails off to support you on gamedays, that is just shameful.
Link: https://sports.yahoo.com/day-digesting-ohio-state-gut-212930448.html
December 31st, 2023 at 12:19 PM ^
Shameful? Not really.
December 30th, 2023 at 5:32 PM ^
I wonder if he was spending that time interviewing for a new job.
December 30th, 2023 at 5:42 PM ^
That's my guess.
December 30th, 2023 at 5:51 PM ^
Most dangerous place in Columbus, "car ahead of Ryan Day in the drive thru lane at Chick fil A!" The stress is mounting on "third base."
December 30th, 2023 at 8:50 PM ^
$15 M contract coming to Urban Meyer, wait and see
December 30th, 2023 at 7:31 PM ^
They win on recruiting alone and lose on everything else. Soft.
December 31st, 2023 at 12:07 AM ^
This is the end result of not being qualified to drive the Ferrari you were handed the keys to.
December 31st, 2023 at 12:18 AM ^
There's a lot of salt out there right now, that's for sure. This piece of angry "analysis" is from the local news site, reprinted on Gannett sites in the area.
https://www.cantonrep.com/story/sports/columns/2023/12/30/ohio-state-football-faces-a-quarterback-issue-after-ugly-cotton-loss/72032558007/
It seems Missouri breeds contempt for the Buckeyes.
December 31st, 2023 at 8:20 AM ^
It’s never a good idea to skip bowel prep.
December 31st, 2023 at 12:17 PM ^
Day is great at scheming up an NFL passing spread only when he has an elite, Heisman-contending QB and several NFL-level receivers handed to him. He is an elite OC, but his ability to lead a major P5 program has shown to be sub-par.
That, along with NIL and transfers, will make sure that OSU continues to fall back to the pack.