Ahead of Ohio State’s appearance in the College Football Playoff, head coach Ryan Day received a vote of confidence from his athletic director despite the Buckeyes’ latest loss to Michigan.
Ohio State AD Ross Bjork appeared on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus on Thursday, where a radio host asked him whether Day would be the Buckeyes’ coach at the start of next season regardless of how the playoffs shake out.
“Absolutely,” said Bjork, who came to Ohio State from the same role at Texas A&M in July.
“Coach Day and I have just hit it off so well. I’ve been really, really impressed. Every single time I’ve talked to him, I’ve learned something. He’s innovative. He recruits at the highest level. He’s got a great staff. There’s always tweaks. There was tweaks after last year, right? You’re always going to tweak things. You’re always going to make adjustments. You’re always going to make improvements.”
Bjork continued by addressing the “championship or bust” attitude held by some of the fanbase.
“This whole mentality about — and look, we live it, and we sign up for it — but if you get fixated on the end result and not have the process fully baked every time, you’re going to lose,” Bjork said. “The mindset’s going to lose because you’re only fixated on one thing. And so what we have to do is this whole ‘championship or bust’ mentality, you want that as the goal, but it has to be about the process.
“To me, we’ve got to maybe change some conversations a little bit. I think we need to maybe just approach things a little bit differently.”
Day is 66-10 as Ohio State’s coach and led the Buckeyes to one national championship game appearance, a 52-24 loss to Alabama to cap the 2020 season.
Ohio State went 10-2 in the regular season but missed out on a place in the Big Ten championship game when rival Michigan defeated the Buckeyes 13-10 on Nov. 30. It was Michigan’s fourth straight win in The Game, and Day is now 1-4 as a head coach against the Wolverines.
At the time, Bjork released a statement of support for Day, and he doubled down during Thursday’s radio hit.
“He’s great to work with. He totally gets it. He loves being a Buckeye, and so we’re going to support him at the highest level throughout,” Bjork said. “But here’s the thing too, and the reason why we needed to say something after that game is we’re still breathing. They’re still alive. The season’s not over. The book is not closed, right? And so we’ve got to have confidence. I mean, Ohio State should be confident every single day. We’re Ohio State.
“But we also have to make sure we stay to our values and we stick to what we believe in. And so to me, it’s the process as much as it is about the end result.”
–Field Level Media