Is Ohio State’s Ryan Day next up to win AP Coach of the Year?
By John Buhler
Ryan Day has to like his chances to be the 2020 AP Coach of the Year.
Ryan Day is in a tremendous spot coaching the Ohio State football team.
As only a second-year head coach, Day was promoted from within, and deservedly so, to an undisputed top-five team in the country. The Ohio State Buckeyes are the only program north of the Mason-Dixon Line that can hang with the Clemson Tigers and the SEC blue-bloods annually on the gridiron and on the recruiting trails. Maybe the Oregon Ducks are on their way, too?
On Monday, FOX College Football listed the last 10 college coaches to win AP Coach of the Year, highlighting that Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish was the only one to win it twice last decade. So why wasn’t Kelly good enough to make this other graphic FOX College Football made? Whatever, you’d be a fool to think Kelly isn’t an outstanding coach for the Golden Domers.
With Day coaching one of the three likeliest teams to win the College Football Playoff this season, alongside Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide and Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers, he has to be among the favorites to win AP Coach of the Year, right? He hasn’t done it before, his team is likely playoff bound and he’s next up to win the award. However, he does have some tough competition.
Will Ryan Day take the 2020 AP Coach of the Year home to Columbus?
If you look at the last 10 coaches to take home AP Coach of the Year, one of two things have to happen for a prospective program builder: He needs to either overachieve and have his team playing at least for a conference championship or he has arrived on Saban and formerly Urban Meyer’s level. Here are a handful of coaches who could be Day’s biggest challengers this fall.
In the SEC, another playoff berth for Kirby Smart‘s Georgia Bulldogs may get him the nod. Should either Dan Mullen‘s Florida Gators or Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M Aggies win their division and play in Atlanta, they’ll be in the mix. Of this trio, Mullen probably has the best shot of the three because Florida is seemingly everyone’s pick to make the playoff for the first time in school history in 2020.
In the ACC, there are three other coaches to watch. If Scott Satterfield gets his Louisville Cardinals to 10-2, that might be enough to buck the trend of getting to a conference championship game to get the honor. Louisville isn’t winning the ACC Atlantic over Clemson, so don’t be silly. Keep an eye on Mack Brown‘s North Carolina Tar Heels and Manny Diaz’s Miami Hurricanes in the Coastal, too.
Out of the Big 12, it’s really a two-man race between Tom Herman‘s Texas Longhorns and maybe Matt Campbell’s Iowa State Cyclones. A Big 12 Championship game vs. Lincoln Riley’s Oklahoma Sooners could get Herman or Campbell the honor. Then again, an undefeated 2020 campaign for Riley might get him to the top of the list. However, that’s the only way he gets it this year.
In the Big Ten, a conference championship would do the trick for Paul Chryst’s Wisconsin Badgers or James Franklin’s Penn State Nittany Lions. Maybe a division title gives P.J. Fleck’s Minnesota Golden Gophers a shot? Outside of that, it’s Day and maybe Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines, but for that to happen, he’ll need to approach what Ed Orgeron did in 2019 at LSU.
And for the Pac-12, Cristobal may be Day’s biggest challenger in the Power 5. Oregon can definitely win the Pac-12 again and reach the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2014. He’s no Mark Helfrich, and it wasn’t all that long ago Chip Kelly brought the honor back to Eugene in 2010. Keep an eye on Herm Edwards’ Arizona State Sun Devils, too.
So of all Day’s potential challengers for AP Coach of the Year in 2020, these are the four other names to watch: Brown at UNC, Herman at Texas, Mullen at Florida and Smart at Georgia. We can easily picture all four elite head coaches getting their programs to conference championships. Brown may not be able to beat Clemson, but the other three can get their teams to the playoff.
Day may be the frontrunner for AP Coach of the Year, but he has plenty of competition this fall.
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