Ohio State blowout of Oregon should only make Ryan Day's seat warmer

Ohio State is the most talented College Football Playoff team, but why were they the No. 8 seed?
Ryan Day, Ohio State Buckeyes
Ryan Day, Ohio State Buckeyes / Ronald Martinez/GettyImages
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When the expectations are consistently higher than the outcomes, you may live in a world of great disappointment, one where you are rarely satisfied, always chasing something more. For as fantastic as the Ohio State Buckeyes have looked in their first two games of the College Football Playoff, there is always the threat of head coach Ryan Day getting in the way of things. It is their fanbase's reality.

What we have seen over the last few weeks when it comes to the Buckeyes is their best is arguably better than anyone else's. This feels like a juggernaut football team that can theoretically drive itself to a national championship. Then again, why are they the No. 8 seed? This is because Ohio State lost the regular season meeting to Oregon and then lost later in the season to their arch rival Michigan.

We always knew Ohio State had this in them. At the start of the season, everyone and their brother had the Buckeyes as one of four College Football Playoff locks, along with Georgia, Oregon and Texas. Getting to the national semifinals seemed like a foregone conclusion. But as it is with anything, the Ryan Day of it all has Ohioans tossing broken flat screens into the Olentangy in late November.

On3's Ari Wasserman perhaps best encapsulated Ohio State fans' frustration with Day in this tweet.

In a way, Ohio State blowing out Oregon and Tennessee back-to-back has Day more on the hot seat.

Ohio State's playoff dominance leaves Ryan Day arguably vulnerable

Through the better part of a decade, Day is the best college football head coach who we are still not entirely sure is a great head coach. He wins, a lot, but he does this at the best program in the country, one with reasonable academic standards, so much talent in-state and an NIL war chest that would make every other college football program dripping in jealously. He has the best job in FBS!

Not all jobs are created equally. You look at what Kenny Dillingham was tasked to do at his alma mater of Arizona State. He went 3-9 in his first season back in Tempe last year. Arizona State may be somewhat of an awoken sleeping giant in The Valley of the Sun, but the Sun Devils do not have everything like Ohio State does in spades. That Arizona State team nearly won the Peach Bowl today.

Ultimately, Day is going to be criticized, and frankly, harpooned, until he wins a national title at Ohio State. I distinctly remember the head coach at my alma mater of Georgia going through something similar. Kirby Smart was about to be run out of town by the mob of the uniformed until he beat Alabama three years ago. I want to believe that Day has that kind of redemption act inside of him.

For now, I do not think Texas is all that thrilled about playing Ohio State in the national semifinals.

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