Ryan Day's increased role in offensive game plan has led to potent passing attack

The first question posed to Ohio State head coach Ryan Day during a pre-Cotton Bowl news conference on Jan. 3, two days after his team throttled top-seeded Oregon and two weeks after it shellacked Tennessee to open the College Football Playoff, probed the most high-profile offseason change to the program's operation.

Nearly a year had passed since Day agonized over the decision to hire an experienced offensive coordinator and cede play-calling duties for the first time since joining the Buckeyes prior to the 2017 campaign, when Urban Meyer was still running the show. It was a choice that Day, who is regarded as one of the keenest offensive minds in the sport, enacted despite obvious pangs of reluctance. He'd built his reputation as a shrewd designer of game plans, the kind of coach who loved matching wits with the opposition on Saturday afternoons. But Day understood that the rapid modernization of college football made it harder than ever for the head coach to invest so much time in the X's and O's during the actual season. There were always more recruiting pitches to be made, fundraising events to attend and roster-management discussions to be had — all in addition to overseeing the entire coaching staff and every football-playing aspect of the team. Day knew his role needed to change after failing to reach the College Football Playoff in 2023, the same year that saw rival Michigan secure both a third consecutive Big Ten Championship trophy and the national title.

By mid-January, approximately two weeks after a humbling loss to Missouri in last year's Cotton Bowl, Day plucked former Penn State and Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien from the rubble of the New England Patriots, where the Bill Belichick era had drawn