UCLA Football Preview: Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day Just Keeps on Winning
The Buckeyes have won 88.7% of their games with Day at the helm.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are led by head coach Ryan Day. Day played football at New Hampshire when Chip Kelly was the team’s offensive coordinator. He joined the staff there in 2002 after graduation.
He had multiple stints at both Boston College and Temple before joining Kelly’s staff with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015 and he followed Kelly to San Francisco a year later. He joined Urban Meyer’s staff at Ohio State in 2017 as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and he was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2018. When Meyer stepped down after the 2019 Rose Bowl, he became the Buckeyes’ head coach. While he has had issues beating rival Michigan, Day has won 79 and lost just 10 games leading the Buckeyes.
For anyone who doesn’t follow Ohio State or the Las Vegas Raiders, I have some good news: Chip Kelly left Columbus after last season to become the offensive coordinator for Cheatey Petey and the Raiders. So, you don’t have to completely hate the Buckeyes any more, other than the fact that they are UCLA football’s opponent this week.
In fact, after winning the CFP last season, Day had to replace both of his coordinators, as we noted when we played Penn State that defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left Columbus for Happy Valley.
Despite that, Day still has his team undefeated and ranked as the best in the nation coming into Saturday’s game.
When Chip left for Vegas, Day chose to promote Brian Hartline to offensive coordinator. It’s Hartline’s second stint as the OC for the Buckeyes. He had been the team’s offensive coordinator in 2023, but was made co-offensive coordinator for 2024, at first when Bill O’Brien was named OC and then when Chip Kelly came onboard. With Chip’s departure, Hartline is back in his previous position.
In general, Hartline’s offense appears to use multiple sets. Sometimes, they run with one tight end, three wide receivers and a running back. Other times, they will swap out a wide out for a second tight end.
After being out of football entirely in 2024, former Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia joined the Ohio State staff for this season as the team’s new defensive coordinator. Of course, Patricia is best known for being the defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots from 2012 until 2017.
The defense he is running is one which is unconventional at the college level these days. Patricia looks to be running a traditional 4-3 defense as his base defense, though they will switch into a Nickel on occasion.
Of course, Chip Kelly wasn’t the only former UCLA coach on staff with Ohio State last year. Offensive line coach Justin Frye left UCLA for Columbus back in 2022. While he remained on staff with the Buckeyes through last season, Frye took a job coaching the offensive line for the Arizona Cardinals this year. The other Ohio State coach with UCLA ties is Billy Fessler. While Fessler was only briefly with the Bruins, he followed Kelly to Columbus last year as an offensive analyst before becoming the team’s QB coach this year.
Special Teams
Senior Jayden Fielding is Ohio State’s primary placekicker. He’s the only Buckeye who has attempted any field goals this year. He has made 11 of 13 attempts. One of those misses was in the 30-39 yard range while the other was his only attempt over 50 yards. Fielding is a perfect 38 of 38 on PATs.
His 58 kickoffs constitute almost all of Ohio State’s kickoffs this year. Jackson Courville has kicked off four times, but hasn’t seen any action since the Buckeyes played Minnesota in early October. He is averaging 63.81 yards per kickoff and 40 of his 58 kickoffs have gone for touchbacks.
Australian junior Joe McGuire is Ohio State’s punter. McGuire has punted 16 times this year and he is averaging 41.31 yards per punt. Half of his punts have been fair catches while six have landed inside the 20 and two have been over 50 yards. His longest punt went for 55 yards and only one as landed in the end zone for a touchback.
Junior wide receiver Brandon Inniss is the only Buckeye to return a kickoff this year. Despite that, he has returned just three all season. His longest kickoff return was 37 yards and he is averaging 19 yards per kickoff return. He’s also returned 12 of the team’s 14 punt returns this year. His longest punt return went for 32 yards and he is averaging 12.08 yards per punt return.