Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day has faced massive criticism in Columbus, OH, for his failures in The Game against Michigan. Day finally broke through last season after years of ineptitude in the Buckeyes’ biggest game of the season, but there’s some concern in Columbus that last season’s victory can be mostly attributed to a lack of focus from former Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore.
Recently, Day made the stunning decision to move Ohio State’s senior day this season from Week 13 to Week 1 in order to avoid any distractions the week of the Michigan game, and he is taking some serious heat for the move.
“This is so da*n stupid,” Barstool Sports pundit Brandon Walker said on Wake Up Barstool Monday morning. “This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen a coach do, and I’m so sick of Ryan Day and Ohio State making me side with Dave Portnoy on some aspects of this rivalry…
“You can’t do Senior Day at the beginning of the season. Just because Ryan Day’s a bad game day coach and can’t get his team prepared for Michigan.”
Ohio State has moved their Senior Day to Week 1 to avoid “The Game” distractions
“They are so scared I can smell it…” – @stoolpresidente pic.twitter.com/8hmRXgpewg
— Wake Up Barstool (@wakeupbarstool) August 17, 2026
Portnoy took things a step further.
“He is a scared little chicken boy. That’s what he is. Listen, I’m in Antucket right now. The word on the street is he bought property here and he looked at a beautiful house that was a million dollars below market price. But you know what?
“It was too close to where I reside. He said, I better get to the other side of that island because I don’t want to see big bad Dave Portnoy walking his dog. They are scared. They are chicken. They have always been chicken. People trying to get on me— this is a guy, when you’re saying Whittingham, who’s a new coach, friends with Urban Meyer, new to the rivalry, people getting on me— this is a guy who, when we beat their brains in like seven straight years, said we got to devalue the game.
“And people coming at me, this is what he said. This is a school and an administration a coach who, when I stepped on campus, had the FBI, DEA, the National Guard, the Army ready to arrest me for being on campus. So, yes, he is scared. He is a scared little chicken.
“And let’s not forget, he knows. I know. You know. Everybody knows in places deep down they don’t talk about parties. The only time this guy beat us is when we had a head coach who had so much controversy swirling around. He’s, he’s hooking up with interns and doing this and that. He didn’t even game plan for them. That’s the only time they were able to beat us. So now we have a real football coach, uh, uh, X’s and O’s, hard nose, Kyle Whittingham. Yeah, you better move that Senior Day. They are so scared, I can smell it.”
If Day can’t win this year against Michigan’s new coach Kyle Whittingham, there’s going to be a lot of noise in Columbus about if he’s the right person to lead the program, even with his national championship win from 2025.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.