Dave Portnoy has never needed much of a reason to take a shot at Ryan Day. The Michigan fan and Barstool Sports founder has spent years turning Ohio State’s struggles against the Wolverines into ammunition, and even a national championship hasn’t changed his view of the Buckeyes’ head coach.
After Ohio State’s 24-23 loss to Texas, Portnoy found another reason to unload on Day. His criticism wasn’t really about recruiting or the Buckeyes’ talent. It was about what happens when all that talent is put under pressure.
“We can’t underestimate how horrible of a coach Ryan Day is. Anybody on this panel could probably coach Ohio State to 10 wins; they have that much talent. But when you put pressure on this guy, he folds like a cheap suit,” Portnoy said on the Barstool College Football show.
The comment came during a discussion about Ohio State’s collapse against Texas, where the Buckeyes had a 23-3 lead entering the fourth quarter before the Longhorns scored 21 unanswered points. Brandon Walker had already pointed to Day’s inability to close games, saying the coach continues to let opponents hang around when Ohio State has opportunities to put them away. Portnoy took that criticism even further.
“He is one of the worst game managers,” Portnoy said. “He’s lost games that they have no business losing in a million years.”
That Texas loss gave Portnoy a fresh example for an argument he has made about Day for years. Ohio State has enough talent to win plenty of games, but Portnoy believes the real question comes when the game gets tight, and the coaching decisions start carrying more weight. And the final minutes against Texas gave that argument plenty to work with.
With Texas at Ohio State’s 20-yard line and 1:30 left, the Buckeyes had already used their second timeout. Ohio State could have allowed Texas to score, giving the offense more than a minute to respond and potentially needing only a field goal to win. Instead, Day chose to let his defense try to make a stop.
Two plays later, Arch Manning connected with Emmett Mosley V for 19 yards and put the ball at the goal line. Hollywood Smothers scored shortly after, leaving Ohio State with no timeouts and only 28 seconds.
Day later admitted Ohio State should’ve just let Texas score, but honestly, that didn’t settle much. If anything, it added another layer to the whole debate over his in-game decision-making. Portnoy’s point was whether he can make the right call in the moment, when it actually counts.
And that’s where things get tricky for the critics too, because Day’s track record isn’t nothing. He’s already got a national championship under his belt, and last season, Ohio State snapped its four-game skid against Michigan with a 27-9 win in Ann Arbor.
“With all the goodwill that he should have, his fan base still doesn’t trust him and want him out,” Portnoy said.
That view carries an obvious rivalry element. Portnoy is a well-known Michigan supporter, and his history of taking shots at Ohio State makes his comments anything but neutral.
Portnoy, whose net worth is estimated at around $250 million, has also been particularly vocal about Day’s approach to Michigan. Earlier this year, he criticized Ohio State’s decision to move Senior Day to the opening game of the season rather than holding it before the regular-season finale against the Wolverines.
For Portnoy, that decision fit the same larger picture he sees in Day that a coach who has plenty of talent and has already reached the top of the sport, but who remains under scrutiny whenever the pressure rises. The Texas collapse gave him another opportunity to make that case.