Head coaching and playcalling are two different roles. An excellent coordinator does not always turn into a good head coach. The act of letting go can be as hard as the decision to take on more tasks. Smart head coaches know when to delegate. Ryan Day says Ohio State taught him this lesson the hard way. For years, he tried to carry too much himself, but pressure and mistakes forced him to see coaching differently. That shift changed how he leads, and it may explain why the Buckeyes finally found their rhythm when it mattered most.

“I think so much of it has been the ability to hire the right people, recruit the right people, and then allow them to do their jobs. When you move up, you have to give things up and focus only on doing the job that the head coach can do,” Ryan Day said. “I’d love to get involved with the quarterbacks, the offense, and things like that, but I need to make sure I’m doing the things that only the head coach can do. I don’t think that was always the case early on, quite honestly.”

As Urban Meyer’s play-calling wizard, Day couldn’t relinquish the sheet when promoted to head coach, a habit that nearly cost him everything. Trying to call every single third-down play and managing a high-pressure program like OSU turned out to be more than he could chew early on in his tenure. That not only affected Day but also cost the Buckeyes some of the biggest games. It wasn’t easy for him to give up, since that’s been his biggest asset.

Three straight losses to Michigan forced Day’s hand. Before the 2024 season, he made the best decision he could ever make, which was hiring his old college coach and mentor, Chip Kelly, to run the offense.

Get the Essentially CFB Newsletter. Rivalries, rankings, recruiting, coaching moves, and game action nationwide — your complete college football briefing.

The result was a national championship in Day’s first season as true CEO. And when asked how he grew between 2019 and 2026, Day didn’t mince words.

“I think it’s just overall experience. It’s just wisdom.”

The head honcho used a brilliant analogy from one of his favorite movies, Good Will Hunting.

He compared his younger self to Matt Damon’s character, a brilliant hothead who believed he had all the answers but hadn’t experienced enough of life yet. Day pointed to the famous scene where Robin Williams’ character explains that being smart isn’t the same as having real wisdom, because wisdom can only come from living through life’s ups and downs.

“That’s wisdom,” Day said. “The only way to get it is through experience.”

He added that it’s like raising a teenager. You can’t simply give someone all the answers. They have to make mistakes and learn from them on their own.

At the end of the day, Day’s storyline is all about the power of letting go. He went from a stressed-out coach trying to do everything himself to a championship-winning leader who knew how to delegate. By placing his trust in the right people, he not only saved his own sanity but also cemented his legacy as one of the best to ever coach at Ohio State.

Ryan Day is the lucky outlier who figured it out before getting fired. Not everyone is so lucky. The NFL has the clearest examples in both Josh McDaniel and Vic Fangio. McDaniel formulated multiple top-ranked offenses as Bill Belichick’s offensive coordinator, winning six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. But he failed miserably in two separate head coaching stints. He went 11-17 with the Denver Broncos before being fired mid-season, and went 9-16 with the Las Vegas Raiders before another mid-season firing.

Fangio also engineered legendary and dominant defenses for the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears, winning NFL Assistant Coach of the Year. But he struggled as the head coach of the Denver Broncos from 2019 to 2021, finishing with a 19-30 record due to game-management issues and poor offense. Fangio eventually found grace with the Eagles, where he turned around their defense and helped them win their second Super Bowl.

There is another coordinator who also failed as a head coach. But he found salvation right here in Columbus. None other than DC Matt Patricia who was nothing short of a disaster at Detroit. He ended up alienating the locker room with a rigid management style, finishing 13-29-1 and getting fired.