Colin Cowherd Podcast - College Football Reaction: Does Ohio State Need A Coaching Change? USC Getting WORSE Under Lincoln Riley

history of this rivalry. It's got to be the biggest upset. Michigan passed for sixty two yards, had two picks on the road, and still won. I mean Michigan hasn't thrown the ball. Michigan's a very easy team to defend. They can't pass, you can be hyper aggressive. So I thought. One of the things I compared today in my car, I did a little thing on Twitter. I compared Ryan Day, the Ohio State coach. I wouldn't fire him, but there's

a clear hole. He's Mark Richt. So Mark Rick had been a quarterback coach like Day, was an offensive coordinator like Day, and then got a blue blood job. And I always felt when watching Georgia under Mark Richt. He had several top ten finishes, but in the big games, you never felt they got the most out of the roster. And that's exactly how I feel about Ryan Day is that he can recruit like Ricked. He's a nice guy like Ricked. But those Georgia teams never had an identity.

They just had really good players. Even when they had like I think Matt Stafford he had like he would have. They would they would have moments and you'd be like, Oh, this team's the best in the country. And they won a lot of big games. He won three out of four games he coaches, and Ryan Day wins by out of six games he coaches. But they have no identity. And I thought that game. Here's my take. So Ryan Day is one of those guys that you know Urban Meyer.

He went to Bowling Green, he went at Utah, he went at Florida. By the time he gets to Ohio State, he has got a lot of confidence. His shit works, Jim Harbaugh, My shit works, right, Ryan Day. What does he fall back on? So remember when he got really defensive, when old Lou Holtz took a shot at him and they won a game. In a post game, he takes a shot at rickety old blue holes and I'm like, wait a minute, well, why do you care about that? Because he doesn't have a history of success Mark Rick did.

Neither is that when you you know, save Michigan State, LSU, Alabama, NFL, people can take shots at you. You have a formula that works. Ryan Day doesn't have a formula that works. He's two and foreign bulls. He can't beat Michigan now four years in a row. And I thought the game plan was fascinating John. He was trying to prove how tough Ohio State was in the first half. Say, bro, you have major matchup advantages at wide receiver. He wanted to prove, Hey, people say we're not this. This game's

always decided by rushing yards. I'm gonna approve. I'm gonna blow this hole. I can't coach tough football teams because he got very defensive with lou Holtz questioning that. And this is Ryan Day and we'll get into Lincoln Riley in a second. He's a little lost when you start worrying about voices outside the building and narratives and it starts changing your game plan. Their first half game plan

was embarrassing, Like what was it? He was trying to prove we can win tough, Just win the damn game.

no one's watching them anymore. They're losing a lot of viewership, but their clips go viral and I'm on a million text chains that see them constantly, and they're constantly lecturing people that whether it was Biden's cognitive ability or that Kamala was a great candidate, and eventually that people are like, yeah, just come on right, pump the brakes. And I think for a long time there has been a media apparatus that has told everybody, you, Ohio State fans are lunatics.

Get lectured them that they're lunatics. And this guy is X. Look at his record and it's like, guys, most human beings now over thirty years old have been alive long enough to see Pete Carroll Urban Meyer, Nick Saban k Kirby smart dabble like they know what a really good coach. Looks like they also know that the Big Ten, beside a team or two every once in a while, is not very good anymore. Most of these teams, like beating Nebraska and beating Minnesota when you're at Ohio State and

you have unlimited resources, is not that impressive. So you are basically paid to beat Penn State, Michigan and the other top teams that you play, whether it's Notre Dame or which you play in the playoffs and stuff. That's it, Like, no one you get no credit for beating the shit out of Minnesota and Nebraska. Whoever. You better win those games, but no one cares. It's like James Harden scoring fifty

against Sacramento Kings in January. Like, I'm sorry, no one puts any stock into that after a while, and I think everyone getting lectured constantly about Ryan Day Ryan Days, Like, guys, we've seen him in these big games, and it's something's off, right, something's off, and in this game specifically right. The last couple of years, Harbaugh has had a team that was elite, so you get beat as happens Kirby Smart's.

Michigan fan, would have bet on Michigan. And as the game was going, you kept thinking yourself, this can't be happening. But he tried to get into a heavyweight fight with the one thing Michigan can do, and Chip deserves blame to run it up the middle. It's like they're two good players with the defensive tackles. You have three NFL guys.

But I keep thinking that after the game and everyone shitting on Ryan Day, it's like, well, they've been lectured for five years that he's a great coach, and it's like I'm just waiting for him to beat another Like we don't care that he's beaten. James Franklin now four straight times. Yeah, like you can't beat Michigan, which in this program clearly is borderline the equivalent of like the

national title game at this point. And he loses against the other good teams when he plays him in big spots. So you're watching him and you go the cockiness the third base comment. Most guys that get those jobs. Jim Harbaugh to get the Michigan job, had to coach at San Diego Stanford and then win at the forty nine ers. You know, this guy had never been a head coach. Yeah, and he got the job and handed to him by

one of the greatest coaches of his era. So the Ohio State fans literally know what it looks like with urban Meyer and you go, well, we're not that physical. We have this pass and here's I was thinking about this too, because I've been critical of this guy for a long time. And Sarkesey has got Texas in the SEC Championship year one. Yeah, and I'm watching him last night and I went to watch him live. Sark takes

his offensive guy like Ryan Day. Well, he's also the play caller, so half the game is his baby, right, and the program's his baby. But the play calling well, Ryan Day is like turned into this CEO even though he's this offensive minded guy, has to hire Chip Kelly and you're watching him on offense just look terrible against a Michigan team. Their best corner Will Johnson, who might be like a top five pick. It's like Travis Hunter

two point zero corner is out your slicing. I was like, what are you guys doing, Like you're supposed to be an offensive mine, get chips call in the plays, and then your team's not tough. And I do think the look after the game where they plant the flag and he stands there. It just listen, they're in the playoffs, so you're not gonna fire him today. I don't see how this moves forward. I because I I think it's very possible that this type loss, they could just lose

immediately in the playoffs, depending on who they play. Yeah, I do think Ohio State fans and I'm an Ohio State hater, but if I was in their shoot, I'd be tired of being lectured constantly by and listen, I get it, Joe Klatt and all these guys at Ohio State is a huge part of the business and they're awesome. I like watching them too, but like we have to riot a day, Like Kirby Smarts, the Nick Saban's like, he's not Urban Myers, He's not even remotely on their level.

they're way better than you think. The other thing is that the transfer portal and the NIL have actually created parody. When I was talking with a guy today who's he runs a message board for Ohio State, and I said, you know, you used to be able to years ago when you had one hundred and twenty five scholarships and the John McKay era for us. See, you'd take like four running backs in the West Coast just to hog them even if he didn't play him. And then we

got down to eighty five scholarships. And you can still do a little bit of that. Nick Saban can do it. Kirby Smart Well, Now a backup left tackle at let's say Ohio State Louisville comes in and says, we'll pay it three hundred thousand dollars you're a starter for us, or a right tackle at Ohio State, Well, he's you want to be a left tackle and show that scouts that you know, whoever's got money, whatever team a Texas and m can say, come here, start at left tackle.

So there's less depth. And then then then an Ohio State could lose an elite offensive tackle where it's always been my whole life. The top programs have tour they have backups that would start, except for there's a first round guy in front of them. Well that guy now just goes and plays at a lesser program.

NIL to go to lesser programs. And I mean I know a program that was I mean Washington, I mean they were in the Harbaugh Michigan teams. They were like, okay, who's not starting that we recruited? Who's a five star guy? Who's behind a you know, a sophomore who's got two more years there that's the game. Now.

for every NFL team immediately. He's great. You know, they bought multiple sweet players and then they signed Kansas State's quarterback, who some believe was not going to be their starter anymore because the other kid that was coming up they played this year. They were going to go to him a little more dynamic. And you look and you go, well, shouldn't if you're going to buy a Ferrari and a range Rover and not have a garage. But it's a pretty risky move, you know. The cam Ward was clearly

the guy, but you go Chip, Kelly, Ryan Day. I bet they wouldn't really love cam.

and listen, he was up and down for him. But I think sometimes in this nil era, when you're paying people, especially quarterbacks, a lot of money, you can start doing finger pointing, where in the history of the sport you would just give that guy a couple of years to be your starter and maybe that one year you look back, you win the national championship the next year, and you go, we live through that. Look what Harbad did with JJ McCarthy and that crew of guys. They lost that devastating

game to Tissue TCU. Right, it was hard to stomach. A couple of years ago, everyone came back and they won it. Well. Now in the nil era, if you like you're just pointing the finger, you make a couple guys transfer, they're not good enough, you upgrade. You watch how could you lose a game where the opposing team If I told you at the start, how much money

would you put on Ohio State? If they're starting quarterback through for sixty yards and threw two picks, you'd be like, I bet they win the game forty to ten.

percentage of guys. And Ryan he's not bad, but he was also handed I think the best program in the country with unlimited resources and will do whatever he wants. And they are regressing four straight times in Michigan. I think he's a loss. We'll see who they end up playing in the first round. Let's just say they play Tennessee.

That's why I thought if they play a team like and they lose, I mean, you, now, who are they gonna hire, Like it's Mike Vrabel's not coming to college ball in this era, right, so it's like who you know, do you hire the Iowa State coach? There's no it's you might just get the same thing, Like you're probably not getting Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, you know, the next

version of that. So you're just this is where they're kind of you know, it's not that bad, but it's clearly not good enough because if you can't get Michigan now, like you just beat a team that was so desperate. They paid a kid twelve fifteen million dollars to be their quarterback who's seventeen years old. That's the team you just lost to.

He's not going to buy him out. It's not the SEC. And his best talent is young, and their defensive line talent they've recruited the last two years is much better. Blah blah blah. But this goes back to the Ryan Day thing. So he was handed an Oklahoma program and the culture was set, and he was very clever. He was he was a better offensive guy than Stoops. So he goes to USC and he doesn't really have to build a culture because Caleb Williams is so much better

than everybody else in the conference. And they win eleven games, should have beaten two Langes at a one to twelve. The following year, about halfway through, you're like, wow, they have to replace the defensive staff. He deserves credit for that. But if you I believe, and somebody said this to me, they said, he's getting Why isn't he replacing offensive coaches. They have one good, not great offensive tackle in the program three years in. The backup left tackle is six

two three ten, he's a center. They have one really nice draftable running back in three years he's leaving. They don't have a draftable defensive player on this team. I think Camari Ramsey, the safety's draftable next year. Notre Dame is a better football team, should have won. It's not that, but now we're going into year four. Forget the defense, which is better but not elite. They don't have enough good offensive town this quarterback. They have za Ham and Egger.

I mean, he either he can't read the middle of the field or they don't trust him. Everything's up the sidelines, everything's bubble screen up the sideline. They don't throw the ball in the middle of the field. What I am hearing is he is alienated LA high school coaches. I mean they're LA recruiting stinks, so USC is trapped here. They can't buy him out. He's gotten stubborn on the offensive coaching where they're just not getting outside a receiver.

They s don't have good enough players, forgettable running backs, forgettable tight ends, don't have any tackles outside of Elijah paid left tackle. When they signed him to a ten year deal, you thought you were getting a steal.

from scratch. To me, if you don't nail the best players in California, obviously the transfer portal has changed classes a little bit. That's pretty embarrassing. And I get this is not the Pete heyday, but like, why do Kirby and Nick and the guys that win in the South wind because they nail the players in their region? Yes,

and there it's harder because you have to recruit. If you're at LSU, at Georgia, at Alabama, you know, Florida ever got good Now Tennessee, you're all recruiting against each other. Like obviously Oregon has to come down to southern California, but you still have a huge advantage and everything. The nostalgia of the Reggie Bush, of what it used to be,

it's just gotta be gone. If you meet someone now and young people that work for you, and you know, I'm around young people, Like a twenty five year old was born in two thousand, right, So that guy in the heyday of Liner and Reggie and Lindel White was five or six years old. So those guys that are now eighteen years old, think about it, they were like the Clay Helton era. So this this nostalgia of what used to be exists to me and you or older people,

not to the people that matter the most. And if you piss off these high school coaches, like the high school coaches are the lifeblood of someone's program because they funnel you guys. I mean, they are very very important. Obviously now money has changed hands. But to me, sc like Caleb Downs whoever, that the equivalent of those type players every year they should it should be between Ohio State,

USC and Texas. Like if they're not in on every why Er Sark and Ohio State's roster is so good because they're buying all the sweet players who are available. And obviously they recruit really well. What is Lincoln gonna have a top ten recruiting class this year in the nation.

So I you could argue this could just nothing could change, you know, six and six, maybe they're eight and four. But I don't know. They'd have to catch lightning in a bottle. I I don't know if you're ever going to see the Lincoln that they bought. I think this might be the new normal, you know, which is when you're paying that type of premium. What was that building? Was that a home game for Notre Dame?

It's always been my defense of the SEC. It's like you just watched the sect different, Like, yeah, there's just more. Obviously Ohio State and Oregon have the equivalent, but the middle of the Big Ten and the middle of the SEC, even if the records are the same, the talent discreptancy is obvious. And the USC's did they kind of had an easy schedule this year. Did they play Ohio State?

play like Georgia, Southern Southwest, Missouri State. They do an sec out a conference schedule, so that if you look at the schedule next year, John, it is by Big Ten standards, it is a cakewalk.

do have to shake hands donors nil. And now they're going to be comparing in Derek Musselman, who's been winning at all these places, and then you got Lincoln kind of Henri scowls, not smiling. I think you asked yourself, and this is what I said from the beginning. Does he even want to be there? Did he just get an offer so gigantic that no human could turn down? Where it's like he was already so rich, he's looking at his bank account my life. Do I regret this?

I think you got to say, if he could do if he could do it over again? Is he the coach at USC right now? I think you'd have to say no, right.