Ohio
For Ryan Day and Ohio State, expectations have peaked and the pressure builds with a matchup at Oregon
It’s probably fair to say that Ryan Day is the first coach in college football history to amass a 61-8 record, yet still have something to prove. And it’s not just nationally, but with his own intense, and occasionally desperate, fan base.
It’s never easy succeeding a larger-than-life legend, a bill that fits Urban Meyer. So Day knew the challenges that came from the advantage of getting the keys to the Buckeyes Lamborghini.
He’s been derided as being born on third base by getting Ohio State as his first head coaching job, but he’s a former New Hampshire quarterback who overcame, at age 9, the death of his father by suicide, to grind his way to the top.
Six seasons in, Day, 45, has succeeded. Well, except for the part where some people point more to those eight losses than those 61 victories.
Day is 1-6 against teams in the top five of the College Football Playoff rankings. He is 1-3 against Michigan overall, including losses in each of the last three years. He is 1-3 in the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State has a reputation for steamrolling weaker opponents. Day has never lost to an unranked team and is unbeaten against every Big Ten team that isn’t located in Ann Arbor. That’s not nothing.
It even can beat the occasional highly ranked team, but the joy seems not to last. In 2020, it took down Clemson in the College Football Playoff … only to get blown out by Alabama in the title game.
Last season, it won late at Notre Dame, which was No. 9 at the time, but no one was overwhelmingly impressed because the Irish rarely win big ones either and Day spent the postgame seemingly challenging Lou Holtz to a fight.
And so, even as Ohio State (5-0) has blown out Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall, Michigan State and Iowa to the tune of 230-34, there remains doubts both in Columbus and across the country.
Sure, the Buckeyes can be bullies, but can they bully a bully? Can this team win it all?
No. 3 Oregon awaits Saturday in Eugene, a seemingly fair fight for the Bucks. It’ll count in the race for a Big Ten title, a playoff berth and playoff seeding. And it will count on the reputation, both near and far, of Ryan Day.
“A lot is at stake this weekend, which is exactly the way we want it,” Day said.
Nothing will be decided on Saturday, but it’s fair to watch and wonder. If not this year, then when? If not with this team, then why not?
The Buckeyes are always talented and Day has proven to be every bit the elite recruiter, especially nationally, that Meyer was. Yet as good as the roster always looks, this year is something else.
During the summer Meyer declared this “might be the best roster in college football in the last decade.” As bold of a statement as that was, nothing it has shown so far suggests Meyer is wrong.
Ohio State followed the Michigan playbook this year in using NIL money to encourage NFL-caliber players to skip the draft and return to campus for a national title run.
That meant guys such as running back TreVeyon Henderson, cornerback Denzel Burke, wideout Emeka Egbuka and defensive lineman J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer — among others — all came back from an 11-1 regular season team.
Then Day hit the transfer portal to add quarterback Will Howard (Kansas State) and more running back depth in Quinshon Judkins (Ole Miss).
The Buckeyes’ two best players are actually newcomers — safety Caleb Downs, who arrived from Alabama after Nick Saban’s retirement, and true freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who Ohio State beat Miami and Florida State to sign last February.
It’s a breathtaking collection. Anything can happen in Autzen Stadium, but one of those “anythings” is a show of force that has the rest of the country sitting up and wondering if Ohio State can be beaten. The Buckeyes are 3.5-point favorites.
So Day walks into another big game projecting confidence. He likes to say it’s about Ohio State, not who Ohio State is playing. Internally, he’s likely correct. Externally though?
“I think you always try to make sure you identify the things that fit the team,” Day said. “You know, all of a sudden you don’t just change because it’s a quote-unquote big game. They’re all big.
“If we say it’s about us all the time, then it’s about us in the games like this, which it is. So we’re going to continue with the same routine.”
Ryan Day has done a great job at Ohio State, just not great enough for some. On Saturday, he’s got the stage to begin to prove himself capable of reaching that final level.
He’s certainly got the team to get there.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — As concerns have grown over the impact of social media on young people, lawmakers are pushing to keep protections in tact to keep children safe online.
This week the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio’s law, the Social Media Parental Notification Act, requiring parental consent for children under the age of 16 to use social media must be restored. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the act into law in July 2023.
Netchoice, the trade group that represents Tik Tok, Snapchat, Meta and other tech companies contested Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.
“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” Paul Taske, NetChoice Litigation Center Director said.
Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel does not agree with this view point, determined that the law is not unconstitutional and had the block on the law’s enforcement vacated.
“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”
The Social Media Parental Notification Act is a way to protect children’s mental health against the “intentionally addictive” nature of social media, according to U.S. senator Jon Husted.
The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson says the ruling is “a win for Ohio families.”
“The court agreed that parents –- not social media companies –- should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.”
LICKING COUNTY, Ohio (WCMH) — When you think of wild animals in central Ohio, a black bear likely isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. That’s why one Licking County family said they couldn’t believe their eyes.
It was an average afternoon drive home for father and son, Justin and Aaron Rhodes, when something walked into the road in front of them.
“I didn’t even think it was real at first, so that’s why I had to do the double take,” Justin said.
Aaron said he thought it was “just a weird looking dog”.
To their disbelief, it was a bear. The sighting comes just one year after the animal was spotted in Licking County for the first time in more than two decades.
“It’s kind of hard to believe that they’re even around this area,” Justin said. “I’ve lived in this area for about 24 years now, so it’s been quite a while, and I’ve never seen one before.”
These sightings are becoming more common. The Ohio Division of Wildlife said the black bear population is growing in the state, and they expect those trends to continue. Ohio saw a record number of confirmed sightings in 2025.
Lindsey Krusling, a wildlife communications specialist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, said they are seeing more breeding females establish homes in the state, signaling the species is returning. Experts said the work restoring natural forest land is a big reason why.
“We’re starting to get some black bears coming in from neighboring states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky,” Krusling said. “They’re naturally crossing those state borders and coming back to Ohio because we have more of that habitat available to them, especially those forested areas.”
As the black bear population grows, the Division of Wildlife is expanding its research. They are putting radio collars on some bears they find in the state to help track data, such as if the bears are staying here, how far they’ve traveled and if they’re successfully having cubs.
“We’re trying to get quite a bit of data from these bears, and we’re super excited to see where this takes us,” Krusling said.
The research is in the beginning stages, but they expect population growth to continue, Krusling said.
Sighting reports can be submitted here to help the Division of Wildlife track black bear populations throughout the state.
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