Ohio State’s 59-3 win over Kent State on September 19 did more than move the Buckeyes to 2-1 on the season — it also rewrote a piece of program history. With that win, Ryan Day reached 84 career victories as Ohio State’s head coach, officially passing Urban Meyer’s total of 83 and moving into sole possession of fourth place on the program’s all-time coaching wins list. Ahead of him now sit only Woody Hayes (205), John Cooper (111), and Jim Tressel (94).
How Ryan Day Finally Got Past Urban Meyer
Day had actually tied Meyer’s win total a full two weeks earlier, picking up win No. 83 in a 56-3 season-opening victory over Ball State on September 5. But Ohio State’s 23-24 loss at Texas the following week kept the two coaches deadlocked for an extra week before Day finally moved ahead against Kent State. He got there in his 97th game as Ohio State’s head coach, compared to the 92 games it took Meyer to finish his tenure with 83 wins — meaning Day actually needed five additional games to notch one more career victory than his predecessor.
That distinction matters for the deeper statistical comparison. Day’s official mark now sits at 84-13, a .866 winning percentage. Meyer finished his Ohio State tenure at 83-9, good for a .902 winning percentage that remains higher than Day’s current mark. Passing Meyer in total wins is a real and notable achievement, but it doesn’t mean Day has surpassed him in every meaningful category.
Why the 2018 Interim Games Matter for the Record Books
One quirk of the record book worth understanding: Day’s 84-win total includes three games from 2018 in which he served as Ohio State’s interim head coach against Oregon State, Rutgers, and TCU while Meyer was serving a suspension. Ohio State won all three of those games, and they count officially toward Day’s career record — but they are not included in Meyer’s own 83-win total, since Meyer wasn’t the head coach for those specific games. It’s a small but real asterisk on the head-to-head win comparison, even though it doesn’t change the final numbers on record.
Why the Coaches Ahead of Day Needed More Time
The three men still ahead of Day on the wins list all coached in a very different era of college football, one with fewer games per season. Woody Hayes needed 276 games across 28 seasons to reach his 205 wins. John Cooper got to 111 wins in 158 games over 13 seasons. Jim Tressel reached 94 wins in 116 games across 10 seasons. By comparison, Day has piled up his 84 wins in just 97 games across parts of nine seasons — a much faster pace by games played, even if the raw win totals ahead of him remain out of reach for now.
Ryan Day’s Season-by-Season Record at Ohio State
Since taking over the program, Day’s year-by-year results read as follows: 3-0 as interim head coach in 2018, 13-1 in 2019, 7-1 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, 11-2 in 2021, 11-2 in 2022, 11-2 in 2023, a program record-tying 14-2 in 2024, 12-2 in 2025, and 2-1 so far in 2026. Remarkably, Day has never had a losing season, and every one of his full-length seasons has produced at least 11 wins — a level of sustained consistency that’s rare even among elite college football programs.
Comparing Ryan Day and Urban Meyer’s Legacies at Ohio State
Passing Meyer on the wins list naturally invites a broader comparison of the two coaching tenures, and the picture is more nuanced than a simple career-wins tally suggests.
Day’s clear high point remains the 2024 national championship. Ohio State went 14-2 that season, and Day became the first coach in history to win four College Football Playoff games in a single season, with the Buckeyes also becoming the first FBS program to defeat five different Top-5 opponents in one year. That title gives Day one national championship at Ohio State — the same number Meyer won during his tenure, with Meyer’s coming in 2014.
But just as with Meyer’s own tenure, there’s a fair argument that Day has left some opportunities on the table. Ohio State fans still vividly remember the crushing loss to Georgia in the 2022 Peach Bowl, and as recently as last season, the Buckeyes missed a field goal in the Big Ten Championship Game and lost by three points, denying them a chance at back-to-back titles.
Meyer, for his part, holds several clear edges over Day beyond just winning percentage. He finished his Ohio State career 83-9 with that .902 win rate and the 2014 national championship. He also went a perfect 7-0 against Michigan during his tenure, while Day currently sits at 2-4 in the rivalry — a four-game losing streak against the Wolverines that was long considered the single biggest question mark on Day’s résumé. Ohio State fans had grown thoroughly accustomed to beating Michigan under both Tressel and Meyer, which made that stretch especially difficult to stomach. Fortunately for Day, his team snapped that streak last season with a statement road win in Ann Arbor.
In Big Ten play specifically, the two coaches are remarkably close: Meyer finished 54-4 in conference games, while Day currently sits at 55-5 — numbers that illustrate exactly why total career wins alone doesn’t settle the full comparison between the two tenures.
Day and Meyer Also Inherited Very Different Programs
Context matters here, too. Meyer took over an Ohio State program that had gone 6-7 the year before under Luke Fickell, and he rebuilt it into a national power essentially from scratch. Day, by contrast, inherited a 13-1 Meyer team that had just won the Big Ten outright, initially keeping Meyer’s coaching staff, scheme, and roster largely intact. Day’s challenge instead has been sustaining an already elite standard through an era of unprecedented change in college football — the expanded playoff format, the rise of NIL, the transfer portal, and, for several years, a difficult stretch against Michigan. By that measure, Day has both maintained Meyer’s high floor and added a national championship of his own on top of it.
What’s Next: Jim Tressel’s Record Is the Next Target
With Meyer now in the rearview mirror, Jim Tressel’s official total of 94 wins becomes Day’s next benchmark, sitting 10 wins away as of the Kent State game. Given Ohio State’s talent level and schedule, a sixth College Football Playoff appearance, a third Big Ten title, or even another national championship all remain realistic possibilities before the 2026 season concludes — any of which would only add to a Ryan Day legacy that, wins total aside, is still very much being written in real time.
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