Greg Schiano says Ryan Day 'sounds tired' at 'pressure-cooker' Ohio State

Rutgers Scarlet Knights head coach Greg Schiano knows a thing or two about life in Columbus, Ohio. Before joining Rutgers in 2020, Schiano was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes. 

He coached alongside OSU head coach Ryan Day and he recently revealed to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN that he can hear the stress of the Ohio State job when he talks to the 47-year-old head coach.

"I hear Ryan sometimes, I listen to Ryan, and I'm like, 'Whew, he sounds tired,'" Schiano said. "It's an exhausting, exhausting place, a pressure-cooker."

Ohio State has championship expectations every season

Ohio State is undoubtedly exhausting for a head coach. Outside of Alabama, where Nick Saban won six national championships, there's really no other program in college football that has realistic year-in and year-out championship expectations.

The patience of the fan base is also notoriously short in Columbus, especially as it relates to Ohio State's rivalry with the Michigan Wolverines.

The case in point is that despite the .872 winning percentage and a national title two years ago, Day still comes under pressure for his 2-4 record against the Wolverines.

He's also under pressure because his team lost to the Indiana Hoosiers in the Big Ten Championship and then followed that up with a loss to Miami in the College Football Playoff.

Day needs to win every big game to keep the pressure off him, but he knew that coming in.

He was Urban Meyer's offensive coordinator in 2017 and 2018, and he was also Meyer's handpicked successor.

"You look back in the history of Ohio State, not many people are ready for that thing," Meyer told Rittenberg. "The good thing was Ryan saw the pressures and the decision-making and all the things involved. Of all the people, he might have been more prepared because he was there."

Day was prepared, and he lived up to the expectations in Columbus, but he has to keep doing it, and keep doing it, if he expects to stay off the hot seat.

He may sound tired. Heck, he may be tired. He was a young coach when he took over at OSU. Now he's a 47-year-old veteran.

It's hard to argue that Day isn't built for these moments, though. Despite some notable failures, he's been a tremendous head coach and leader for the Buckeyes.

"He was a young guy," former head coach Jim Tressel said. "It wasn't like he didn't have good football experiences, but he had never had that position, and for him to have the maturity and the wherewithal to do what he's done, to me, it's extraordinary."