FWAA Honors Ryan Day as Super 11 Coach of the Year

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was today honored by the Football Writers Association of America as the seventh recipient of its Super 11 Coach of the Year award.

The Super 11 Coach of the Year is presented to the head coach who provides outstanding media accessibility to their program throughout the season and notably through consistent interview opportunities with the head coach, coordinators, assistant coaches and players.

“All you have to do is watch the press conferences when it comes to Ryan Day,” FWAA President Bill Bender said. “He takes questions from all outlets on arguably the largest beat in college football – and they often stretch well past what would be an acceptable amount of time to get those questions in.”

Day completed his sixth season as Ohio State head coach this past season. His team capped the 2024 campaign by winning the College Football Playoff national championship with wins over No. 7-ranked Tennessee, 42-17, in a College Football Playoff game at Ohio Stadium, No. 1 Oregon, 41-21, at the Rose Bowl, No. 3 Texas, 28-14, at the Cotton Bowl, and No. 5 Notre Dame, 34-23, in the CFP championship game at Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

On the playoff run, Bender said Day “… did that with an unrivaled level of class and respect toward reporters, players and the game of college football. He is an easy choice for this award.”

That run of CFP victories secured Ohio State’s ninth national championship and third this century after titles in 2002 and 2014, and also capped a program record-tying 14-win season that improved Day’s coaching record to a terrific 70-10 for a winning percentage – .875 – that is No. 1 among all current head coaches and No. 3 all-time.

Day, who has led Ohio State into the CFP in four of his six seasons, joins Paul Brown (1942), Woody Hayes (1954-57-61-68-70), Jim Tressel (2002) and Urban Meyer (2014) as Ohio State coaches to win a national championship, and he joins Meyer as the only Ohio State head coaches with multiple seasons of at least 13 wins. 

Day was the FWAA’s first-year Coach of the Year after his inaugural season in 2019 when the Buckeyes were 13-1, went unbeaten in conference play, won the Big Ten championship, and was selected for the College Football Playoffs. Day also was named the Big Ten’s Dave McLain Coach of the Year in 2019, the first time in 40 years for an Ohio State coach to earn the league’s top coaching honor.