Ex-Philadelphia Eagles QB coach Ryan Day named Ohio State’s next HC

After spending an unremarkable season under Chip Kelly in 2015, ex-Philadelphia Eagles QB coach Ryan Day has been named Ohio State’s next head coach.

Chip Kelly‘s tenure as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach from 2013-2015 has quietly become football’s answer to ‘Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon’.

From scattering players like Kiko Alonso, LeSean McCoy, and DeSean Jackson across the league, to his landscape-altering quarterbacks trade of Nick Foles for Sam Bradford, Kelly’s influence on the game both on the field and on the sidelines is still being felt across the league, even after his return to the college ranks to revitalize the UCLA Bruins‘ struggling football program.

And on Tuesday, December 4th, 2019, Kelly’s coaching tree just got one very notable branch: Ryan Day has officially been named the next head football coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

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While it may seem like ancient history now, Day actually served as the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach during the 2015 season, where he helped to put together one of the best seasons in Bradford career to that point, even if the team’s 7-7 record was mediocre at best.

In 14 games of action, Bradford threw for 3,725 yards and 19 touchdowns while completing over 65 percent of his passing attempts, easily the most efficient mark of his career up to that point.

However, that wasn’t enough to keep Kelly, and by extension Day, as Tha Chippa was fired just days before the final game of the regular season and Day followed his mentor to San Francisco a few weeks later.

Day filled the same role for the 49ers, but this too was short-lived, as Kelly was once again fired.

From there, Day accepted a position as Ohio State’s new quarterback’s coach, while also serving as the team’s co-offensive coordinator following Tim Beck‘s move to Texas.

Fast-forward two seasons and Day is now set to become the University’s next head coach after filling the role in an interim capacity earlier this year.

While it’s never easy to replace a coach like Urban Meyer, his off-the-field issues notwithstanding, Day’s newfound status as an offensive guru should help to ease that blow.

Fielding a dare-I-say Kelly-esque offense predicated on playing fast and getting players open, Day has helped redshirt quarterback Dwayne Haskins put together one of the best seasons of any quarterback in Ohio State history, in route to a trip to New York for the 2018 Heisman Trophy awards.

Will he win? Who knows, but without Day’s scheme, it’s anyones guess if he’d even be in the conversation at all.

Now granted, this has very little to do with the current Philadelphia Eagles, as Kelly and Day have been gone for almost three full seasons at this point, but it’s always nice to see a former assistant coach make good and elevate himself to among to the most prestigious coaching positions in all of college football, even if he hardly captured the hearts of fans in the City of Brotherly Love over his tenure.

Not bad for a guy who was Temple‘s wide receivers coach all the way back in 2012, right?