Ryan Day on dust up with Greg Schiano: 'No hard feelings at all'
The most interesting moment to come from Ohio State’s 49-10 beatdown of Rutgers was the fracas between the two head coaches, Ryan Day and Greg Schiano.
With the Buckeyes leading by 39 and lined up to punt, a lane opened and OSU punter Jesse Mirco took off on what looked to be an ad-libbed fake. He got plastered out of bounds after the run by Rutgers wideout Aron Cruickshank, spurring on a scrum.
Schiano and Day were both running hot after the play — Day because of the late hit, Schiano because he didn’t appreciate the fake punt — and when Schiano came across the field, he and day crossed paths and things boiled over. After the game, Day offered his accounting of what happened, including that the fake wasn’t scripted or called.
“I figured that’d be your first question,” Day said postgame. “They came after the punt and Jesse rolled out to the right. And nothing we had ever worked on — he just saw it and took it. Just being a football player. And then took that shot on the sideline and things got heated and just, one coach defending their side, one coach defending theirs.”
Day added that he holds no ill will toward Schiano going forward.
“No hard feelings at all. Told him that after the game. I have an unbelievable amount of respect for him. So, that’s all that was,” Day said.
Day was asked why he thought Schiano ran over, perhaps if it was because he thought the fake punt was called.
“Oh I don’t know. I think he was just coming over to defend his player,” Day said. “Just because he was kind of over there on our sideline and it was a late hit and there was a lot of emotion. I think he was just trying to get his player out of there. Things like that happen in football and he was just defending his player.”
Another reporter asked about the confrontation, priming Day to explain what he thought as Schiano came across the field.
“Clay, I’m not going to bite on that, so I’m sorry,” Day said with a chuckle.
Cruickshank was ultimately ejected for the hit and each coach was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for their meltdowns.
Watch the play between Ohio State and Rutgers that lead to the coaches getting in to it
Schiano, clearly heated about the fake kick, and Day, clearly upset about the late hit and Schiano crossing the field, were seen going after each other, yelling and pointing fingers.
Another angle of the play shows how close Day and Schiano got, with just an official between the two men. Day came out pointing a finger at Schiano before the official stepped between. Schiano appeared to respond in kind and based on amateur lip reading, he wasn’t diplomatic in his choice of language.
And while it might not be ironic, exactly, it’s worth remembering that Day and Schiano were colleagues at Ohio State once upon time for two seasons — 2017 and 2018.