Nick Saban blasts Ohio State fans over their treatment of Ryan Day

Mar 7, 2024; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day watches players stretch during spring football practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Photo Credit: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

Nick Saban did not hide his frustration with Ohio State fans over their treatment of head coach Ryan Day despite their on-field success.

Saban got quite heated during Friday’s “College GameDay” as he called out fans for negativity surrounding the Ohio State program. The former Alabama head coach said the noise is a distraction to players and coaches, and has done nothing to help the team.

“I have a lot of respect for Ryan Day and how he’s tried to do it,” Saban said. “For me, I always wanted to get every player in the organization to reach their full potential. It wasn’t so much about the outcome, it was what you had to do to make everybody better. A big part of that was insulating the players from external factors — criticism, internet. I used to tell the players all the time, ‘Why do you care about what some guy puts on the internet who’s a fat guy in his underwear living in his mother’s basement? Why do you care? Why does that mean anything to you? Why does that affect you in any way, shape, or form? We should be ocused on what we control and what we can do.’

“It’s the same thing for the fans. I would tell the fans the same thing. If Ohio State wants to beat Michigan, they need to be positive about their coach and their players. There’s nobody that wants to beat them worse than the players and the coaches. That’s number one. Number two, they have an opportunity to win the national championship. Everybody ought to be supporting the hell out of them so that they have the best opportunity to do it and quit all this negative bulls–t.”

Coach couldn’t take it anymore 😂😂#CollegeGameDay pic.twitter.com/K2ggI4hEal

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 20, 2024

Day is 66-10 as Ohio State’s head coach, but is just 1-4 against Michigan, the team’s biggest rival. That is enough for Buckeye fans and even some former players to sour on him as head coach. The Buckeyes host Tennessee in the College Football Playoff on Saturday, and things could get very ugly for him if Ohio State does not win that game.

Saban obviously feels very strongly about this and understands what Day is going through. He faced very high standards at Alabama, where anything short of a national title was usually seen as a failure. The standards at Ohio State are not much different, and fairly or not, Day has struggled to beat his rival and has not compensated for it with any national championships. As long as those both remain true, fans are going to keep fuming.