CLOSE Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith brought a visitor to meet university president Michael Drake in the summer of 2018. It was Ryan Day, who had spent one season with the Buckeyes as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Smith viewed him as a rising star. After Day received job offers earlier that offseason, Smith recalled a conversation with then-coach Urban Meyer about the importance of keeping the assistant on staff. “We’ve got to do everything we can to retain him,” Meyer said, “because he is a guy that is special and can do it here one day.” The exchange captured Smith’s attention. He sometimes brought aspiring head coaches to chat with Drake to “understand the big picture of the university.” But he saw it as particularly necessary to usher Day into the president’s office, hoping he might come to familiarize himself with the inner workings as a prime…
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