Ryan Day has learned to navigate the highs and lows of coaching football. After suffering a fourth consecutive loss to rival Michigan last November, speculation about his job security intensified (and worse). However, less than two months later, Day emerged as a celebrated figure in Columbus and the broader college football community after guiding the Buckeyes to the first-ever national championship in the 12-team playoff format.
As he reveled in this career milestone, the 45-year-old coach received a stark reminder of how rapidly fortunes can shift. Following Ohio State’s victory over Notre Dame in the national title game, the golf cart transporting Day, Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard, and linebacker Cody Simon to the postgame press conference crashed into a wall when its driver miscalculated a turn. Fortunately, all passengers were unharmed and found humor in the incident, which drew comparisons on social media to a memorable scene from the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, where the main character struggles with a cart in a narrow hallway.
Ryan Day is Austin Powers. #RyanDay #collegefootball #CollegeFootballNationalChampionship #ncaafootball #ohiostatebuckeyes #OhioStateFootball pic.twitter.com/G56GXL5V67
— Luke Patyrak (@DynamiteHack300) January 21, 2025
Logging on to this awful app this morning and seeing the Ryan Day golf cart video was an absolute delight. A legit LOL and instant Austin Powers flashback.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) January 21, 2025
In fact, Ryan Day shared that he had a similar thought at that moment. “I said, ‘We’re in an Austin Powers movie right now,’” he quipped during a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He recounted the crash, stating, “You’re stressed during the game, and finally, you take a deep breath. We get on the golf cart to go to the press conference and start gunning it through the field, dodging people. I’m hanging on, and then we took the corner and hit the wall. Will Howard and Cody Simon were laughing their tails off. I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me right now.’ It’s incredible how quickly you come back down to Earth just 20 minutes after winning the national title.”
Given the ups and downs Ryan Day has faced at Ohio State, he might be the one person prepared for such unpredictable moments.
