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Ohio State coach Ryan Day visits Clemson and Dabo Swinney ... as a dad?

Chapel Fowler
·4 min read
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Coach Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football team are showing some early interest in a Class of 2027 quarterback recruit named Ryan Day Jr.

And no, his name is not a coincidence.

Day (who goes by RJ) is a quarterback recruit with two Division I offers wrapping up his freshman year of high school at St. Francis DeSales in Columbus, Ohio. He’s also the son of Ohio State football coach Ryan Day, who’s entering his sixth season.

As first reported by the website TigerNet.com, that led to an entertaining crossover last month in which RJ Day and Ryan Day took an unofficial recruiting visit to Clemson’s campus and spent time with Swinney and Tigers offensive coordinator Garrett Riley during the younger Day’s spring break.

And even though there’s a lot of recent history between the Tiger and the Buckeyes — they’ve met in three College Football Playoffs and four bowl games in a seven-season span from 2013-20 — RJ Day said it wasn’t awkward at all having his father along for his visit.

“All the coaches are great considering the dynamic that is unique to us, but I always sense a feeling of mutual respect between my dad and other coaches,” RJ Day told TigerNet’s David Hood in a story published Wednesday. “Which makes the visit more about what the school has to offer for me than any drama that could stir because of his position.”

RJ Day (6-foot, 195 pounds) was a first-team all league selection at St. Francis DeSales as a freshman last year, completing 70% of his passes for 1,600 yards and 15 touchdowns and rushing for 300 yards and two touchdowns.

He received his first scholarship offer from Boston College in August 2023 and picked up his second, from Marshall, in January 2024. Clemson has not yet offered Day a scholarship (if that happens, it would be far down the line, as the Tigers offer very few underclassman recruits).

But Clemson’s early courtship of RJ Day is an interesting development to track, given the history of the two programs.

Jan 1, 2021; New Orleans, LA, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney (L) meets with Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day (R) prior to the game at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Jan 1, 2021; New Orleans, LA, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney (L) meets with Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day (R) prior to the game at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

History of Clemson Ohio State

Clemson beat Ohio State, 40-35, in an Orange Bowl shootout to end the 2013 season and blew out the Buckeyes, 31-0, in a 2016 CFP semifinal game at the Fiesta Bowl.

Clemson also won an instant classic 2019 CFP semifinal against Ohio State (also at the Fiesta Bowl) that featured a quarterback duel between quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, both now in the NFL, and a controversial call that nullified an OSU defensive touchdown.

Ohio State got revenge in the 2020 College Football Playoff, with Fields torching Clemson in a 49-28 semifinal win at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The Tigers and Swinney have missed three consecutive CFPs since that loss.

Heading into Clemson-Ohio State round four, Swinney drew criticism from Buckeyes fans for ranking their team (which ending up making the CFP) at No. 11 in his final coaches poll in 2020. That year, during a season affected by COVID-19, the Big Ten initially canceled its fall sports season before pivoting to a shortened schedule in October.

OSU went 5-0 in the regular season (a sixth game was canceled) and won the Big Ten championship, but Swinney ranked the Buckeyes No. 11 because he said he wanted to reward undefeated teams that had played more than six games that season.

“I just don’t think it’s right that three teams have to play 13 games to be the champion, and one team has to play eight,” Swinney said leading into the 2020 Sugar Bowl, adding that his OSU ranking was solely a matter of principle and there was “no gamesmanship.”

After Ohio State’s 2020 CFP semifinal win, Swinney also spoke highly of Day and Ohio State. Day said he and his team had no hard feelings about the rankings, adding that Swinney told him postgame to “go win it all” (Ohio State lost to Alabama in the championship game).

Sep 17, 2022; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day walks across the field with his daughter, Nia, and son, RJ, prior to the NCAA Division I football game against the Toledo Rockets at Ohio Stadium.
Sep 17, 2022; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day walks across the field with his daughter, Nia, and son, RJ, prior to the NCAA Division I football game against the Toledo Rockets at Ohio Stadium.

According to RJ Day, that friendly relationship between Swinney and Day (who’s 56-8 in five seasons at Ohio State) has extended to his recruiting process and shone through on the Days’ visit to Upstate South Carolina in mid-March.

RJ Day — who’s following in the positional footsteps of his dad, who was a productive college quarterback at New Hampshire — told TigerNet that he “loved the staff and the facilities” at Clemson during his unofficial visit and hopes to return for its high school camp in June.

“Everyone was so welcoming and kind,” RJ Day told the website. “It is like one big giant family. Everyone is very happy to be working and be in the building which says a lot about the culture that Coach Swinney has built in his time there.”