How Ryan Day rocketed from New Hampshire to Ohio State coach

Bobby Swigert was scrubbed in and standing beside a tray of orthopedic surgery utensils one day this winter when the conversation veered, as it often does in central Ohio, toward college football. The surgeon was part way through drilling a routine hole in some poor sap's tibia when Swigert, now a medical device salesman, casually mentioned that he played for Ryan Day years earlier at Boston College.

The surgeon's head snapped up. The drill stopped spinning.

"Really?" he asked. "What's he like? Is he ready for this?"

Swigert laughed. The former wide receiver is one of the many people who know Day well enough to assure Buckeye fans that the new head coach at Ohio State is a hire they will come…