(CBS Sports Radio) -- Ryan Day is 39 years old and has never been a head coach.
But in a few weeks, after Urban Meyer officially resigns, Day will be the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes – one of the most high-profile jobs in the sport.
Is he ready for this?
“I like him, I think he’s a brilliant offensive mind, and he did a great job managing the team this year during training camp and then the three games Urban was gone – but now he’s got to handle this 365,” former Ohio State linebacker Bobby Carpenter said Wednesday on "Taz & The Moose."
“For someone who’s never been a head coach, there’s going to be natural concerns with that. It’s not that he can’t do it. But if you’ve never seen somebody do something before, it’s kind of a wait-and-see society and you want to watch somebody prove it first. I think those are logical concerns.”
Day led the Buckeyes to a 3-0 start while Meyer was serving a suspension at the beginning of this season. Day inherits a stocked cupboard, but can he maintain that level of recruiting? Can he maintain an elite coaching staff? Can he maintain excellence within the program?
“Those are questions that will only be answered with time,” Carpenter said. “When you look around, a couple guys to mind, whether it’s Mark Helfrich at Oregon, who took over for Chip Kelly, or Larry Coker in the late '90s and early 2000s at Miami taking over for Butch Davis. Those guys inherited some Cadillacs, and they were able to run the program for two or three years and have a ton of success.
“But then as soon as they had to start running with their own recruits and their coaching staff started turning over, they began to struggle,” Carpenter continued. “I’m not saying that’s what will happen with Ryan Day, but that’s just always the concern of the unknown of: 'How is this guy going to operate as a head coach?'”