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z777 COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said Thursday that he is "absolutely" confident that Ryan Day will be back as football coach in 2025. Calls to fire the sixth-year coach rose among Ohio State fans after the Buckeyes lost to Michigan for the fourth straight year. Bjork, in an interview on 97.1 The Fan, said Day is the man for the job, regardless of how the Buckeyes perform in the College Football Playoff. They host Tennessee in a first-round game Dec. 21. "Coach Day is awesome," said Bjork, who came from Texas A&M to replace the retiring Gene Smith last summer. "He's great to work with. He totally gets it. He loves being a Buckeye. So, we're going to support him at the highest level." The 13-10 loss to Michigan followed by an ugly melee between the teams put the coach in a precarious spot. He and his team were booed off the field by the home fans. Bjork ended up releasing a statement expressing his support for the coach. People are also reading... "The reason we had to say something after (the Michigan) game is, we're still breathing, we're still alive," Bjork said. "The season's not over. The book is not closed." Thanks to the playoff, Day has a chance to redeem himself with Ohio State's huge fanbase with a win against the Volunteers — and perhaps more in the 12-team tournament. Regardless of what happens, Day will be back next year, according to Bjork. "Coach Day and I just hit it off so well," Bjork said. "I've been really, really impressed. Every single time I talked to him, I learn something. He's innovative. He recruits at the highest level. He's got a great staff." Day wouldn't directly address his job status last weekend. "When you first come off those types of things, there's a lot of emotion," he said, referring to the Michigan loss. "And then as time goes on, you've got to get refocused because you know what you've done in the past does not affect what's going on moving forward. Everything is out in front of us." Failing to consistently beat Michigan is one of the few flaws in Day's coaching record. Hired as a member of coach Urban Meyer's staff in 2017, Day was the hand-picked successor when Meyer retired after the 2018 season. Compiling an overall 66-10 record, he is widely admired in the coaching community. "Great respect for what he's done in his coaching career, what he's done there at Ohio State and the success that they've had year-in and year-out," Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said. Day is in trouble now because losing The Game is considered an unforgiveable sin by Buckeyes fans. "What we have to do is this whole 'championship or bust' mentality, you want that as the goal, but it has to be about the process," Bjork said. "To me, we've got to maybe change some conversations a little bit. I think we need to maybe just approach things a little bit differently." Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!Published 21:46 IST, December 28th 2024 BJP President JP Nadda launched a pincer attack on the Congress stating it never wanted the last rites of ex-PM late PV Narasimha Rao to take place in Delhi. New Delhi: BJP President JP Nadda, on Saturday, launched a pincer attack on the Congress stating it never wanted the last rites of former Prime Minister late PV Narasimha Rao to take place in Delhi. Nadda's remarks came after a row erupted over a memorial for the former prime minister, with the Congress demanding that former PM Manmohan Singh's last rites be performed at a place where a memorial could be built later. In a sharp rebuke, Nadda said, "The Congress never gave respect to Manmohan Singh when he was alive now it is politicising in the name of respect." The Congress party alleged that the government led by the BJP was "deliberately insulting" the first Sikh prime minister of the country in not doing so. After the matter of a memorial to Singh took a political colour, the government clarified that a decision to build one had already been conveyed to Kharge by the Union home minister after Friday's Cabinet meeting. A government statement also said the funeral could be held as the process of setting up a trust and allotting land for the memorial could take a while. Kharge had written to Modi on Friday seeking a memorial for Singh. Several sections of the society also urged the government to confer Bharat Ratna on the late economist-prime minister. Singh died of age-related complications at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, the ace tertiary-care public establishment where the former prime minister always got admitted whenever he faced medical complications. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who led India to the path of economic liberalisation in the 1990s, was cremated with full state honours at Nigambodh Ghat in New Delhi on Saturday in the presence of top dignitaries from the country and abroad. A seven-day national mourning is being observed as a mark of respect to the former prime minister during which the national flag will be flown at half-mast across the nation, the Union home ministry has announced. (with PTI inputs) Get Current Updates on India News , Entertainment News along with Latest News and Top Headlines from India and around the world. Updated 21:46 IST, December 28th 2024

Giles' 25 help UNC Greensboro beat N.C. A&T 67-55AMMAN: Syrian rebels battled government forces for control of the key city of Homs on Saturday (Dec 7) and advanced towards the capital Damascus as front lines collapsed across the country, throwing President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year rule into the balance. Since the rebels' sweep into Aleppo a week ago , government defences have crumbled at dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities and rose up in places where the rebellion had long seemed over. The twin threats to strategically vital Homs and the capital Damascus now pose an existential danger to the Assad dynasty's five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer Iran. A Homs resident, and army and rebel sources said the insurgents had breached government defences from the north and east of the city. A rebel commander said they had taken control of an army camp and villages outside the city. State television reported that the insurgents had not penetrated into Homs although it said they were on the city outskirts, where it said the military was striking them with artillery and drones. Insurgents have seized almost the entire southwest within 24 hours, and they have advanced to within 30 km (20 miles) of Damascus as government forces fell back, rebels said. Underscoring the possibility of an uprising in the capital, protesters took to the streets in several Damascus suburbs, ripping up Assad posters and tearing down a statue of his father, former President Hafez al-Assad, uncontested by army or police. Some were joined by soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes and deserted, residents said. However, the state news agency reported that Assad remains in Damascus, and the military said it was reinforcing around the capital and south. The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability. Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad's rule, dragged in big outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plot attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees into neighbouring states. Assad had long relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes conducted bombing while Iran sent allied forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to reinforce the Syrian military and storm insurgent strongholds. But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered big losses in its own gruelling war with Israel, significantly limiting its ability or that of Iran to bolster Assad. US President-elect Donald Trump said the US should not be involved in the conflict and should "let it play out". RUSSIA, IRAN, TURKEY The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and the rebels' main backer Turkey met on Saturday and agreed on the importance of Syria's territorial integrity and on restarting a political process, they said. But there was no indication they agreed on any concrete steps, with the situation inside Syria changing by the hour. Russia has a naval base and airbase in Syria that have not only been important for its support of Assad, but also for its ability to project influence in the Mediterranean and Africa. Moscow has been supporting government forces with intense air strikes but it was not clear if it could easily step up this campaign. Iran has said it would consider sending forces to Syria, but any immediate extra assistance would likely depend on Hezbollah and Iraqi militias. The Lebanese group sent some "supervising forces" to Homs on Friday but any significant deployment would risk exposure to Israeli airstrikes, Western officials said. Iran-backed Iraqi militias are on high alert, with thousands of heavily armed fighters ready to deploy to Syria , many of them amassed near the border. Iraq does not seek military intervention in Syria, a government spokesman said on Friday. Britain warned Assad that any chemical weapons use was a red line and would be met with "appropriate action". A rebel operations room led by the main rebel group, the militant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al Qaeda affiliate, said in a statement that it has no intention of using chemical weapons now controlled by Syrian authorities "under any circumstances". BATTLE FOR HOMS The Homs resident said he had seen the rebels advance past a Syrian Air Force base in the north of the city that was considered a major defensive area. The resident later said fighting was audible in the city outskirts. An opposition figure in touch with rebel command and a Syrian army source both also said the insurgents were inside the city. Seizing Homs, an important crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, would cut off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad's minority Alawite sect, and from Russia's air and naval base. In the south, the rapid collapse of government control could allow a concerted assault on the capital, the seat of Assad's power, where residents said electricity cut out on Saturday. The Syrian military pulled back as far as Saasa, 30 km (20 miles), from Damascus to regroup, a Syrian army officer said. In the city's southern suburb of Jarmana, protesters pulled down a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the president's father. Soldiers were deserting in the former rebel stronghold of Daraya and in Mezzeh, near a major airbase, residents said. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said it had a duty to protect governmental, international and UN offices in Syria. In a sign of government forces' collapse in the east, around 2,000 Syrian soldiers crossed the border into Iraq to seek sanctuary, the mayor of Iraqi border town al-Qaem said. Syrian Kurdish fighters captured eastern Deir el-Zor on Friday, jeopardising Assad's land connection to allies in Iraq.12 Little-Known Smart Gadgets Worth Trying For Yourself

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