The redemption of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day

CNN
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Ryan Day aims for his Ohio State Buckeyes to leave no doubt.

After a complete team performance that won the Bucks their first national championship in 10 years, Day should have removed any doubt about his tenure in Columbus in the minds of the Buckeye faithful.

Ohio State fans are some of the toughest and most critical in college football — some will actually come away from this 34-23 win over Notre Dame, now with nine national championships claimed, unhappy that it wasn’t an even bigger victory . Day has been the subject of their wrath all season. Even as the Buckeyes blew away team after team for most of the season, a one-point loss to Oregon stuck with their collective crowd.

And then came the lethargic loss to Michigan. Boos rained down on Day and his team from their home fans as they were unable to get anything going on offense for most of the game, and the truly mediocre Wolverines scored their fourth straight win over their archrival.

All that seems like a distant memory now. Day has lived up to the promise his team showed most of this season, and the talented Buckeyes are now national champions.

“They are my motivation – my family at home, my wife and kids and then these guys. That’s why I get up every day to help these guys achieve their dreams and goals,” Day said after the game. “That’s all it comes down to, and it also just sets an example – when things get tough in life, just keep swinging as hard as you can and fighting. It is our culture.”

Day started this playoff run potentially coaching for his job against Tennessee. It’s hard to overstate how disheartened Buckeye fans were after their loss to the Wolverines on Nov. 30 and the ugly scenes after that game when Michigan tried to plant a flag at midfield of Ohio Stadium.

Volunteer fans invaded the Horseshoe for the opening round, and some estimates said the crowd was 40% Tennessee fans. ESPN commentator and Buckeye alumni Kirk Herbstreit said during that broadcast that he had never seen anything like it. Pundits predicted that if Ohio State lost to the Vols, Day could be out of a job despite an incredible start to his head coaching career in Columbus.

After a quarter of a game against Tennessee, Day was no longer on the hot seat. Three touchdowns in the first quarter set the tone for the rest of the Buckeye playoff run, a massive lead en route to a total blowout of the Volunteers.

In the Rose Bowl New Year’s Day, it was much the same – even worse, really. At halftime of one, Ohio State was up 34-8, and the top-seeded, undefeated Ducks looked like they didn’t belong on the same field as the Buckeyes.

Texas was more challenging and kept the game close until the final minutes, when senior Jack Sawyer stripped UT quarterback Quinn Ewers of the ball and broke away from his former roommate and the rest of the Longhorns for a game-tying touchdown.

Putting the loss to Michigan behind them wasn’t an easy task, Day said after the win against Tennessee, but it was necessary for the Buckeyes to get back on track toward the ultimate goal of the season: a national title.

“I’ve said it before, nothing that’s happened in the past will have any effect on what’s going on, other than learning from our experiences,” Day told reporters. “The first week was an identification of the problems. You don’t just move on from the game. You have to identify what the problems are and have real conversations with the players, give them the opportunity to speak because they are concerned about this. And then coaches have their two cents.

He added: “Saying it doesn’t weigh you down, it does. We’re very proud of who we are. These guys have a lot of pride.”

Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who has known Day most of his life, said it was clear the pressure was weighing on the head coach. But, Kelly said, it was nothing the 45-year-old couldn’t handle.

“I told him a long time ago that he’s built for this. And he gets it. He understands the gravity of what his position is. He understands how everybody feels about Buckeye football and rightfully so,” Kelly said after the Tennessee “He feels exactly the same way. I don’t think anyone took the loss to Team Up North harder than he took the loss. That’s the type of person he is.

“But he must also lead from the front. It wasn’t “Feel sorry for me” and “Hey, everybody wanna pick me up and make me feel better?” It’s, ‘No, we’ve got to address this the right way, look at what we did on film. We have to figure out how to fix it.”

There were some echoes of that loss to Michigan in the final minutes of the game against Notre Dame. Kelly went conservative again with his play calling. The Irish showed why “fightin'” is in their school’s mascot, charging back from a 31-7 deficit to come within a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

For the first time since the opening quarter, the Buckeyes were under pressure — real pressure. The play calling remained very conservative with Howard taking a couple of quarterback keepers and Notre Dame stopping the clock with their timeouts. But Day and Kelly flipped the script at the last second.

Howard floated a long pass on a go route down the right sideline to freshman wideout Jeremiah Smith, who leaped and hauled in the 57-yard catch to put the Buckeyes in the Notre Dame red zone with two minutes left. From there, it was a Jayden Fielder field goal to seal it and Day had his first national championship.

With all the pressure put on him and all the criticism coming into this program a little less than two months ago, it was obvious how much the win meant to Day. As time expired, he ran down the sideline and ripped off his headset, tossing it behind him somewhere deep on the Buckeye sideline — if not the stands. He reveled in the Gatorade bath, deep green liquid splashing down around him as he celebrated with his team.

“The story is being told now. And it’s a great story. About a bunch of guys overcoming some really tough situations, and there was a point where there were a lot of people talking us out,” Day said.

“We just kept swinging and kept fighting. That’s why you get into coaching. It’s to see guys overcome things. Learn life lessons and achieve their dreams. That’s what happened tonight. ”