ATLANTA — Ryan Day talks about Ohio State’s toughness like an overzealous TV salesman trying just a little too hard to convince you how sharp the picture is. In the end, we’re either going to see it or we’re not.
The depth of that obsession emerged a little more than a year ago, moments after Ohio State defeated Notre Dame, 17-14. In an on-field interview with NBC, then then again with reporters after having a chance to cool down, Day lashed out at former Irish coach Lou Holtz, who had said on the Pat McAfee Show earlier in the week that all of Day’s high-profile losses to the likes of Michigan, Alabama and Georgia had occurred because opponents ‘are more physical than Ohio State.’
It was obviously a deep cut for Day, the former quarterback at New Hampshire and high-flying offensive coordinator whose teams up to that point had not exactly been the embodiment of smash mouth, old school Big Ten-style football.
Because after expressing his disbelief that Holtz would say such a thing, Day stomped into the press conference and declared that it was “not even close to true,” that any suggestion of softness was about “one bad half” against Michigan in 2021 and that the narrative “ends tonight” after winning a close September game in South Bend.
It all felt a little, well, manufactured. A narrative in college football doesn’t end because the coach said so, and it certainly doesn’t go away because of a non-conference game in September. It’s also worth nothing that Ohio State would go on to lose to Michigan two more times after that moment, including an inexplicable performance this season that, at minimum, put Day within range of the proverbial hot seat.
But on the eve of anther matchup with Notre Dame — this time for the national championship — Day’s ultimate redemption is very much rooted in his distaste for the idea that Ohio State was more of a track team than a football program.
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While the desire to continually prove how tough they are has backfired in the Michigan matchup, where Ohio State strays too far from its strengths and ends up playing the Wolverines’ game, it is now unquestionably a net plus when you look at the totality of where the Buckeyes are now and how they got here.
“I think it’s kind of cool to see the maturation of Ryan Day and to see how he’s adjusted and how he now sees the game,” said Greg McElroy, the former Alabama quarterback who is now one of ESPN’s top commentators. “Look, if you’re an offensive coordinator, the lens through which you saw the game forever was, ‘Alright, I’m in charge of that side of the ball and I have to maximize that side’s output. That’s how we win.’ You’re wired that way. It’s been a really cool adjustment to see how he’s deviated ever so slightly from tempo, deviated away from trying to create explosive plays, to being a little bit more patient. And I think the great depiction of how he’s evolved was the Texas game.”
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When Ohio State beat Texas in the semifinals, 28-14, what McElroy saw was a team that played offensively within the structure of the game and didn’t try to force plays that weren’t there. He also saw a defense that, at one time earlier in Day’s tenure, might have relied on exotic looks and blitzes to make up for the fact that they just weren’t physical enough to win those line-of-scrimmage battles against the best programs in the country and often struggled to tackle in space.
But against Texas, when Ohio State had to stop a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line to retain the lead in the game’s final few minutes, America saw the Buckeyes do pretty much what they’ve done a lot of this season. Just like they did against Penn State earlier in the season when they sealed the game with a goal-line stand, Ohio State stuffed the run inside and forced the Longhorns to try something on the perimeter. That also failed spectacularly, setting up Jack Sawyer’s strip sack of Quinn Ewers and touchdown return to put an exclamation point on the game.
Yes, Ohio State can still win a track meet. But when they need to win another way, as the situation presented itself against Texas, there has been real growth in the toughness and physicality department. It might be what wins the Buckeyes a national title.”
“There was some narrative that came out that we weren’t a tough team and this and that,” Ohio State safety Lathan Ransom said. “Obviously we block out the outside noise, but all the stuff we do in the offseason behind closed doors, it’s all for toughness. And when you hear that we’re not tough, it definitely might trigger somebody.”
Despite Day’s public protests, it’s no mystery how he’s evolved the program since that “one bad half” in 2021 when Michigan physically mashed the Buckeyes, 42-27.
After that season, Day upended his defensive staff, most notably getting rid of coordinator Kerry Coombs. He also parted ways with offensive line coach Greg Studrawa.
Fast forward to 2024, and Ohio State is one of the best defenses in the country under Knowles and has an offensive line that has survived and thrived despite some brutal injuries including center Seth McLaughlin.
“Top-five defense, that’s basically what he expected and that’s what I expected,” said Knowles, who took the job after four seasons at Oklahoma State. “You come to Ohio State, you expect to be the best and play against the best and have coaches who expect the best. I don’t know what it was like before I got there, and I didn’t spend much time with it. I just knew that from the time I arrived, this is what we were going to be and that’s how I drove it.’
Of course, to do that requires more than just saying it. These days at Ohio State, everyone talks about the Tuesday and Wednesday practices when they put the pads on and play good-on-good, which hasn’t always been so fashionable in this era of protecting players’ bodies but is often the necessary element to build a team that can function against punishing opponents.
“It’s a mindset,” linebackers coach and former Buckeye All-American James Laurinaitis said. “Coach Day has said it — there’s a certain callous that builds up when you put the pads on and you do it over and over.
“I think even in the NFL, everything goes in ebbs and flows. There was a whole thing about physicality — pads, pads. And then there’s a new wave of just like, we’re going to do walkthroughs and save their legs and then all the sudden you see missed tackles go up and now we’re all back to pads. It comes and goes. There’s always a fine line there of, like, you’ve got to work hard but you also want to have a fresh team. If there was a perfect science to it, someone would just bottle it up and make a lot of money. There’s no perfect formula to any of it.”
But Ohio State seems to have the right mix at the moment. Though Day stops short of saying his program wasn’t tough enough a few years ago, he allows that they are now better built to win different styles, which is what you need to win a coast-to-coast Big Ten and the College Football Playoff.
“Every year you learn, and to be honest every year I learn and grow and figure out what needs to be done to get it fixed and identify the issues and be honest and call it for what it is,” Day said. ‘That’s what leaders do. They look out on the horizon and see what’s coming. We all have to continue to learn, and I think I’ve done that as well.”
And if Ohio State wins one more game, Day won’t have to keep telling the world how tough his team is because it will be as self-evident as the shine on their gold trophy.
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