Even before the confetti began to fall inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday night, a narrative had begun to form regarding Ohio State’s national championship victory over Notre Dame: Ryan Day had proven the doubters wrong. Admittedly, I was one of those doubters. I didn’t think he could win the big game; I didn’t believe he was cut from the same cloth as proven national champions Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. Quite frankly, I thought he was underqualified for what I — a slightly biased Columbus native and Ohio State alum — consider to be one of the two best jobs in all of college football. And in my even more biased opinion, it’s not 2.
If you’re asking if I feel stupid right now, the answer is yes. So much so that I donated to Day’s charity on Monday night in a desperate attempt to atone for my skepticism as I prepared to celebrate the third Buckeyes national title of my lifetime. Despite my charitable efforts, it’s still not lost on me that I’m part of the “you” in the “we told you so” Nike banners currently adorning my alma mater’s campus.
GOOD MORNING COLUMBUS‼️ pic.twitter.com/2dRXXdp2wv
— Ohio State Buckeyes 🌰 (@OhioStAthletics) January 21, 2025
But in my meager defense, I was hardly alone. It wasn’t just the so-called “lunatic fringe” of the Ohio State fanbase calling for Day’s job following the Buckeyes’ loss to a lowly Michigan team last November; even some of the most optimistic and blindly loyal fans I know were questioning his future. “Should Ohio State fire Ryan Day?” wasn’t merely a made-up TV talking point but a real conversation about the state of the Buckeyes program after a fourth straight loss in college football’s most storied rivalry. Kirk Herbstreit wasn’t wrong when he suggested Ohio State needed to get off to a fast start in its first-round matchup against Tennessee if it wanted to avoid boo birds at Ohio Stadium.
And yet, here we are less than two months later with Day not only on top of the college football world but well-positioned to become the first Buckeyes head coach to win multiple national championships since Woody Hayes did it in the 1970s. How did we get here? The journey might say more about the new era of college football than it does Ohio State.
$20 million later
While my skepticism of Day solidified following the Buckeyes’ fourth straight loss to Michigan this past November, it truly began to form within the first three losses to the Wolverines from 2021-2023. In my 30-plus years of following college football, I’ve witnessed nearly every blue blood program rise and fall; Texas, Miami, USC, Michigan, Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State, Alabama — you name it. Even Ohio State experienced a speed bump transitioning from the end of John Cooper’s tenure to the start of Jim Tressel’s in the early 2000s.
Although it quickly became clear that Jim Harbaugh wasn’t long for Ann Arbor as he led the Wolverines to last season’s national title, I began to wonder if the Buckeyes’ two-decade-long dominance was up. In college football, momentum is everything — at least it feels that way. It was hard to find positive energy working in Ohio State’s favor early last winter as Michigan not only established itself as the Big Ten’s dominant program but also won its first national championship since the Clinton administration. Yet, despite facing what would have been its first rebuilding year since 2004 with a roster full of players likely headed for the NFL Draft, something unexpected happened: they all decided to stay.
They wanted to beat Michigan. They wanted to win a national title. The advent of the NIL era meant they could be compensated for doing so, and it’s no coincidence that the Buckeyes’ fundraising efforts surged in the wake of the Wolverines winning their first national title in more than a quarter-century. Not only did Ohio State manage to dissuade players like Jack Sawyer, Emeka Egbuka, TreVeyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, J.T. Tuimoloau, and Denzel Burke from entering the draft, they reinforced their roster through the transfer portal with high-profile additions like quarterback Will Howard, running back Quinshon Judkins, safety Caleb Downs, and offensive lineman Seth McLaughlin. Coupled with a recruiting class headlined by all-universe wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State’s 2024 roster reportedly cost $20 million — the most expensive in the sport’s history.
The Buckeyes were indeed heading for a rebuild, but true to college football’s new landscape, they didn’t have to wait for the season to start for it to take place. Rather, Ohio State utilized all of its newfound avenues to address its most glaring weaknesses and supercharge its roster in a way that would not have been possible pre-transfer portal or NIL.
Moral of the story for College Football.
Spend $20 Million on your roster.— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) January 21, 2025
That’s right, RGIII. Perhaps more programs should follow suit.
Second — and third — chances
Whenever I found myself in discussions about Day’s job in Columbus — especially during the last weekend of November for the past four years — I inevitably heard about his overall record, currently an impressive 70-10. However, my trump card always focused on Ohio State’s self-stated goals each season: Beat Michigan, win the Big Ten, and win the national title. By the end of 2024, you’d have to go back to 2020 to find the last time the Buckeyes had won their conference, and a year further back for the last time they had defeated their arch rival. The national championship part of the equation seemed academic.
Or, at least it used to be. Prior to 2014, the idea of Ohio State winning a national championship without beating Michigan or winning the Big Ten wouldn’t have even been considered. Even in the 10-year run of the four-team playoff, such situations proved exceedingly rare, with the Buckeyes making the playoff just once (2022) in a season where they lost to the Wolverines. But with the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams, such scenarios might not just occur more frequently now; they’ll likely become common. After losing to a Michigan team that Ohio State was favored to defeat by nearly three touchdowns, there was never any question about whether the Buckeyes would still make the playoff. In hindsight, they likely benefited from avoiding having to play in the Big Ten Championship Game that a win over the Wolverines would have clinched.
Make no mistake, Ohio State’s path through the playoff was hardly a cakewalk. While the Buckeyes earned their No. 8 seed through regular-season losses to Oregon and Michigan, there wasn’t any doubt who college football’s best team was by halftime of their quarterfinal matchup against the Ducks in the Rose Bowl. Under previous postseason formats, Ohio State’s loss to the Wolverines would have instantly extinguished their national title aspirations. Instead, thanks to the 12-team playoff, they not only got a second (or third) chance at a championship but made the most of it.
As it became increasingly clear that winning the national championship was inevitable, many Ohio State fans — myself included — found themselves thinking about Cooper, the coach Day had most frequently been compared to throughout his Buckeyes career. Like Day, Cooper was an exceptional recruiter with an impressive regular-season record against teams Ohio State was supposed to beat. He just couldn’t overcome the hump of beating Michigan, with his 2-10-1 record against the Wolverines defining his Hall of Fame career. How many national titles would Cooper have won in the playoff era, especially once it expanded to 12 teams? We’ll never know. But the point is this season marked the arrival of a new era in college football, in more ways than one. Anyone who fails to adjust their analysis and expectations accordingly is doomed to appear as wrong as I did on Monday night.
