Seven weeks can make all the difference in the world.
At least, they can for someone like Ryan Day. Seven Saturdays ago, he was about as low as the head coach of Ohio State can get. He’d just endured a fourth straight loss to Michigan — and the postgame melee that broke after Wolverine players tried to plant a Block M flag at midfield of Ohio Stadium. Day stood transfixed on the field, asking to everyone and no one at the same time, ‘What happened?’
The future seemed unimaginably bleak. I wrote at the time that “anything short of a national title coupled with Saturday’s embarrassing three-point loss to a deeply flawed Wolverine squad should lead to Day’s dismissal.” I wasn’t alone in my harsh critique. I also didn’t think it was likely Day’s Buckeyes would string together the three wins required to even reach the national championship game after such a disappointing showing against That Team Up North.
I was wrong.
And I don’t think Day needs to win the title to keep his job anymore, for the record. His hot seat has cooled off after Ohio State shellacked Tennessee, stunned Oregon and beat Texas to reach the national championship game all in the past month. These were big games and big moments — and he prepared his team perfectly for all of them. These count as big wins for a coach who had historically struggled in games of that magnitude.
If the head coach bears the brunt of the criticism when a team fails to live up to its potential against a hated rival, that same head coach deserves a ton of credit for how his program responded to it, too.
“When you have great moments, you’ve got to make sure you appreciate everybody that’s doing all the hard work, and when things don’t go well, we all have to take ownership of it,” Day said before the Rose Bowl. “That’s part of the job, and I understand that. And I take ultimate responsibility for everything that goes on in the program.
“Our guys understand that life is about resilience, and you’re ultimately defined by how you handle adversity in your life — that things are going to be difficult along the way but how you respond is critically important.”
Ohio State responded to the loss to Michigan by spending a week identifying its issues and what went wrong. There was an intense team meeting, during which some key figures in the program faced some hard truths. Quarterback Will Howard said afterward that it’s important to hash things out because that’s the only way to work through them. Safety Caleb Downs said every person in the program who failed at his responsibility that day caused the entire team to not get its job done — and that those who didn’t do what they needed to deserved to be held accountable.
Then, the Buckeye staff got to work. Week two featured plans to fix and plug issues as well as a general plan for moving forward, putting the lowest point of the season in the rearview mirror. The team also found out that its first-round opponent would be Tennessee, so it could finally prepare for its next meaningful game.
By the time actual game week rolled around, the Ohio State players were itching to get on the field. “It (had) been a long leadup for us — weeks,” Day said. “To say it doesn’t weigh on you, it does. We have a lot of pride in who we are.”
The Buckeyes answered the bell against No. 9 seed Tennessee, jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter by involving all of their best offensive weapons early and often. They answered the bell again against No. 1 seed Oregon with 34 unanswered points to open the game in the quarterfinal round. And they answered the bell once moreTexas in a game that stayed close due to Ohio State’s own drive-killing penalties, a win that was punctuated by captain Jack Sawyer’s scoop-and-score touchdown to seal the semifinal win and send the Buckeyes to the national championship game.
A lot of fans and plenty of pundits had penciled Ohio State into the title game before the season began, based in large part on its $20 million roster and the overwhelming amount of talent on this team. But there was also plenty to doubt after underwhelming performances and slow starts throughout the regular season as well as that head-scratching loss to Michigan.
“When you come into a season with the type of expectations that we had, you’re never really going to satisfy everyone,” Howard said. “It’s about how you bounce back from those tough times. It’s never going to be perfect. You’re never going to have a perfect game, never going to have a perfect season, very rarely. You’ve got to be able to bounce back from anything that happens and be resilient.
“The thing about this team that I love so much is that every time we get knocked down, we bounce right back. I think we showed that in the last game. I just want to finish this thing the right way for these guys and for this university.”
We all knew that Ohio State could be the kind of team that bulldozed opponents. We just didn’t see it all come together until the College Football Playoff began. It’s been equal parts amazing to watch as a fan of offensive football and frustrating to see after not seeing it week in and week out during the regular season.
Day would tell you that the Ohio State team we have seen this postseason isn’t the same one that lost to Michigan because it has learned from its past. After the Buckeyes beat the Longhorns last week, he said he didn’t think Ohio State would have gutted out the win in the fourth quarter the way it did without previously going through tough times. He’s probably right, and it’s probably no accident that it was Sawyer who forced the game-winning fumble (and then recovered it himself and lumbered 83 yards down the field to turn it into a touchdown). Sawyer grew up just outside of Columbus, dreaming of beating Michigan and winning national titles. He didn’t achieve the former, but he’s 60 minutes away from achieving the latter. No one has fought harder for Day and for this team to be in position to redeem its season than Sawyer.
“When things are going good, you’ve got to hug the guys you love the most, and when things aren’t, you’ve got to hug them even harder,” Day said. “You just hang in there and you keep swinging. That’s life, and this team is resilient. When you surround yourself with great people with great character, you find yourself working through difficult times.
“At the end of the day, we wanted to win a national championship, and the way that we got here wasn’t what we expected. It wasn’t what we planned for.”
But they’re here, and that’s what matters. So much has already been exorcised at this point, but a national championship trophy would certainly be the fitting end to an incredible redemption arc for Day himself. He should still probably beat Michigan next year, by the way. There are lots of fans who expect titles and wins over the Wolverines, which is fine because this fan base is allowed to demand excellence. But life in Columbus sure looks a lot different for both Day and his family after just seven short weeks.
Day talks a lot about leaving no doubt. He means that he wants his team to finish strong, so both teams playing and everyone watching know which team is superior. It’s a message about not leaving an outcome up to chance or up to officials. It allows Ohio State to define itself to the rest of the world.
Well, over the past month, Day has left no doubt about himself, too. He’s now a big-game coach. And he’s just four quarters away from winning his first national title.
