Jim Tressel pushes back on narrative that Ryan Day's life has changed with national championship win

Winning a national championship is the goal that every coach works toward in their careers and Ryan Day finally won his following the 2024-25 season. For a coach who was under immense pressure earlier in the season, it seems life changing. However, former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel pushed back on that idea.

Tressel explained following the game that in his experience, while winning a national championship is great, it also doesn’t necessarily change a coach’s life to win.

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“You know what, it doesn’t,” Jim Tressel said. “It doesn’t because he’ll wake up tomorrow and start thinking about how can we get better. There’ll be a lot of guys like you asking him soon, can he repeat? So, it really doesn’t change.”

Ryan Day has faced an immense amount of criticism, despite all of his success, as the coach at Ohio State. That’s because he has struggled in the postseason and lost four straight games to Michigan. So, with the national championship, it appears that the narrative around his career will shift more positively.

Still, as Tressel explained, the job is about being a mentor to college kids and that doesn’t change with a national championship.

“Because you’re here to mold kids. You’re here to help kids get ready for the rest of their lives and you’re proud of it,” Tressel said. “You’re proud of it. Sure, it may help you in recruiting and it may help you with this or that, but it doesn’t change your life because your life is about working with kids.”

Jim Tressel does know the position that Ryan Day finds himself in today. A winner of five national championships, including four while at Youngstown State and one while at Ohio State, Tressel never let his daily life or goals change with that success and the expectation is that doesn’t change for Day either.

Paul Finebaum: Ryan Day is fully vindicated from Michigan loss after winning National Championship

The criticism of Ryan Day has been very real. However, with the national championship win, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum feels that he has been vindicated.

“He has been fully vindicated, Yes, Michigan is important. Losing four in a row, but winning the national championship trumps everything in the poker game of college football and today he stands on the top of it,” Finebaum said.

“It was a remarkable run. The fact that he did not have to play in a conference championship may have been the key. It gave him time to decompress, to talk to his team, to get over that Michigan loss, to get on one of the most incredible runs we have ever seen.”