Paul Finebaum: Ryan Day can earn 'redemption' if Ohio State wins national championship

Paul Finebaum said Ryan Day can complete his redemption arc should Ohio State beat Notre Dame in the national championship Monday night.

After losing the Michigan game to conclude the regular season, Day looked like a dead man walking. Yes, the Buckeyes still had the most talented roster on paper, but there were concerns if Ohio State could actually make a run with four straight wins.

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Day is this close to complete redemption. You can’t erase losses, but that pill will be much easier to swallow with a national title.

“This is really about a lot of things, but also redemption for Ryan Day,” Finebaum said on Get Up. “We all know what the narrative was, and it was real. I know a lot of Ohio State fans want to act like it was the media’s fault, but they were in bars after the Michigan game blaming Ryan Day and wanting him out if he couldn’t turn this thing around, but he did. 

“He admitted over the weekend that he told the team I screwed up. I’m sorry, we will correct it, and that’s exactly what he has done. We talked about Marcus Freeman, Ryan Day winning this thing is very remarkable as well considering where he was just six weeks ago.”

Finebaum alluded to Day talking to his team and putting the loss on his shoulders. At this point, there’s probably no need for extra motivation considering college football’s biggest prize awaits in Atlanta.

But Day was asked what went into preparing a pregame speech for a contest this big.

“Well, I think for us, the playoff has been a natural kind of ramp-up to this game and has allowed us an opportunity to get into a routine,” Day said. “I think when you start to make it bigger or change what you’ve done over the last few weeks, I don’t think that’s good. So what we’re going to do is the same thing we’ve done for the last three weeks, have the same routine and focus on our execution.

“There will be plenty of emotion running around on Monday night. So I think there’s a back-and-forth of recognizing what’s at stake but also just making sure we recognize the fact that it’s about our execution on the field. Certainly we know what a great opponent we have and how good they are, and so that’s it. That’s what we have to focus on.”