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

The regular season for the Ohio State Buckeyes ended with a fourth-straight loss to rival Michigan. Unsurprisingly, tensions ran high at that point for the Buckeyes and there were even questions about the future for head coach Ryan Day in Columbus.

Now, as the College Football Playoff has come to a close and Ohio State has been crowned national champions, that conversation around Ryan Day has shifted. Certainly, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum believes he’s been vindicated, as he explained on Get Up.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

“He has been fully vindicated,” Paul Finebaum said. “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.”

The loss to Michigan was Ohio State’s second Big Ten loss of the season. That knocked them out of the Big Ten Championship Game entirely before the Buckeyes were still selected to host the first round of the College Football Playoff. It would turn out to be a dominant run. Ohio State beat two SEC schools, avenged a regular season loss to Oregon, and finished that run off with a championship-game win over Notre Dame. For the most part, those were games the Buckeyes controlled throughout.

“It was a remarkable run,” Finebaum said. “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.”

Ryan Day has found tons of success during his time at Ohio State. He now has a record of 70-10 with the Buckeyes, though he faced criticism for struggling against Michigan and in postseason matchups. Now, he has the postseason success to lean on that he was missing before.

Ohio State AD Ross Bjork passionately calls out ‘uncalled for’ criticism of Ryan Day after national championship

Following the win in the National Championship Game, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork called out the criticism that has been levied against Ryan Day.

“There’s no way he should go [through] the stuff, especially his family,” Bjork said via Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger. “It’s one thing to criticize play calling, but the personal stuff is uncalled for. And what I hope that people really take away from this is we have the best coach in the country.”