Ryan Day addresses whether he experienced self-doubt amid criticism

The Ohio State Buckeyes and head coach Ryan Day were able to silence their detractors and walk away from the 2024 season as college football’s national champions. They did that despite a large amount of criticism that both Day and the program took following the regular season.

After winning the national championship, Day shared that he never doubted himself or the team as they went through the journey of this season together.

“Some people might have doubted but we didn’t and I didn’t,” Ryan Day said. “I knew it all along. A lot of things get said and a lot of things get written, but that never affected us. Never flinched and these guys never flinched. They never frayed at all. They stuck together. It actually brought them together more. Yeah, this is a special group of guys and just the loyalty and that’s it. That’s it.”

Ryan Day is now 70-10 as the head coach at Ohio State and has his first national championship in his sixth full season as the head coach there. He has never had a full season with fewer than 11 wins. Despite that, there has been criticism that Day inherited a successful program and didn’t build it. On top of that, there has been criticism that his teams struggle in postseason games and have now lost to Michigan four straight times.

“I always wanted to be the hardest working guy in the building as the head coach and lead that way and care and love these guys as best as I possibly could and focus on the process, not the results, and [you] weather some storms along the way and then go from there,” Day said.

“But that’s it. There’s nobody in that Woody that ever doubted each other and we just kept pushing. Now you’re seeing the results of that.”

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

Paul Finebaum is one of the most vocal talking heads in college football. Now, even he feels as though Ryan Day has vindicated himself.

“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.”

Now with a national championship under his belt, Ryan Day has solidified himself as one of the best coaches in college football, regardless of prior criticism he received.