Ryan Day highlights under-the-radar Ohio State storylines which deserve attention

In college football, there tends to be a focus on a couple of major storylines for every school. However, when a team, as the Ohio State Buckeyes were just able to do, wins a national championship there is an opportunity to dive deeper into the team and its storylines.

Following that national championship, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day took the time to praise several Buckeyes as being under-the-radar stories that deserve highlighting. That started with offensive lineman Donovan Jackson.

“I think if you just pick one, you’ll be taking away from somebody else,” Ryan Day said. “That’s why — Donovan Jackson, I could talk about him for 45 minutes. What he did this past year and the unselfishness and the play. I mean, he went from guard to tackle and became one of the best tackles in the country. He was going to the NFL, and then at the last second decided he wanted to come back and play.”

The Ohio State Buckeyes came into the 2024 season feeling as though they had an amount of unfinished business. The group had not won a national championship and the Buckeyes’ last Big Ten title came in 2020. Because of that, there were several players who poured themselves into the opportunity this season.

“Lathan Ransom, I could talk forever about Lathan Ransom,” Day said. “The fact that the last time he was at the Rose Bowl was when he broke his leg, and to have the courage to go play the way he did in that Rose Bowl at Oregon and the inspiration he’s had, these guys will tell you, you talk about a guy who just was, like, obsessed with winning this season, Lathan Ransom. You can just keep going through — like Ty Hamilton. You talk about one of the most unselfish, unsung heroes on this team, all he does is work. He comes in and works every single day. That’s all he does. He just works. That’s Ty Hamilton.”

Another interesting point that Ryan Day explained was that many of the older players who committed to Ohio State did it sight unseen. That’s because they couldn’t even visit campus during the pandemic.

“All these stories need to be told now. They need to be heard. There’s so many of them, and hopefully, over the next few months, we can continue to talk about these stories, about these guys. A guy like Tyleik Williams, probably one of the more dominant players in college football this season,” Day said.

“And where he came when he first got to Ohio State, it was during the COVID run. We were on the bus driving over to the spring game and he was sitting next to me. He said, ‘I can’t wait to get over to the stadium.’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s gonna be fun.’ He goes, ‘Man, I can’t wait to see it.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘I’ve never seen the stadium before.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, during the recruiting process he never even visited the school. There’s a good portion of the guys on our team in that year, that recruiting class, that actually didn’t visit Ohio State until they come here to check into the dorms”

In the end, Ohio State finished the season going 14-2 and winning a national championship.

“Again, we can go on for a while. That’s not for right now,” Day said. “But I’m just glad their stories will be heard and Buckeye fans will be able to enjoy those stories for a long time to come.”