Ryan Day on journey at Ohio State: ‘God made it hard for a reason’

Ryan Day didn’t have an easy road to success. After Ohio State suffered a loss to Oregon in Week 7 and fell to Michigan in the regular-season finale, college football fans didn’t have high expectations for the Buckeyes in the postseason. In fact, many outsiders called for Day to be fired.

However, Day and the Buckeyes didn’t allow the outside noise to affect them. Instead, they silenced their doubters by rattling off four straight wins en route to the program’s first national title since 2014. While it wasn’t the most comfortable path to success, Day believes that it was the necessary one.

“God made it hard for a reason,” Day said. “You just never know what’s in your path along the way. But this game can give you the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It can take you to your knees some days as a player and as a coach. I’ve been there before.

“For all those coaches or people who are on a journey to what they’re looking to accomplish, if you’re trying to achieve greatness, you’re trying to become national champs in the most competitive environment there is in the entire world. There’s nothing more competitive than college football, in my opinion.

“It’s going to be hard and there’s going to be things you learn along the way, but if you surround yourself with great people, you’re resilient, and you believe in the guys around you, and you just keep fighting and keep putting one foot in front of the other, you give yourself another chance.”

Ohio State didn’t allow its second chance to go to waste. The Buckeyes were dominant in their run to a national championship, winning every game in the College Football Playoff by at least 10 points.

Of course, Ryan Day’s grueling path to glory started long before the 2024 campaign. Day took over at Ohio State in 2019. In his second season at the helm of the program, he led the Buckeyes to the National Championship game but ultimately fell to Alabama and hadn’t been back since.

With losses to Michigan and postseason shortcomings piling up, the pressure was on Ryan Day to deliver this season. He did just that, and couldn’t be more thankful for the ride.

“You think back when we were in the stadium last time, I couldn’t quite come to grips for a while with why we just didn’t quite finish that game against Georgia. But I understand now,” Day said. “It all makes sense. And here we are. I couldn’t feel better.”