Everything Ohio State coach Ryan Day said after beating Notre Dame in national championship game

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day got the last laugh. He’s a national champion by way of his Buckeyes beating Notre Dame in Monday night’s national championship game, 34-23.

Here’s everything Day said after the game.

Opening statement

I just can’t say enough about our guys and what they’ve overcome to get to this point. They now have something to show for it. I thought Notre Dame had a great season, and I think Marcus does a great job and they have a very, very good team and had a really good game plan.

That first drive went right down the field. I thought we responded in a big way, never flinched. And I think, again, if you think about the run we’ve gone on here in the playoffs, a big part of the way we’ve responded coming off the end of the season, but then even the way the Texas game went and the way we responded early in that first quarter, and then even in the second half, just continued fighting the momentum because Notre Dame was fighting to get it back.

We just kept swinging and got a huge stop there on 4th down on defense, got the missed field goal, kept swinging, kept playing. And I give this guy a lot of credit right here, Will Howard. I think he ran the ball 16 times in the game. We knew it was going to be that way. It was the last game we had so we were going to let out all the bullets, and he really put the team on his back and really delivered a huge 3rd down conversion which sealed the game.

We just felt like in this game the No. 1 goal was to win. That’s where it started on offense, defense and special teams, find a way to win the game, and that’s what we did here in the playoffs.

Now the stories of these guys will be told because they’ve cemented themselves in Ohio State history, the ninth national champ and the third really in the last 50 years. There’s been some great, great teams in the last 50 some-odd years at Ohio State. Great teams, great players. Only three of them have been national champs, and these guys are one of them.

On what he thinks of Ohio State’s journey to beating Notre Dame in the national championship game

That God made it hard for a reason. 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.

And that’s really what it was. 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. It all makes sense. And here we are. I couldn’t feel better.

On the development of Ohio State quarterback Will Howard

It started with me when I first met Will. I saw something in him, a football IQ intelligence. I saw him play on film at Kansas State and win championships and win big games and be able to make an impact with his feet but also throw with accuracy and anticipate throws. And those are things that are hard to find. Then you see a guy, you meet him, and his football IQ and maturity is what kind of captured me.

I had a feeling that we would be in a situation like this where we needed his feet to go win a game, and that’s exactly what happened in this game.

But what I didn’t know was how special his leadership is and his resilience and his positive mindset. It’s something I learned a lot about — I learn from these guys all the time. I’ve learned a lot from Cody Simon since he’s been here, and I’ve learned a lot from this guy in one year. I’ve told stories about some different times in practice when he has such a positive mindset around the players.

And we decided to go in the huddle this year for the first time since I’ve Ohio State because we knew the season was going to be long, and we wanted to be fresh. And I felt like we were fresh in the playoffs, and I think that had a big part to do with it.

But what we didn’t understand along the way was the impact that he was going to have and the offensive line was going to come together and the offense was going to come together because there’s 11 guys in a huddle, breaking the huddle together. Even in walkthroughs, when we break the huddle together, it was just a crispness to it that they were together on that I think made the difference to these guys on offense.

But I also just want to make sure that we recognize how hard the defense played in this game and how great they’ve been throughout the season. This guy is one of the great leaders that I’ve been around, Cody Simon. And I think Jim Knowles and our defensive staff deserve a tremendous amount of credit not only for the game plan they put together but also just throughout the season, how they’ve taught technique, how they’ve built confidence in our defense because they’ve been lights out the entire playoffs.

On it being ‘natty or bust’ for Ohio State this season

I think this playoff system allowed our team to grow and learn and build. You can say whatever you want about people talked a lot about how much money guys were making in NIL and different things like that. That was just because NIL was available. The majority of our team came back. These guys have been here for a long time.

Certainly Will was a huge addition, Caleb was a huge addition, don’t get me wrong. But when you hear that number, that doesn’t mean a whole lot other than the fact that the market value for our guys in Columbus at Ohio State is pretty high. That’s what it means. When that got tagged on us early, there was a lot of pressure put on our players.

But that’s nothing new at Ohio State. I think the difference is that we finished the season the right way, and we grew. We built, and we responded to tough times. Man, isn’t that what life is all about.

These guys learned a bunch of life lessons, but they’re going to go down in Ohio State history as one of the greatest teams to ever play at Ohio State. After all the things that have been said throughout the year, these guys are going to be cemented as one of the best stories in Ohio State history and one of the best football teams ever. Only nine teams have ever done it, and three in over 50 years. These guys right here. There was a point where not a lot of people had that vision, but these guys did, and they saw it through.

Ohio State may not be for everybody, but it’s for these guys, and I’m really proud of them.

On Jeremiah Smith beating Notre Dame on third and 11

I wanted to call it sooner, but the guys were talking to me about running the clock down, which I was good with because it was the right thing to do. I think there was a point we mismanaged it a little bit and we snapped it a little bit too soon (Will Howard interrupts: “That was on me.”)

No, it wasn’t. We could have communicated it better to Will. We should have snapped that at like two seconds, but we did not communicate that well to Will coming out of the huddle. So that’s on us. That’s on the coaches. I was upset about that.

But I thought overall the game was called tremendously. I thought the game plan was excellent, and I thought the guys handled it really well. We felt like we had an advantage with Jeremiah on that shot, and we talked about it all week. We really hadn’t thrown one all game, and it was like, you know what, game on the line, let’s just go. Let’s you know aggressive.

I just thought to myself, only one National Championship, you only get one opportunity a year to do this, let’s just lay it on the line and put it out there and be aggressive. And that’s what we did.

I talked to the defensive guys and I talked to the offensive guys that we were going to continue to be aggressive throughout the game. I told the team that leading up to the game. And I had to make sure I followed through that.

But ultimately we have to make the plays. The protection was excellent by the offensive line, and then the throw and catch by Jeremiah and Will was special and, again, a huge play in Ohio State history.

On Ohio State being the first team to win a national championship in this new playoff format after losing the regular season finale

I wouldn’t say that it was a reset. It wasn’t like at the end of the year we were broken. It wasn’t that way. We had an awful day. I don’t know how else to describe it. We had an awful day, and we just said we could never do that again.

And I think it’s the job of the head coach to take the responsibility when something goes bad like that, but then on days like this, make sure that everyone understands it’s the warriors and guys on the field that deserve all the credit, not the coach. The coach gets too much attention sometimes. I want to make sure these guys are the ones getting the attention.

In terms of the playoffs, yeah, it’s very, very different. It is extremely different than what we’ve gone through in the past. This is much more like the NFL. Guys are not in class. But our team has come together so well over the last month and a half. There really isn’t any school, and all we do is spend time together. It’s like being around a family. This is the tightest group of guys I’ve ever been around before.

To think we’re not going to be together again I’m not looking forward to. I’m going to miss these guys. They’re great people.

On Ohio State winning the national title with Chip Kelly has offensive coordinator

Very excited to see a big smile on his face after the game. For him to come and leave a head coaching position to come work with me meant a lot because he’s obviously someone who’s a mentor to me and certainly would not be where I am without him.

He has just a great feel for the game, and he really helped me this year spend more time outside of the quarterback room. Certainly wasn’t involved very much with the offense, but allowed me to spread out a little bit and spend more time with the guys on defense. Not as much as I’d like to, but still enough to just bounce in and out. I think it brought us all together. I think the guys would agree. Wouldn’t have gotten that done without Chip.

I also want to make sure I recognize the guys on offense, the offensive staff. I think Will will tell you between Brian Hartline, Justin Frye, Keenan Bailey, Billy Fessler, Carlos Locklyn, you go through all the different guys in that room, we’ve got a great staff in there. And I thought they came up with a great game plan. But they work at it, I mean work their tails off at this thing.

It really showed itself I think in this playoffs because it’s about ball. When you get into the playoffs, it’s about ball. It becomes almost — this is what I feel, almost more like the NFL. You’ve got to wipe the slate clean and put a whole new game plan together in about ten days and go put it on the field. Hats off to our coaches.

On what he feels for his players to win the national title

I just enjoy being around these guys, and I wanted — I did bed check last night and talked to these guys about how much I wanted it for these guys.

Once you got into the game and you got a feel for how it was going, you could just feel it. We had confidence coming into the game. We felt like we had momentum going into the game. Man, isn’t that life? I shared that with these guys. There’s times in life where things aren’t going well, you’ve got to keep hanging in there, but when things are going good, get all you can get. That was the message going into the game, and I took that same mentality with me.

On the crazy arc the last month and a half has been for him

I feel like from the start of this thing, we’ve been knocking on the door, and I think about the ’19 team and the ’20 team and the ’21 team, the ’22 team, you keep going through these seasons, and we weren’t that far off.

But you’ve got to find a way to break through and make it to where we are right now. I think in today’s day and age, there’s just so much that goes with wins and losses and social media and people have to write articles and there’s a lot of things that are said that, yeah, certainly have an effect on you and your family.

But when you sign up for this job, that’s what you sign up for. You’ve got to be strong enough to withstand those storms, to come out the back end.

Now it’s an even better story. Nothing is guaranteed, but I always in the back of my mind felt that the people of Ohio and all of Buckeye Nation, after going through difficult times and seeing a team and a bunch of coaches go through difficult times, to achieve their goal, it would mean even more, and I hope they’re all proud of what we’ve done.