Ryan Day makes appearance on The Tonight Show after winning national title
COLUMBUS — Ohio State coach Ryan Day has the Buckeyes in offseason mode as they begin preparing to defend their national title.
But Day and the program aren’t quite done celebrating their national championship eight days after they won it — their first in a decade and ninth overall.
On the same night the football team was honored during a media timeout at the basketball team’s 82-65 win over Iowa, Day made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. That appearance aired Monday night at 11:30 p.m.
Of course, Day wasn’t quite as tight in his appearance as he has been during the College Football Playoff run. The four-game grind is over, and the big, shiny championship trophy sat between Day and Fallon. Now there’s a bit of relaxation that can be found.
Day found it on set in New York City on Monday night.
“Yesterday we had a huge celebration in the stadium,” Day said. “We had over 45,000 fans there, and that’s really when it sunk in, because, you know, just the hard work and the journey that we went on to get there, this the first time we’ve had the 12 team format of the playoffs. So 16 games, and there was ups and downs along the way. But, you know, our guys showed resilience, and so to hoist that trophy with everybody there meant a lot.”
Fallon made sure to have some jokes for Ryan Day, especially when asking the first-time Ohio State national champion head coach about chucking his headset as the national title clock ticked down and then getting showered in Gatorade by Buckeyes players.
Day had a lot of fun with it all after Fallon showed him the clip.
Fallon then rolled the tape of Day with senior wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Howard and senior linebacker Cody Simon on a golf cart that a Mercedes-Benz Stadium worker crashed into a wall.
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“First off, when you’re at the end of the game, you’re so close, you just you want to see it end,” Day said. “You know, it’s a two-score game. And then all of a sudden, when you realize you won, it’s like, get this headset off of me and I threw it. I’m lucky I didn’t hit somebody in the crowd, because there’s weight on that too. And then I turned around and I forgot about the Gatorade bath. They surprised me with it. It was a great feeling.”
Day couldn’t get off the set before giving a Super Bowl pick, especially just one day after the matchup between the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs and NFC champions Philadelphia Eagles was set once both teams won their respective conference title games.
Seems like Ryan Day was a bit torn, but he did ultimately decide on a pick for what will happen at the pro level on Feb. 9, picking his former employer.
“My brain tells me the Chiefs, but I’m sitting here right now in front of the Roots, and our quarterback is from Philly,” Day said. Will Howard. So I’m going with the Eagles.”
