Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, head coach Ryan Day and linebackers at the winner’s press conference after the College Football Playoff national championship game against Notre Dame on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 in Atlanta. Cody Simon was in attendance. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
ATLANTA (AP) — Ryan Day felt vindicated when he won a national championship less than two months after his Ohio State job appeared to be in jeopardy.
That peace will only last for so long. Tuesday morning, when it was hinted that Monday night’s 34-23 win in the national championship game against Notre Dame would take some pressure off for a big win in the 2025 season. , Day made this clear.
“Let’s try to lose the first game and see what happens at Ohio State.” Day said.
Leading the Buckeyes to their first national title since 2014 earned Day redemption after a four-game losing streak to the University of Michigan in November, when many were questioning his ability to win big games. .
Day praised his players and said they deserve to be mentioned as the best team in Ohio State history. Quarterback Will Howard “National Champion” Caps and linebacker Cody Simon joined Day at Tuesday’s College Football Playoff champion press conference.
“I’m proud of these guys.” Day said. “And once again, we will write our name in history and cement our status as champions.”
Day did not say he deserves to be included on the list of coaches who have led the Buckeyes to a national championship.
Includes Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Woody Hayes, and Paul Brown.
“It’s an honor.” When asked about joining the roster of greats, Day replied: “I’m honored to be the head coach at Ohio State. This job probably isn’t for everyone.”
Day left his mark on Ohio State and college football history.
There were unforeseen challenges, including riding in a golf cart to Monday night’s postgame press conference. The CFP driver misjudged the turning radius of his cart and crashed the vehicle into a wall outside the Ohio State locker room, with Day sitting in the front row and Howard howling with laughter in the back row.
The impact caused Day to stumble forward in his seat.
“Obviously, the golf cart incident was pretty funny.” Howard said Tuesday. “Coach Day, I hope you’re okay. He was shaking a little.”
The day I said: “Please send your medical bill to CFP.”
Day doesn’t need help paying the bills. His financial reward was a $500,000 bonus for winning the championship game, on top of the $500,000 bonus and $10 million base salary he had already earned.
Day’s generous compensation came for surviving the challenges of a long season, including the CFP’s first 12-team playoffs.
With five national titles under his belt, Hayes set a standard that would never be achieved at Ohio State. Meyer coached the 2014 championship team.
In the AP Top 25 at the end of the season, Ohio State was No. 1 and Notre Dame was No. 2.
Day is 68-10 in six seasons, but winning 87.2% of his games seemed easy to overlook when he lost four straight against Michigan and fell short of the Big Ten championship game.
“None of us doubted for a second that he was the right person to lead this team.” Howard said. “We came together and said, “We want to do this for each other, we want to do this for our coaches, and let’s do this.” It was really nice to finish on a good note.”
Simon added: “There wasn’t a single person on our team who lost any kind of faith.”
Simon said he noticed. “Noise is occurring all over the world” After losing to Michigan. He said his confidence in Day was based on seeing how committed the coaches were every time he reported to the practice facility and saw Day already in the practice facility.
“I thought I was done and I walked past the head coach’s office and he was already there.” Simon said. “He’s watching a movie. His eyes are bloodshot. He’s spending that extra time doing things that no one else in the world really spends.”
When the clock expired Monday night, Day threw his headset in the air.
Asked Tuesday if he felt happy or relieved at the time, Day said: “I think it’s both.”
“I don’t know if it’s a spectrum. All of the above. Yes, all of the above.” he said. “There’s a lot of mixed emotions there. It’s really hard to put into words.”
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