Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
ATLANTA — Ryan Day deserved to feel vindicated when he won a national championship less than two months after his Ohio State job appeared to be on the line.
That relief only lasts so long. Day made that clear when it was suggested that a 34-23 national championship game win over Notre Dame meant he would feel less pressure to win big in the 2025 season.
“Try to lose the first game and see how it goes at Ohio State,” Day said.
Leading the Buckeyes to their first national title since 2014 earned Day redemption when many questioned his ability to win the big game after his fourth straight loss to Michigan in November.
Day praised his players, saying they deserve to be mentioned with the greatest teams in Ohio State history. Quarterback Will Howard, wearing a “National Champs” hat, and linebacker Cody Simon joined Day at the College Football Playoff champions’ press conference.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Day said. “And we will go down in history again and cement ourselves as champions.”
Day didn’t say he similarly earned his place on the list of coaches who have led the Buckeyes to state championships. Featuring Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Woody Hayes and Paul Brown.
“It’s an honor,” Day said when asked about joining that list of greats. “It is an honor to be the head coach at Ohio State. I would probably say that this job is not for everyone.”
Day has earned his place in Ohio State and college football history.
There were unexpected hits, including a golf cart ride to the postgame press conference. The CFP driver misjudged the cart’s turning radius, crashing the vehicle into the 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 be pushed forward in his seat.
“Obviously the golf cart incident was pretty funny,” Howard said. “Coach Day, I hope you are well. He was a little shaken.”
Said Day: “Send medical bills to CFP.”
Day won’t need help paying the bills. His financial reward was a $500,000 championship game win bonus, added to the $500,000 in bonuses already earned and his $10 million base salary.
Today’s generous compensation came for surviving the challenges of a long season, including the first 12-team CFP playoffs.
With five national titles, Hayes set a standard that may never be matched at Ohio State. Meyer coached the 2014 championship team.
Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in the final AP Top 25 of the season, followed by Notre Dame.
Dunn is 68-10 in his six seasons, but winning 87.2% of his games seemed easy to overlook when he suffered his fourth straight loss at Michigan and fell short of the Big Ten Championship.
“None of us doubted for a second that he was the right guy to lead this team,” Howard said. “We stuck together and said we want to do this for each other, we want to do this for our coach, and let’s do this thing, man. I’m really glad we were able to finish it the right way.”
Simon added: “No one in our team has lost any kind of faith.”
Simon said he realized “there was a buzz around the world” after the loss to Michigan. He said his faith in Day was based on knowing how hard the coach worked every time he showed up to practice and found Day already there.
“You think you’re finishing work and you go and you walk by the head coach’s office and he’s already there,” Simon said. “He was watching a movie. His eyes are bloodshot. He puts in that extra time that no one in the world really puts in.”
When the hour was up, Day tossed the headphones in the air.
Asked if he was happy or relieved at the time, Day said: “I guess it was both.”
“I don’t know if it’s a spectrum. All of the above. Yes, all of the above,” he said. “There’s a mix of emotions there. It’s hard to really put it into words.”
