Ohio State’s most important person has something he’s eager to get off his chest

In 2023, he unloaded on a long-retired Lou Holtz for trolling his program on ESPN after a 17-14 win where the Buckeyes needed a one-yard game-winning touchdown to escape South Bend on a play where Notre Dame forgot to put an 11th man on the field.

“I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now,” Day screamed during a postgame interview. “What he said about our team, I cannot believe. This is a tough team right here. We’re proud to be from Ohio and it’s always been Ohio against the world and it’ll continue to be Ohio against the world. I’ll tell you what, I love those kids and we’ve got a tough team.”

Again, they won. So his rant might’ve come off as a coach simply defending his team instead of what it really was. He might’ve been yelling at Holtz, but that’s not who he was talking to.

“Everybody’s questioning these kids all the time,” Day continued. “We had one bad half the last couple of years. That’s it. Everybody wants to question these guys. These guys are warriors right here.”

Unfortunately, that person still managed to win a third straight game even if he wasn’t even on the field that day.

Now it’s 2024, and this matchup has moved to Atlanta with a national championship on the line in the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff. Day has spent the last two months trying to climb out of the hole that a fourth-straight Michigan loss threw him down and so far, he’s succeeded. Now he has a chance to send another message, only this time it can come from a pure place from a man being worn down by a seat very few know what it’s like to be in.

Monday night isn’t about Michigan, Notre Dame or anybody else. It’s about a motto that’s transcends football. History is told by the victors, and Ohio State has something to say.

“There are great stories on this team individually. There’s great stories on this team collectively,” Day said. “The only way those stories get told is if we win, and we have an opportunity to become the ninth team in Ohio State history to win a National Championship and the third team in over 50 years, and there’s been a lot of really good football teams in Ohio State history.”

Day wants to tell the stories and so do his players.

Jack Sawyer already started the process of telling his story with a Player’s Tribune article that puts into words how much this program means to him, knowing the feeling is reciprocated.

Lathan Ransom wants to tell the world about how he overcame two season-ending injuries to get to this moment. A career that’s been drastically underrated has a chance to end with the only thing that matters.

Denzel Burke, Emeka Egbuka, Jordan Hancock, TreVeyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, J.T. Tuimoloau and Tyleik Williams want to fulfill the promise they arrived with. As individuals all have lived up to the hype. But as a unit, they’re still searching for glory.

Caleb Downs, Will Howard, Quinshon Judkins, Will Kacmarek and even an injured Seth McLaughlin want to feel justified by leaving their old schools for what they thought were greener pastures.

You can name every player on this team and come up with a reason why their story needs to be told. But they all know that can’t happen until they finish the job.

“We talked about that,” Day said. “Looking up at the banners of those years and seeing just a couple of them over 50 years of great teams. We have an opportunity to separate ourselves, so that’s it. That’s the only thing right now that matters.”

The last four years of Ohio State football are like an Oscar-worthy script and every single character moves you to get in touch with your emotions.

It has a first act where the entire time is spent building up this idea of a hero only to spend the second half watching that hero fail to live up to the hype as the outside tears them down. There’s a third act filled with self-reflection and almost being ready but not being there quite yet.

But that fourth act…

That’s where breakthrough lives. That’s where the hero finally emerges from the darkness ready to be everything you thought they’d be. Because they earned the right to be, and it makes things that much sweeter.

“In this game, there are ups and downs along the way,” Day said after a 28-14 win over Texas. “When things are going good you’ve gotta hug the guys you love the most and when things aren’t you’ve gotta hug them even harder. You hang in there and you keep swinging. I talked to these guys about it a couple of weeks ago that, that’s life. This team is resilient. When you surround yourself with great people, with great character, you find yourself working through difficult times.”

Something about Notre Dame brings the rawest version of Ryan Day to the forefront. How fitting it is that he is again, on the verge of football immortality and standing in the way are the Fighting Irish.

Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes have something to say and would like nothing more than to get the platform tonight to be heard. All they have to do is one simple task and the microphone is theirs.

“You’ve gotta leave no doubt,” Day said. “Whether it’s a game or a season. We’ve gotta finish this thing the right way. Whether you’re talking about the foundation in building what you wanted to get done this season or leaving no doubt. All of those things come into play and it was all about this moment right here.”