‘Vulnerable. Powerful. Heated’: Inside the moment the Buckeyes were reborn

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

ATLANTA — Like buckshot from a gun, the spray of sideways glances caromed from reporter to reporter inside the Savannah Ballroom at The Westin Peachtree Plaza on Sunday morning as peculiar diction choices by a columnist from the Houston Chronicle snared the attention of anyone familiar with the plight of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, whose team lost a fourth consecutive game to Michigan before roaring through the first three rounds of the College Football Playoff en route to a berth in the national championship. 

“For both coaches,” the writer began, “Ryan, y’all start a home-and-home [series] with Texas next year; and, Marcus, you have a return match with [Texas] A&M. Are we in danger of seeing fewer marquee games like this because of the playoff, and do you think the College Football Playoff hit a home run, or is it more like a triple?”

The last word hung in the air like a foul stench. Triple. It’s impossible to know exactly where Day’s mind drifted while his counterpart, head coach Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame, took the first stab at responding to an innocuous inquiry about the future of high-level non-conference matchups in the era of an expanded playoff. But for a handful of media members at this downtown Atlanta hotel, many of whom cover the Buckeyes full-time, the baseball reference that formed the back half of the question teleported them back to Nov. 27, 2021, to the verbal uppercut unleashed by then-Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh on Day, whose team the Wolverines had just beaten, 42-27, to snap a string of eight consecutive defeats in the rivalry.

“Sometimes people that are standing on third base think they hit a triple, you know,” Harbaugh said that afternoon during the postgame news conference, a sly grin stretching ever wider with each additional word. “But they didn’t.”

Coupled with his team’s stunning victory on a snow-swept day at Michigan Stadium, where the Wolverines’ rushing attack battered Ohio State, the linguistic twisting of the knife from Harbaugh ushered in what was arguably the most tumultuous stretch of Day’s career. The insinuation that Day was handed an opportunity to coach the Buckeyes that he might not have deserved gave way to three more defeats to The Team Up North, three more failed attempts to reach the Big Ten title game — let alone win it — and the emotional toll that season after season of unmet goals at a place like Ohio State took on the coach and his family, a compounding effect replete with death threats and demands for Day’s dismissal after the most recent loss to Michigan left him standing motionless on the field in late November. Many fans and analysts believed the puckered manner with which Day seemed to coach against the Wolverines was proof positive of the rivalry’s corrosive timeshare in his mind.

So it was fascinating to think about where Day’s subconscious might have gone as he wiggled his left pinky with his right hand, a blank expression draped across his face while Freeman politely dodged the question with several clichés about focusing solely on Monday night’s game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That afforded Day enough time to soothe himself from any internal provocation the triple reference might have caused and run through some of his oft-repeated lines about the 12-team format giving teams more chances to grow and develop throughout the season, just as Ohio State has done in reviving itself from defeats to Oregon and Michigan. And with that, any concern for Day regarding a potential flashback of the post-traumatic variety was quickly extinguished.

“I think there’s a lot of things we’re learning about this structure, what comes with it, and those are all great conversations for after the season,” Day said without a smile.

Still, his nimble sidestepping of a potentially awkward interaction did little to obscure one of the overarching themes surrounding Ohio State this week, which explains why some of the reporters had reacted so sharply. Beginning with the Buckeyes’ opening-round matchup against Tennessee, which placed Day back in Ohio Stadium exactly three weeks after scores of fans cursed his very existence while he walked off the field following a 13-10 loss to Michigan, nearly everyone connected to the program spoke of winning the national championship for their head coach as being among the primary motivations in the postseason. They wanted Day to have his moment atop the sport after all the criticism and harassment he and his loved ones endured, some of which was so severe — according to edge rusher Jack Sawyer — that Day temporarily pulled his kids from school after an unspecified loss to Michigan.

Though the players never came close to turning on Day, their emotional connection with him was critically strengthened on Dec. 3, three days after the program’s latest stumble against the Wolverines, this time as 19.5-point favorites. There was a closed-door meeting organized by some of the Buckeyes’ veteran leaders — including Sawyer, fellow edge rusher JT Tuimoloau, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka and tailback TreVeyon Henderson — in which the entire roster was present, but Day was the only coach in attendance. The conversation turned heavy over the span of several hours. Grief was unleashed and frustrations untethered. More than a few individuals were moved to tears. Day reportedly told the team, “I messed up,” and accepted blame for another season approaching despair. That meeting, according to numerous players, was when the Buckeyes were reborn. 

Said Egbuka: “I think people were able to speak to [Day] directly and ask him questions and he was able to answer them openly and honestly, and he was vulnerable with us in multiple ways that I won’t get into. Having a head coach that’s personable and be able to be vulnerable with us is very powerful. Above all, and at the end of the day, he’s human, too. He feels emotions just like we do.”

Said Sawyer: “Guys got off their chest what they needed to get off [their chest]. It got heated in moments. And then it all came together pretty good at the end. And we ended with a team prayer and knew we had to get to work. We all put our heads down, flushed the last game and moved forward.”

Said quarterback Will Howard: “It was really a truth-telling time. The facts were laid out there. People were challenged. Everyone, including myself, had to kind of look in the mirror a little bit and say what can I do better? How can we fix this thing? The thing that we clung to was that we still have this opportunity out in front of us to really right all these wrongs and go play for a national championship.”

But calming the internal waters did little to quell the outside noise surrounding Day’s future at Ohio State. Legions of Buckeye fans refused to buy tickets for the team’s first-round matchup with Tennessee, whose orange-clad supporters gleefully ambushed Columbus and occupied at least 35% of the stadium. First-year athletic director Ross Bjork launched into damage control mode by saying Day will “absolutely” be leading the program in 2025 during a radio appearance that took place before the College Football Playoff had even begun. Emphatic victories over the Volunteers and then Oregon got fans believing they could win the national championship, but there was still plenty of discussion about whether Day needed to beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl to ensure the season and his $20 million roster wouldn’t be viewed as abject failures.

With each successive joint news conference featuring Day and an opposing coach — none of whom can match Day’s career winning percentage of 87.3% since replacing Urban Meyer ahead of the 2019 season — the rift in public opinion between the fan bases became increasingly clear. First came a pre-Rose Bowl media session alongside Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, the 38-year-old wunderkind who has won at least 10 games for three consecutive seasons and has the Ducks recruiting at a level on par with the best programs in the country, Ohio State included. Next came a pre-Cotton Bowl interview alongside Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, who brought the Longhorns to the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history last season and then matched that feat in 2024, ultimately earning himself a hefty extension despite losing to the Buckeyes in a game his team never led.

And finally, there was a pre-title game news conference with Freeman here in Atlanta on Sunday morning, with hundreds of reporters and photographers in attendance. Freeman, an Ohio State alum, has never been more popular with Notre Dame’s fans than he is right now, with the Fighting Irish one win from the program’s first national championship since 1988. The unfathomable loss he suffered to Northern Illinois in early September feels like a lifetime ago amid this stretch that now includes a 13-game winning streak, a lucrative contract extension Freeman signed before the postseason began and rumored interest from the Chicago Bears to interview him for their head-coaching vacancy. Regardless of what happens against his alma mater, Freeman is now among the most popular figures in the sport.  

“He’s got a chance to become one of the faces of college football right now,” said Steve Wiltfong, the vice president of national college football recruiting and the transfer portal for On3, during an interview with FOX Sports. “He’s a good-looking dude that’s got a great personality, that loves his players, has them playing in the title game, he’s young, and you see the way he handles himself in press conferences. Everybody loves him in all walks of life.”

Perhaps that’s the kind of adoration Day might finally receive if the Buckeyes win a national championship on Monday night.  

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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