It will be 51 days between Ryan Day’s worst moment as Ohio State football coach, a shocking 13-10 loss to Michigan on Nov. 30, and potentially his best moment: winning the national title if the Buckeyes can beat Notre Give me Monday.
It’s the general plot of the college football playoff game. It’s about a coach and his team rising from the mat, showered by boos and shrouded in doubt, to potentially win four playoff games and ultimately the big trophy.
Doing so would be a testament to the team, trust, character and resilience. Oh, and many great players.
Every year someone wins it all. In no year had anyone won it like this; with so many calls for head coaches to be fired at the start of the playoffs.
However, until the scarlet and gray confetti falls (there’s no guarantee against a talented and tenacious Fighting Irish team), there’s still some pressure on Day.
No, he won’t be fired if the Buckeyes lose on Monday, as many wanted after their fourth straight loss to the hated Wolverines.
Day will return to Columbus next year, as he should. He is an excellent coach, a tremendous roster builder and a great representative of the program’s proud tradition.
And yet, he still needs to win on Monday, if only to begin to leave behind the doubts and criticism centered on his ability to win important games.
A loss to the Irish wouldn’t be as painful as a loss to the Wolverines, nor as devastating to his job security as, say, a loss to Tennessee in the first round would have been. Either way, it would be a punch in the gut.
This is the conundrum in which Day resides.
Getting to the championship game on the back of a brilliant play has helped erase Michigan’s pain, but it has also rekindled the belief that this is a uniquely talented Ohio State team. It has reset the expectations that the Buckeyes are big favorites – 8.5 points, according to Las Vegas.
Day knows he’s lucky the playoffs expanded to 12 teams this season. Not only did it take the focus (and anger) away from the loss in the rivalry game. He also allowed his two-loss team to have this chance at redemption by making everyone address what got them in trouble originally.
“Very, very grateful,” Day said this week. “I think everyone on the show is (grateful) to be in this situation, for many reasons.
“I think the new format has allowed our team to grow and develop throughout the season,” Day continued. “And as much as losses hurt, they really allow us as coaches and players to take a hard look at problems and work through them, and then it’s about working through them as time goes on.”
That “solution” is what has been most impressive.
When Ohio State was at its best in the final three games, it appeared to be an unstoppable juggernaut, crushing Tennessee and Oregon. The offense was free and aggressive, a far cry from the failures against Michigan. Star receiver Jeremiah Smith has been the center of attention. Day has even been seen smiling and laughing on the sidelines.
Meanwhile, they won the semifinal over Texas largely thanks to a defense that has been tenacious most of the season, with a propensity to stand at the goal line.
“Our motto is, ‘Give us an inch and we’ll defend it,’” star linebacker Jack Sawyer said.
This is the Ohio State team everyone was waiting for. This is the one filled with veterans who turned down the NFL Draft to come back and finish the business. This is the product of a healthy $20 million payroll. This is the team that, in the offseason, had former coaches Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel raving about the talent, and Meyer declared it better than any college team he’s ever seen.
All of that is what made the loss to an 8-5 Michigan team so surprising. I shouldn’t have been around. Day coached one of the worst games imaginable. There is no excuse.
What followed were calls for his position and more than 25,000 Tennessee fans buying tickets at Ohio Stadium for a playoff game, a sign of distrust that had taken hold among Ohio State fans.
Now tens of thousands of Buckeyes fans will descend on Atlanta hoping to see the program’s first national title since the 2014 season.
If that happens, then Ryan Day will lead a parade through Columbus and come into the offseason still with a Michigan problem, but with a championship-level ability to shrug his shoulders and smile.
However, if it doesn’t, if Ohio State falls back as a heavy favorite… it may not be back to square one like it was in November.
Although it will be close.