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

ATLANTA — Like pellets from a gun, the barrage of sidelong glances passed from reporter to reporter inside the Savannah Ballroom at The Westin Peachtree Plaza Sunday morning as a Houston Chronicle columnist’s peculiar diction choices attracted the attention of anyone familiar with the difficult situation. from Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, whose team lost a fourth straight game to Michigan before making it 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, all of you start a home and a home [series] with Texas next year; and, Marcus, you have a return match with [Texas] AM. Are we in danger of seeing fewer big games like this because of the playoffs? Do you think the College Football Playoff hit a home run or is it more of a triple?

The last word hung in the air like a foul stench. Triple. It’s impossible to know exactly where Day’s mind wandered while his counterpart, head coach Marcus Freeman of Our Ladygave the first attempt at answering a harmless question about the future of high-stakes non-conference matchups in the expanded playoff era. 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 to Nov. 27, 2021, to the verbal hook unleashed by then-Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh on the day, whose team the Wolverines had just beaten, 42-27, to snap an eight-game losing streak in the rivalry.

“Sometimes people standing on third base think they hit a tripleyou know,” Harbaugh said that afternoon during the postgame press conference, with a sly smile that grew wider and wider with each additional word. “But they didn’t.”

Along with his team’s surprising victory on a snowy day at Michigan Stadium, where the Wolverines’ rushing attack pummeled Ohio State, Harbaugh’s linguistic twist of the knife marked the beginning of what was arguably the most tumultuous stretch of Day’s career. The suggestion that Day was given an opportunity to coach the Buckeyes that he perhaps didn’t deserve led to three more losses to The Team Up North, three more failed attempts to reach the Big Ten title game, and much less win it, and the emotional toll that season after season of missed goals at a place like Ohio State took on the coach and his family, a compound effect replete with death threats and demands for Day’s firing after the defeat more recent against Michigan left motionless in the field at the end of November. Many fans and analysts believed that the scowl in which Day appeared to coach against the Wolverines was proof positive of the corrosive time-share of the rivalry in his mind.

So it was fascinating to think about where Day’s subconscious might have gone as he moved his left pinky with his right hand, a blank expression on his face as Freeman politely dodged the question with several clichés about focusing solely on Monday’s game. the night at Mercedes-Benz. Benz Stadium. That gave Day enough time to calm down from any internal provocation he might have. triple The reference could have prompted and revisited some of his oft-repeated lines about the 12-team format giving teams more opportunities to grow and develop throughout the season, just as Ohio State has done in reviving losses to Oregon and Michigan. And with that, any concerns Day had regarding a possible post-traumatic type flashback were 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 avoidance of a potentially uncomfortable interaction did little to obscure one of the overarching themes surrounding Ohio State this week, explaining why some of the reporters had reacted so sharply. Starting with the Buckeyes’ first-round matchup against Tennessee, which put Day back in Ohio Stadium exactly three weeks after dozens of fans cursed his existence as he walked off the field following a 13-10 loss to Michigan , almost everyone was connected to the The program talked about winning the national championship for their head coach as one of the main motivations in the postseason. They wanted Day to have his moment at the top of the sport after all the criticism and harassment he and his loved ones endured, some of which was so severe (according to runner Jack Sawyer) that Day temporarily removed his children from school. school after an unspecified loss to Michigan.

Although the players never came close to facing Day, their emotional connection to him grew critically stronger on Dec. 3, three days after the program’s latest stumble against the Wolverines, this time as a 19.5-point favorite. There was a closed-door meeting hosted by some of the Buckeyes’ veteran leaders, including Sawyer, fellow running back JT Tuimoloau, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka and running back TreVeyon Henderson, with the entire roster present, but Day was the only coach in attendance. The conversation grew heavy over the course of several hours. Pain was unleashed and frustration was unleashed. More than a few people were moved to tears. Day reportedly told the team, “I was wrong” and accepted the blame for another near-despair season. That meeting, according to numerous players, was when the Buckeyes were reborn.

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

Sawyer said: “The boys let off steam with what they needed [their chest]. It warmed up in a few moments. And then everything worked out pretty well in the end. And we ended with a team prayer and knew we had to get to work. “We all put our heads down, cleaned up the last game and moved on.”

Quarterback Will Howard said, “It was really a truth-telling moment. The facts were laid out there. People were challenged. Everybody, including me, had to look in the mirror a little bit and say what can I do better?” “How can we fix this? What we held on to was that we still have this opportunity in front of us to right all these wrongs and go play for a national championship.”

But calming the internal waters did little to quiet the outside noise surrounding Day’s future at Ohio State. Legions of Buckeye fans refused to buy tickets to the team’s first-round matchup against Tennessee, whose orange-clad supporters gleefully ambushed Columbus and occupied at least 35% of the stadium. First-year athletic director Ross Bjork went into damage control mode by saying Day will “absolutely” run the program in 2025 during a radio appearance that took place before the College Football Playoffs began. Emphatic victories over the Volunteers and then Oregon made fans believe they could win the national championship, but there was still much discussion about whether Day needed to beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl to ensure the season and his $20 million roster would not. were seen. as abject failures.

With each successive joint press conference between Day and an opposing coach (none of whom can match Day’s 87.3% winning percentage since replacing Urban Meyer before the 2019 season), the gap in public opinion among the fanbases became increasingly clear. First came a pre-Rose Bowl media session with Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, the 38-year-old wunderkind who has won at least 10 games for three straight seasons and has the Ducks recruiting at a level couple of the best programs in the world. country, including the state of Ohio. Then came a pre-Cotton Bowl interview alongside Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, who led 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 a considerable extension despite losing to the Buckeyes in a game his team never led.

And finally, there was a pre-title game press conference with Freeman here in Atlanta on Sunday morning, attended by hundreds of reporters and photographers. Freeman, an Ohio State alum, has never been more popular among Notre Dame fans than he is now, with the Fighting Irish one win away from the program’s first national championship since 1988. The unfathomable loss it suffered to Northern Illinois early September feels like a lifetime ago amid this streak 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 in interview him for his head coaching vacancy. Regardless of what happens against his alma mater, Freeman is now among the most popular figures in sports.

“He has an opportunity to become one of the faces of college football right now,” Steve Wiltfong, On3’s vice president of national college football recruiting and transfer portal, said during an interview with FOX Sports. “He is a handsome guy who has a great personality, who loves his players, has them playing in the title game, is young and you can see the way he behaves in press conferences. Everyone loves him in all areas of life.”

Maybe that’s the kind of adoration Day could finally receive if the Buckeyes win a national championship Monday night.

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

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