When Ohio State head coach Ryan Day woke up the morning after one of the greatest nights of his life — a legacy-cementing national championship 34-23 win over Notre Dame — only one thing was on his mind.
No, he wasn’t thinking about how the win will forever quiet the criticisms from outsiders over his inability to win big games and take the Buckeyes back to the promised land. Instead, his mind was on his team, and how they were able to fight through intense adversity and come out the other side as champions.
“Just waking up this morning, (I’m) grateful that we had an opportunity to be with this team and certainly I would say that everything that came with the season and all the hard work was worth it. It was worth it,” Day said at the champions press conference Tuesday morning in Atlanta. “I’m proud of these guys. Again, we’ll go down in history and cement themselves as champions.
“I said it before, there’s been some great teams in Ohio State history, nine who are national champs, but in the last, I think it’s 53 years, up until this game there has only been two that have been national champs, and this is the third right here. We’re going to take some time to celebrate, enjoy it, because these guys deserve it.”
Day, who arrived back in Columbus on Tuesday night to a crowd of Buckeye fans cheering them on, said that the difficult path Ohio State took to get to a national championship — one which included a brutal 13-10 home loss to Michigan followed by four statement victories over powerhouses Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and finally Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff — can serve as a major life lessons for those watching on how to handle and overcome adversity.
He thinks people who may be going through rough times can look to this Buckeye team as inspiration on how to fight through that adversity, no matter what they may be up against in their lives.
“I’ll just add that I think that our team can serve as a story for others,” Day said. “For all those fans that are out there that are going through difficult times in their lives, to hang in there and fight the way that our players did this season, I hope it serves as an inspiration because that’s exactly what happened here.
“There was a point in the season where a lot of people counted us out, but we kept fighting and overcame those odds because that’s what life is about. There were life lessons learned here, and I hope maybe there’s just a couple people out there that are going through a difficult time that keep fighting and keep swinging and they’ll get the thing turned.”
Regardless of how this win may affect others outside the building, Day knows that those within the Woody Hayes Athletic Center who have worked hard all year deserved to leave Atlanta and return to Columbus as champions who are now forever immortalized in Ohio State football history.
“’The best thing (about the win is) you get to hear about these guys for the history of college football,” Day said. “These guys get to go back to the Woody and put their arm around their wife and their kids and say, look what dad did. To me, that’s all that matters because that’s why you get into coaching. It isn’t to hoist trophies or make big contracts or anything like that. The reason you get into coaching is to help young men reach their dreams and goals, period. At least that’s what I and our staff are in this thing for.
“When that’s your focus, then you wake up and you realize that as awful as some things can happen during the season, you look at those as opportunities, and now you get to tell an unbelievable story behind it. That’s exactly what life is all about. Just the feeling of seeing our guys and the elation in the locker room, the euphoria, everything about it makes it all worth it.”
