Ryan Day and Ohio State football surged from postseason pity to offseason champions
Conventional wisdom says Ohio State football coach Ryan Day emerged from a third consecutive loss to Michigan and set out on a new, radical agenda.
Maybe it feels that way because the national perception of the program shifted substantially since the calamity at the Cotton Bowl. That night in Dallas, many people saw a team fresh off a loss to its bitter rival taking an offensive nose dive and passing Iowa on the way down. They began stacking wood beneath his desk chair, preparing for a flashy name to headline those offseason hot-seat lists.
By the time of star safety Caleb Downs’ transfer commitment from Alabama, OSU might already have been Georgia’s only challenger for the preseason No. 1 ranking.
Per social media scuttlebutt, this happened through Day’s newly summoned commitment to taking big swings and newly acquired ability to print money for NIL deals. He and Ohio State will gladly let the college football world believe that narrative. The image of a coach with nothing to lose piloting a machine loaded with more fuel and ammo than ever before only benefits the Buckeyes.
In this case, that perception also has more than a little basis in reality.
