COLUMBUS, Ohio — The same day Ohio State celebrated its national championship, it held a team meeting in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Team meetings after the final game usually don’t happen because the seniors are off to their next destination. But just six days removed from its 34-23 championship win over Notre Dame, the entire team was still in Columbus and gathered in its usual meeting room.
It began as a normal Sunday meeting. The seniors took their spots at the front of the room with the juniors behind them, the sophomores next and the freshmen in the back. Coaches went over the win and named their “champions” for the game. Then Day called the seniors to the front of the room.
He took some time to honor them and asked them to remain standing in the front as the next wave of Buckeye leaders took their seats. The juniors moved down a row, then the sophomores and then the freshmen.
“Your role has physically changed by moving down in the team room,” Day told The Athletic during a July interview. “That was important and I told them this is the standard. This is what it’s supposed to look like — these guys and what they went through in their career, how many of them stuck with the program and showed leadership.”
Many of the seniors standing at the front of the room were part of the recruiting Class of 2021, the first class Day recruited from the start. They signed on to play for a first-time head coach who, despite making the Playoff in 2019 and going to the national title game in the shortened 2020 season, hadn’t proven he could get over the hump and win the biggest games.
Just as the 2021 class grew through ups (47-8 record in four years culminating in a national title) and downs (four straight losses to Michigan), so has Day. He’s found ways to motivate his team and push through adversity, turning what could have been a disappointing 2024 season into an all-time great championship run. An Ohio State team that lost two regular-season games and faced immense pressure following another loss to Michigan ended up beating a record six of the final AP top 10, including the other four in the top five.
But Day reaching the mountaintop doesn’t mean the questions are going to stop.
Can he avoid a championship hangover while trying to replace 14 NFL Draft picks? Can he become the first Ohio State coach to repeat as a national champion? Will he finally get over his Michigan hurdle and beat the Wolverines for the first time since 2019?
Though he’s one of just three active coaches with a national championship, Day knows the pressure will never go away, especially when coaching the most consistent winner in the sport.
“My focus is continuing to make sure everybody here understands that we’ve got to be leaders moving forward,” Day said. “You’re talking here about some of the great traditions that have gone on and the winning that’s gone on. It’s, ‘OK, what’s going to separate us moving forward?’ And I think that’s important.”
The Woody Hayes Athletic Center looks a bit different than it did a year ago. There haven’t been any large structural changes, but new photos of the championship run are hanging on the wall in the lobby, giving it a fresh look.
Jack Sawyer’s fumble return touchdown against Texas is blown up next to a picture of TreVeyon Henderson’s 75-yard touchdown catch. Turn the corner, and on the way to the practice field, you’ll find national championship moments: Jeremiah Smith’s touchdown is on the wall, along with a celebration from Tyleik Williams. Next to the door is a blown-up photo of Day surrounded by most of the seniors as they hoist the national championship trophy. And once you go through the doors and reach the indoor field, it’s impossible to miss the massive, lit-up signs that include every year Ohio State has won the national title.
Early in the offseason, there were even more signs in the hallways and meeting rooms referring to the championship. Then Day met with the team’s leadership committee.
Day and strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti sat down with captains Caleb Downs, Brandon Inniss, Austin Siereveld and Sonny Styles and others. The players told Day that they wanted to take some things down because they — the 2025 team — hadn’t won anything yet.
There’s a happy balance to be found. On one hand, having national championship photos is good for recruiting and honoring the past, which is why the practice field and the lobby still include those photos. But in the depths of the facility, leaders of a new team thought it was time to move on.
“That was a good start and the right mentality to have,” Day said.
The 2025 Buckeyes needed a new approach and motivation. Unlike teams of the past that returned a large portion of their roster after a championship season — like in 2015 after winning the first four-team Playoff in 2014 — this Ohio State team lost 14 draft picks, including the entire starting defensive line, the quarterback and two running backs.
As always at Ohio State, the mission is reloading and retooling, not rebuilding. There’s no benefit of the doubt given, even after a championship.
“You have to trust your process and trust your culture,” Day said.
Day turned to Marotti to set the tone in the weight room, in addition to the team leaders who had to push players when the coaching staff couldn’t be in the room with them.
Although Day understands that the championship has given him and his staff a sense of affirmation that things are working the way he intended, he has no room for complacency. There’s motivation when he talks about the season-opening game against No. 1 Texas or the challenge of replacing a large portion of the roster. That has trickled down to the coaching staff.
Even defensive line coach Larry Johnson, who is now 73 years old, talks with a different sense of urgency when discussing replacing four starters who were drafted in April. It’s the first time that’s happened to him, yet instead of retiring on top, he wants to run it back.
“I’m embracing this in all the right ways,” Johnson said.
For some, the pressure of repeating can weigh on them, but former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who won the national title in 2002 and went 11-2 and 8-4 the next two years, said Day’s mentality works in his favor.
“When you are standing at the top of the mountain, there’s lots of people interested in kicking you off there,” Tressel said. “That’s part of the fun of it… He does a good job of focusing on, ‘What do we have to do to get better?’ He’s done a pretty good job of focusing on the moment, which is what you have to do.
“People like to talk about repeating. Well, the answer to that is what are you going to do every day? If you sit there and think about 16 weeks from now, it’s not good use of our emotional gas tanks.”
Though Day has become the fifth coach in program history to win a national championship, there’s still lingering criticism from some Ohio State fans and scrutiny nationally about losing to Michigan.
Fans of the Wolverines have not let Ohio State faithful forget about the Nov. 30 loss, the biggest upset in the history of the rivalry, which has left unfinished business for some of the Buckeyes’ returning players.
“You come to the realization when you are in this position that you have to have thick skin,” Day said. “You have to stand on the principles and values that you have. You know what the expectation is and then you just go from there.”
When I sat down with Day in July, he noted the viral news conference with golfer Scottie Scheffler before the Open Championship. Scheffler, the most dominant golfer on the PGA Tour right now, talked about how he finds fulfillment outside of winning on the golf course. It resonated with Day.
What Day says he enjoys most is watching his players grow both on and off the field. Standing on the stage in Atlanta, most of his joy came from seeing players like Sawyer, Henderson and JT Tuimoloau smiling and holding the College Football Playoff trophy.
“Winning championships and games just allows us an opportunity to continue to have an impact on young people’s lives,” Day said. “That’s what we’re in the business of. Even though you have to win, you have to win championships, but that’s not the point at the end of the day, because that confetti will fall and that’s it, it’s on to the next day.
“If you are into it for the right reason, then you will find fulfillment in that part of it.”
Day is a bit more relaxed now and feels a weight off his shoulders, and he can still appreciate the run his team went on last season. But he has switched his focus to this season. It’s all a college football coach can do when there’s always a new class of players coming in, and always a new challenge to face. And the new top-ranked team in the country is coming to town for one of the most highly anticipated Week 1 matchups ever.
The national championship tally has changed, but the sense of urgency and drive to keep Ohio State at the top of the sport has not.
“I think people can recognize the stability in the program, the type of people that, when you get your back up against the corner, we’re going to fight. It’s built on great integrity and character and really good players,” Day said. “I think people can recognize the fact that there’s really good people in this building that care a lot about winning and know what it means.”
(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)