Ryan Day had a feeling Ohio State’s wins over Tennessee and Oregon could get out of hand.
On the latest episode of Josh Pate’s College Football Show, Pate asked Day to share the moment he knew the Buckeyes would dominate the Volunteers and Ducks in the College Football Playoff.
“The Tennessee game was when we came out of the locker room and there was some orange in the crowd,” Day answered, “and I think everyone in that stadium felt like our backs were against the wall, including us. At that moment, it could have went one of two ways, and our guys just went wild during warmups. At that point, I knew we were in a good place. Just the way we came out and played early in that first quarter, you knew we weren’t gonna be denied.”
I asked Ryan Day when he KNEW the Tennessee & Oregon games would get ugly pic.twitter.com/pM7wc13wAO
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) May 1, 2025
Day admitted Ohio State’s season-ending loss to Michigan fueled their performance against the Volunteers.
“There was just so much pent-up stuff coming over those three weeks after the last loss,” he said. “Just an angry group of guys playing that way.”
Ohio State beat Tennessee 42-17 in Columbus. Will Howard had one of his best performances in a scarlet and gray uniform, completing 24 of 20 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns. Both of Howard’s passing touchdowns went to Jeremiah Smith, who recorded six catches for 103 yards and the pair of scores.
Howard, Smith and the rest of the Buckeyes carried momentum over from their blowout win into the Rose Bowl, which saw Ohio State capture a 34-0 lead over Oregon and secure a 41-21 final score.
“Going into the Rose Bowl, it (was) all kind of coming together here,” Day said. “You get a 10-day window to start to prepare, which is a great amount of time, I think, because as a head coach, you get a little bit more time to work on the Xs and Os, which was a lot of fun. We were able to tweak some things along the way.”
Day compared Ohio State’s performance in Pasadena to a hostage rescue scenario that retired U.S. Navy SEAL Clint Bruce once shared with the Buckeyes.
“He talked about how in hostage rescue, when you walk into a room, if someone goes right, you go left; if someone goes up, you go down,” Day said. “He was explaining, when things are all in motion, and everyone is kind of moving in the right spots and everything is going together just right, I would feel bad for the enemy. There was a point in that game where I felt like that was the case. Everything was just right. Everything was moving right. You can feel that synergy as a team in your preparation, your walkthroughs, the way we traveled and the way the guys handled the media. As we got on the field, you could feel that confidence.”
“Everything was just right. Everything was moving right. You can feel that synergy as a team in your preparation, your walkthroughs, the way we traveled and the way the guys handled the media. As we got on the field, you could feel that confidence.”– Ryan Day on the rose bowl
After the Rose Bowl, Ohio State advanced to the Cotton Bowl and defeated Texas 28-14 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Buckeyes captured their ninth national title all-time with a 34-23 win over Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
As college football’s undisputed champions, Day said the story of Ohio State’s 2024 national championship team will be told for generations.
“By the time we get to the national championship game, the truth of it all was, if you don’t win this national championship game, nobody cares. You have nothing to show for anything,” Day said. “All of those things would not have been able to be told if we don’t win the whole thing. … All the work, all the games, all the wins, all the plays, and it would never matter if we don’t win this game. It made us get up quick in the morning. It made us stay up late at night.
“When you’re dealing with 16 games, there’s different ebbs and flows of your season and focuses and adjustments that have to be made, and you can see each week there was just a different focus, and you know, what a wild ride.”
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