COLUMBUS, Ohio — In his postgame news conference after Ohio State’s 30-24 loss to Michigan last November, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day looked defeated and discouraged. He surely realized at that point that even if he won 88 percent of his games as head coach, he and his program would now be defined by their unthinkable three-game losing streak to the Wolverines .
More than four months later, sitting in his office at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, Day, 45, is smiling, giddy and seemingly at ease. He exudes the confidence of a coach who knows how loaded his roster is, having picked up nearly every Ohio State junior who could have gone pro while adding some of the portal’s most accomplished transfers.
“At Ohio State, you have to beat Team Up North and win every other game,” Day said. “If that’s the expectation every year, you like your chances a lot more when you have good players. So you might as well get the best.
Without NIL, Day said, “You definitely wouldn’t have seen what you saw this year with us. »
After an embarrassing 14-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri, Ohio State donors went on a spending spree. With the help of two collectives, The Foundation and The 1870 Society, the program “re-signed” defensive linemen JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer and Tyleik Williams, running back TreVeyon Henderson, receiver Emeka Egbuka, cornerback Denzel Burke and guard Donovan Jackson, all projected day one or two draft picks.
“When we came in, our (2021) recruiting class was very strong. We knew we were capable of doing something special,” said Jackson, one of six five-star honorees in his class. “But after three years here, we have not achieved the goals we set for ourselves. NIL is a controversial topic, but in this case it gave us some reassurance to come back and tackle it once again.
With the core of his roster returning, Day entered the portal to plug the few remaining holes. His haul included All-Big 12 quarterback Will Howard (Kansas State), All-SEC running back Quinshon Judkins (Ole Miss), freshman All-American safety Caleb Downs (Alabama) and experienced center Seth McLaughlin (Alabama).
The backfield tandem of Henderson and Judkins could be particularly scary. Together, they rushed for a total of 5,470 career yards and 63 career touchdowns.
“We don’t decide who is in the portal,” Day said. “But when the guys are there, we want to improve our squad in certain areas.”
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Prior to this December 29 bowl game, Ohio State was not considered a major player in the NIL-powered portal market. In fact, retired AD Gene Smith was one of the most vocal critics calling for the NCAA to crack down on collective involvement in recruiting. That was two months before a federal judge in Tennessee ruled that the NCAA cannot enforce rules preventing collectives from negotiating NIL deals with recruits.
Even after 2023 starting quarterback Kyle McCord entered the portal shortly after last year’s Michigan game, and with third-year freshman Lincoln Kienholz struggling against Missouri, the ESPN broadcaster Dave Pasch told viewers throughout the Cotton Bowl that Day had been adamant. Ohio State wouldn’t pursue another one. strategist.
Five days later, Howard, who had already visited Miami and USC, committed to the Buckeyes. Tellingly, when Downs committed to the Buckeyes on Jan. 19 from Alabama, the Foundation announced the news on Twitter.
Welcome to the, @caleb_downs2, our new student-athlete partner! Caleb will do a great job on and off the field as an ambassador for our charitable partners and the Columbus community. (Boom ) pic.twitter.com/bNvKx3BPRO
– THE Foundation (@TheFoundation1_) January 20, 2024
Two years ago, Day told an audience of businessmen it would take $13 million in zero money to maintain Ohio State’s roster. Today, the budget is estimated to be even higher.
“A lot of people stepped up and really helped us,” Day said. “Gene (Smith) is obviously a huge part of this, but I’ve made a lot of calls and a lot of people have stepped up. This shows how important the support is here.
With the staff in place, Day made another big decision: finding a big-name offensive coordinator to whom he could entrust the game for the first time in his career. After his initial choice, Bill O’Brien, left in February to become head coach at Boston College, Day called his former college coach at New Hampshire – Chip Kelly. In a stunning move, Kelly gave up being head coach at Big Ten-bound UCLA to come work for Day, who worked under Kelly at the Eagles and 49ers before coming to Ohio State in 2018.
“I didn’t see it that way,” said Kelly, 60, who enjoyed returning to his roots when he coached UCLA quarterbacks before their bowl game. “Coaching football makes me happy. It’s that simple.
“I never wanted to get into sports administration, but the head coaching position turns into that in some places. I have a hard time asking people for money.
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It’s Day’s job now.
The fruits of all that fundraising work will be on display Saturday, when Fox broadcasts Ohio State’s spring game for the first time. Viewers will have the chance to follow the quarterback battle between Howard and returnee Devin Brown. They’ll get their first look at freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who has been so dazzling during spring camp that coaches are already talking about him as a starter.
Smith, the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2024, was committed to Ohio State for more than a year but made a splash on the first day of the early signing period last December when he didn’t signed his letter of intent that evening. . The explanation, as reported by Athleticism Manny Navarro, was that “Smith’s NIL rep made sure that everything the Ohio State collective promised Smith during the recruiting process would also be in writing.”
Jeremy Smith pic.twitter.com/8tG66Yltsn
— Ohio State football (@OhioStateFB) April 6, 2024
But besides Smith, rising sophomore Downs and wide receiver Carnell Tate, Ohio State’s starting lineup will be almost entirely composed of fourth- or fifth-year players. As many as 17 positions could be filled by players with at least one year of full-time starting experience, including almost an entire defense that finished last season third in the nation (4.2 yards per game allowed).
This was all an intentional push by Day.
“We’ve been talented here in the past, but when you lose guys to the NFL after three years, you can get young again quickly,” he said. “I identified that over the last few years, wanting to be talented but also wanting to have experience. I noticed some of the teams we played were a little over 21 or 22, and I think that’s important.
He won’t say it, but those teams belonged to Michigan.
Despite all that talent, though, Ohio State has two question marks — and they occupy arguably the two most important positions. One of them is the offensive line, which struggled at times last season. Returning starters Jackson and tackle Josh Simmons, a 2023 transfer from San Diego State, have the left side locked down, but the right side remains in flux.
And then there’s the quarterback. While Howard started 27 games and led K-State to the 2022 Big 12 championship, no one would confuse him with Justin Fields or CJ Stroud. He has yet to beat Brown, who was injured early in his first career at the Cotton Bowl. But Howard also gives the staff an opportunity as the program’s first true dual-threat QB since Fields in 2020.
“We felt like Will was a really good fit for our team for a lot of reasons,” Day said. “I’m pretty excited to see how he fits into Chip’s offense.”
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In a way, “Chip’s offense” was already Ohio State’s offense. It’s essentially the same passing game that Day brought with him from Kelly’s 49ers when he was hired as OC by Urban Meyer, just with different terminology. Kelly said he must have caught himself calling a play by the wrong name in practice on occasion.
But Kelly’s impact should be felt more in the running game. Ohio State’s offense under Day has at times been criticized for being too finesse (hence his famous Lou Holtz speech after Notre Dame’s victory last year). While Kelly no longer ran his offense at Oregon in the early 2010s, his UCLA teams were still synonymous with high-powered offenses. In 2022, with dual-threat Dorian Thompson Robinson at quarterback and star fullback Zach Charbonnet behind him, the Bruins led the nation with 6.0 yards per carry.
He will now work with Henderson and Judkins.
“I think (Kelly) likes some of the tools he has to work with,” Day said with a smile. “Our passing game was very, very successful, and his running game was very, very successful. So when we combine the two, it’s been fun.
With all that talent, all the generosity of those donors and the splashy hiring of an offensive coordinator, the bar hasn’t been this high in Columbus since Meyer’s Buckeyes just won their national title in 2014. End to Michigan’s drought will be a baseline expectation, but Ohio State must at least play for its first national championship in a decade, a task made more difficult this season with the 12-team playoff.
“It wasn’t like it was broken,” Day said. “The truth is that we have come close to achieving our goals over the last two years. We haven’t beaten our rival in recent years, it’s a shame, but we were one game away against Georgia (in the 2022 semi-finals). We’re trying to figure out that last 1 percent, 2 percent. These last pieces.
And Ohio State has invested a lot of money in preparing these final plays.
(Photo: Jason Mowry/Getty Images)