COLUMBUS, Ohio — In his postgame news conference following Ohio State’s 30-24 loss at Michigan in November, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day looked defeated and dejected. He must have realized at that moment that despite winning 88 percent of his games as head coach, he and his program would now be defined by their unthinkable three-year losing streak to the Wolverines.
Four months later, sitting in his office at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the 45-year-old Day is smiling, shaking and seemingly listless. He showed the confidence of a coach who knows how loaded his roster is, after bringing back nearly every one of Ohio State’s juniors who could turn pro while adding some of the most accomplished transfers in the portal.
“At Ohio State, you have to beat Team Up North and win every other game,” Day said. “If the expectation is like that every year, you like your chances better when you have good players. So, might as well get the best.
If it wasn’t for NIL, Day said, “You certainly wouldn’t have seen what you saw this year with us.”
Following an embarrassing 14-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri, Ohio State’s donors kept spending. 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 of whom are projected first- or second-day draft picks.
“Coming in, our (2021) recruiting class was very strong. We knew we were able to do something special,” said Jackson, one of six five-star signees in his class. “But at the end of three year here, we didn’t accomplish the goals we set out to do. NIL is a controversial topic, but in this case, it gave us the confidence to go back and pursue it one more time.”
With the core of his roster back, Day stepped into the portal to plug some remaining holes. His haul includes 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 which is Seth McLaughlin (Alabama).
The backfield tandem of Henderson and Judkins could be particularly scary. Together they rushed for a combined 5,470 career yards and 63 career TDs.
“We don’t decide who’s on the portal,” Day said. “But once the guys are there, we want to upgrade our roster in certain areas.”
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Before the Dec. 29 bowl game, Ohio State was not considered a major player in the NIL-fueled portal market. In fact, retired AD Gene Smith has been one of the most vocal critics calling on the NCAA to curb the involvement of collectives in recruiting. It was two months before a federal judge in Tennessee ruled that the NCAA could not enforce rules preventing collegiates from negotiating NIL deals with recruits.
Even after 2023 starting quarterback Kyle McCord entered the portal moments after last year’s Michigan game, and with third-string freshman Lincoln Kienholz hitting against Missouri, the ESPN broadcaster said that Dave Pasch to spectators throughout the Cotton Bowl Day was adamant that Ohio State would not chase another. quarterback.
Five days later, Howard, who previously visited Miami and USC, committed to the Buckeyes. Say, when Downs committed to the Buckeyes on January 19 from Alabama, The Foundation broke the news on Twitter.
Welcome to, @caleb_downs2, our newest 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 😉) https://t.co/htkLB83pbF pic.twitter.com/bNvKx3BPRO
— THE Foundation (@TheFoundation1_) January 20, 2024
Two years ago, Day told an audience of businessmen would require $13 million in NIL money to maintain Ohio State’s roster. Now, the budget is believed to be even higher than that.
“We’ve had a lot of people step up and really help us,” Day said. “Gene (Smith) was obviously instrumental in this, but I made a lot of calls, and a lot of people stepped up. It just shows you how much support there is.”
With the personnel in place, Day made another big decision: finding a prominent offensive coordinator to whom he could turn over the play-calling for the first time in his career. After his first choice, Bill O’Brien, left in February to become the head coach at Boston College, Day called his former college coach at New Hampshire — Chip Kelly. In a stunning move, Kelly left the head coaching job at Big Ten-bound UCLA to work for Day, who worked under Kelly with the Eagles and 49ers before coming to Ohio State in 2018.
“I didn’t think about that,” said the 60-year-old Kelly, who enjoyed returning to his roots when he coached UCLA’s quarterbacks leading up to their bowl game. “Coaching football makes me happy. It’s as simple as that.
“I never wanted to go into athletic administration, but the head coaching job becomes that in some places. I have a hard time asking people for money.”
That’s Day’s job now.
The fruits of all that fundraising work will be on display Saturday, as Fox airs Ohio State’s spring game for the first time. Viewers will have a chance to check in on the quarterback battle between Howard and the returning Devin Brown. They’ll get their first glimpse of freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, who has been so good during spring camp that coaches are saying he’s a starter.
Smith, the No. 1 recruit in the 2024 class, has been committed to Ohio State for more than a year but caused a stir on the first day of the early signing period in December when he didn’t sign his letter of intent until that night. . The explanation, as reported by The Athletic’s Manny Navarro, is Smith’s “NIL rep making sure whatever the Ohio State collective promised Smith during the recruiting process is in writing.”
Jeremiah Smith 😳 pic.twitter.com/8tG66Yltsn
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) April 6, 2024
But aside from Smith and rising sophomores Downs and receiver Carnell Tate, Ohio State’s starting lineup will consist mostly of fourth- or fifth-year players. Up to 17 positions can be filled by players with at least one year of full-time starting experience, including nearly the entirety of a defense that finished last season third in the nation (4.2 yards per play allowed) .
All of that was deliberately pushed by Day.
“We’ve had talent here in the past, but when you lose guys in the NFL after three years, you can quickly become young again,” he said. “I’ve identified that the last couple of years, I want to be talented but I also want to have experience. I’ve noticed that some of the teams we’ve played are a bit more 21-, 22-year-olds, and I think that’s important.”
He won’t say it, but those teams are Michigan’s.
However, for all that talent, Ohio State has two question marks – and they may be at the two most important positions. One is the offensive line, which struggled at times last season. Returning starters Jackson and 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 mistake him for Justin Fields or CJ Stroud. He has yet to beat Brown, who was injured early in his first career start in the Cotton Bowl. But Howard also gives the staff a chance as the program’s first true dual-threat QB since Fields in 2020.
“We felt Will was a really good fit for our team for a number of reasons,” Day said. “I’m kind of excited to see how he fits in with Chip’s offense.”
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In some ways, “Chip’s offense” has become Ohio State’s offense. It’s pretty much the same passing game Day brought over from Kelly’s 49ers when he was hired as Urban Meyer’s OC, just with different terminology. Kelly said he has to catch himself calling a play by the wrong name in practice from time to time.
But Kelly’s impact should be felt most of the game’s run. Ohio State’s offense under Day has sometimes been criticized for being too efficient (hence, his infamous Lou Holtz rant after last year’s Notre Dame win). While Kelly no longer ran his offense at Oregon in early 2010, his UCLA teams were still synonymous with a power rushing attack. In 2022, with dual-threat Dorian Thompson Robinson at quarterback and star tailback Zach Charbonnet behind him, the Bruins led the nation at 6.0 yards per carry.
Now he will work with Henderson and Judkins.
“I think (Kelly) likes some of the tools he has to use,” Day said with a smile. “Our pass game has been very successful, and his run game has been very, very successful. So as we combine the two of those, it was fun.”
What with all that talent, all the generosity of those donors and the crazy offensive coordinator hire, the bar hasn’t been this high in Columbus since Meyer’s Buckeyes came away with their national title in 2014. ending Michigan’s drought would be the baseline expectation, but Ohio State needs to at least play for its first national championship in a decade, a task made difficult this season in the 12-team Playoff.
“It’s not like it’s broken,” Day said. “The truth is, we have been playing catch-up for the last two years from achieving our goals. We haven’t beaten our rival in years, that hurts, but we’re only one game against Georgia (in the 2022 semifinal). We’re trying to figure out the last 1 percent, 2 percent. The last plays.”
And Ohio State has thrown a lot of money into figuring out the last few plays.
(Photo: Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
