NIGHT AND DAY: A REDEMPTION STORY AT OHIO STATE INSIDE TRUMP’S NEW “AMERICA”
Ryan Day survived death threats and verbal abuse fired at his family and won the first title of the expanded College Football Playoff, which should mean something if “America’s decline is over"
On a day when the 45th President was inaugurated as the 47th President — “America’s decline is over,” Donald Trump declared — how striking to see Marcus Freeman on the sideline in Atlanta. He was trying to coach Notre Dame to a national championship as Martin Luther King Jr. was celebrated. This was an occasion much bigger than college football, something abstract about Trump and Black commanders and 2025.
We will remember Jan. 20. We also will remember it, in the sporting phase, for Ryan Day overcoming death threats and his family outlasting online abuse. In late November, he lost to Michigan for the fourth straight time. Monday night, he still was the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, who handled Freeman and the Fighting Irish with a 34-23 victory in the playoff finale.
Day had the best team, loaded with $20 million in contracted players. Day overcame the idiots called out by Nick Saban, who said, “These Ohio State fans, you know, they’ve got a psychotic obsession with Michigan and they need to go get therapy or something to get it fixed.” He even overcame Lou Holtz, the former Notre Dame coach, who ripped Day two years ago for not having a physical team. The other day, he said the only reason the Irish wouldn’t win this time is “because we want to preserve Ryan Day’s job.” Holtz still forecast a victory for his guys, writing, “Remember, we’re Notre Dame and they ain’t!”
With a turbulent season finished, Ohio State could arrange a place as the 33rd NFL team. Their place atop the sport is unmistaken, with transfer quarterback Will Howard saving the lead with a 56-yard pass to Jeremiah Smith on a third-and-11 play. ESPN was hoping a matchup of the Buckeyes (normally aired by Fox) and the Irish (normally aired by NBC) would end wildly for the network and a new America. Day simply had too much talent, with Howard throwing for 231 yards and two touchdowns.
“The story gets to get told now,” Day said. “It's a great story about a bunch of guys who have overcome some really tough situations. There was a point where there was a lot of people that counted us out, and we just kept swinging and kept fighting. It's the reason you get into coaching, to see guys overcome things, learn life lessons and then reach their dreams. This is what happened tonight.”
Said Howard of Smith, his NFL receiver: “We felt we wanted to give Jeremiah that shot. We really hadn’t thrown it all night, but I thought, ‘Know what, let’s be aggressive, let’s do this and lay it on the line.’ ”
That’s what it took for Ohio State to win its first national title in 10 years. Know how the tension grew for Day and his family? “The weeks between the ‘Team Up North’ game and the Tennessee game were brutal,” said his wife, Nina, mentioning the days before the playoff. “I was very upset about what was happening to some of our players and my children. It just wasn’t right. I think Buckeye Nation is an amazing fan base, I really do. And with every fan base there’s that percentage that takes it too far.”
Day grasped the tension and ran with it. “There's a lot of things that certainly have an effect on you and your family. But you know, when you sign up for this job, that's what you sign up for,” he said. “You've got to be strong enough to withstand those storms to come out the back end, and now it's an even better story.”
Said his boss, athletic director Ross Bjork: “Look, our program is never going to be defined by one other program — never. That doesn't mean anything about de-emphasizing (Michigan). We will never be defined by somebody else, we take the lead. We're not going to let others define who we are and what we stand for.”
But at one point last offseason, Day decided to call a contractor who would set up 100 gray and scarlet bricks at the team’s facility. “All those days mattered,” he said. “How do you know what your foundation is? You go through a storm and you find out what’s left when you wake up the next morning. We knew there would be storms and big games along the way. All those days and bricks we put in the foundation are going to be what matters the most.”
They were cheered by fans, some hokey, who made the trip and bought resale tickets for $2,500. The Buckeyes will wear rings, provided in part by those ESPN journalists, with 133 stones representing every other FBS team. They came a long way in the 51 days since the Michigan loss. "We had to address all the issues we had on the team,” defensive tackle Tyleik Williams said. “Everybody spoke up and just fixed those problems that we had. The leadership on this team is like I've never seen.”
Say what you will about players reporting in August and the season not ending until January’s third week, but the first 12-team playoff was a success. We had ratings that began before Christmas on campuses. We had developing tales that concluded with two bluebloods competing for a title, one from the regal Big Ten and the other as a fierce independent. Ohio State and Notre Dame evolved through an era of names, images and likenesses — the Columbus machine spent $20 million in NIL money this season, while the Domers found their boosters in subways and first-class seats — and responded as they should as the Supreme Court changed compensation demands.
Changes are necessary, with necessary “tweaks” possibly arriving soon involving first-round byes. Boise State, for one, should not have received a week off as a highly ranked conference champion. The selection committee should reward the four best teams based on data and eyesight, as rest and healing are more important than a home game. But who didn’t love the games in wintry college stadiums? They established a tone — might the CFP also move second-round games to campuses? Forget it. Money in the bowl system is too important, such as Ohio State beating Oregon in the Rose Bowl, a clash that should not happen so early in the tournament.
Both finalists should be in the tournament each year. Ohio State must fight through an 18-team conference madhouse, but Day has the program within its proper echelon. Notre Dame gladly will play in the first round and maintain independence, with athletic director Pete Bevacqua not caring that the Irish lost to Northern Illinois in early September. “We're comfortable that if conference championship games continue as currently configured, part of the deal we made is that we wouldn't get a bye, and that's understandable,” he said. “And quite frankly, I wouldn't trade that Indiana game at Notre Dame Stadium for anything in the world.”
Once the teams gathered last week, we heard Day discuss perseverance. Freeman turned the event into a Notre Dame assembly. He spoke about religion, saying, “When you're at Notre Dame, faith is something that's openly talked about. In our program, it's promoted. I'm not saying you have to be Catholic, but we want our young people to grow in their faith. I have a strong faith and there’s often times we talk about you have to trust beyond evidence, trust beyond knowing … we are not shy about it.” He spoke during a Sunday family mass for 2,500 members. He didn’t move beyond Touchdown Jesus and the Gipper, but he took a bountiful step into the future.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Freeman’s father is Black and mother is Korean. “It’s about celebrating the life of Dr. King. None of that light should be taken away by this national championship game,” he said. “No matter what the color of your skin is, the example he set for Americans I think is tremendous.” Only 18 of 134 FBS programs have a Black head coach. The Southeastern Conference has zero.
After the defeat, Freeman said: “You're always making mistakes, but those type of detrimental mistakes when you play a really, really good football team cost you points. I think that's probably the biggest thing that has stuck out to me even in between series, the communication. ‘Hey, we're good, we got it.’ Well, we can't make mistakes. It falls on my shoulders. And as the head coach, we have to prepare and be better prepared for this moment.”
Freeman’s ascent at Notre Dame, despite the loss, makes him a man who could win a college title and compete for Super Bowls at the next level. His predecessor, Brian Kelly, said he was rooting for his old team, but no one with the Irish is rooting for him at LSU. Freeman won’t be leaving anytime soon, knowing his job is better than many in the NFL, including the head coach of the Chicago Bears. “To hear that the Bears have interest, it’s humbling,” he said. “I have put zero thought into coaching in the NFL. All my attention has just been on getting this team prepared.”
Above all, a new era for college football means more confusion. Athletes want to be employees of universities, but such a model makes schools nervous. Broadcast money has crashed into billions. And why is the season longer — almost six months — when only certain stars benefit from NIL payments? “I feel like we’ve been in the postseason since Week 3,” said Al Golden, Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator.
But when more money leads to bigger attention spans, a 16-game season carries on. “Hopefully,” said an Ohio State fan, “everyone is cool with me skipping the inauguration so I can go to the national title game.” That would be Vice President JD Vance, who watched Trump and saw the Buckeyes.
Rich Clark sometimes says things that make us cringe. But the CFP executive director, a retired Air Force lieutenant general, liked having the inauguration and the title game on the same day. “It’s a big day for the country,” he said. “And then, everybody can take a breather and watch a great football game at night — a whole different part of our American fabric. And it’s MLK Day, which is also a significant day for all of us.”
Ryan Day won. Marcus Freeman lost.
But Donald Trump, sworn in with a 35-word oath, said during his 29 minutes, “The golden age of America begins right now. My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all these many betrayals that have taken place and give people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom.”
Say hello to America, whatever it is.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.