Ryan Day shares why he didn't follow Nick Saban's recruiting tactics after leading Ohio State to a national championship

Ohio State coach Ryan Day has a huge rebuilding job in Columbus after losing several starters to the NFL draft including quarterback Will Howard. The Buckeyes celebrated their national championship win at the Horseshoe on Sunday and Day had to turn his attention to recruitment matters ahead of spring training.

On Friday on the "Dan Patrick Show," Day shared why he did not follow a Nick Saban special in which the retired coach used to call recruits immediately after winning the national championship to convince them to join Alabama.

"No, (didn't follow Saban's method) but what's interesting is that timetables change so the early signing day, we had 145 guys in our team this year and over 20 of them were recruits that started classes on January 6 so they were actually with the team the last two games," Day said. (10:50)

So, instead of signing day which should be happening next Wednesday, they'd already signed and enrolled in classes. So, the timetable has changed a lot, but we have obviously been recruiting the 2026 class, which is another year away."

Ryan Day highlights challenges of recruitment in NIL era

Last week, Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith received a NIL offer of $4.5 million from an unnamed school to enter the transfer portal despite winning the national championship with the Buckeyes.

On the "Dan Patrick Show," Ryan Day addressed the challenges of keeping a roster intact and recruitment in the current NIL era.

"But there's also something to be said about being around a program like ours. You think if it's all equal, we'll have a chance to get our share of guys," Day said. "But it is different, there's no question. I think as coaches we're all looking for a little bit more guidelines on this. I mean, everything is so gray right now.

I mean, you know some of the stories of some of the things that have gone on, you know, just within the last couple of years or even in the past," Day said. "But enforcement is really strained right now. So, until we start enforcing some of these rules, like you said, people can just call someone's agents or someone's parents and offer them a certain amount of money, and then it goes from there."

Day has recruited the top-five ranked classes in the past three years, however, the ever-evolving era of NIL will present unique challenges for the Buckeyes coach to attract and retain talent in Columbus despite winning the national championship.