Ohio State coach Ryan Day led the Buckeyes to a 34-23 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to win his first national championship title. Day put the questions around his job status firmly to bed with a rampaging showing in the college football playoffs.
During Tuesday on the "Josh Pate College Football Show," CBS Sports analyst Josh Pate relived Day's rollercoaster journey from the most ridiculed coach in college football to national championship winner (1:30).
"I sat there along with the rest of you, some of you were in the Shoe (Horseshoe) for the Michigan game, a lot of you watched it on TV," Pate said. "And I'm watching at the end thinking, 'This is utter devastation.' I mean, when you consider what the expectations of this team are, when you consider what is invested and when you consider the standards and the expectation level, and when you consider what the talking points around Ryan Day were, this was utter devastation.
"But yet, you also have a voice in the back of your mind that says, 'We've got 12 teams that we've put in this thing now, and you still got an opportunity.' And I don't think no matter how much you pay someone, there is a duplication for the ability to take an organization, much less yourself, and get it back off the deck and to end up winning this thing. They end up beating five top-five AP teams, ultra impressive."
Ryan Day had to hire security after Michigan loss
After Ryan Day lost 13-10 to Ohio State's great rivals, the Michigan Wolverines, he had to hire security for his family home due to the threats that he got from Buckeyes fans, according to The Athletic.
After the national championship game, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who was on the call for the game and is a friend to Day, mentioned the ordeal that the Buckeyes coach went through.
“How good does that sound, man? I'm a friend of his (Day), very objective and I try to be as fair as I can be," Herbstreit said. "I hear the stories behind the curtain, I know what he and his wife and his family go through. It’s really, it’s tough. It’s tough to be a coach at a premium school where you’re expected to win every game. He handled it with such class and he gets on top of the mountain."
Ryan Day has gone from persona non grata in Columbus to the hero of the Buckeyes by winning Ohio State's first national championship title since 2014 under former coach Urban Meyer.
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