"Whole 29 hours": Ryan Day sends a clear message to Ohio State team for Notre Dame clash 

Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes are not taking it for granted. A day before the CFP national championship game, the coach talked about the team’s final preparations.

Even though the Buckeyes are favored to win and are considered to have the nation's most talented team, Day and his staff are still preparing for Monday night’s matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

“We still got a whole 29 hours here to make sure that everything we possibly can do to prepare ourselves will be ready to go, but there’s a lot that goes with that," Day said.

“There’s the schematics and all that, making sure we are covering every single situation that could possibly come up in a game like this, but it’s also getting your mind and your soul ready to go play in a real physical game.”

Because of the expanded College Football Playoff, the Buckeyes (13-2), like Notre Dame (14-1), have been able to get into a routine more similar to the regular season, which should help preparations.

“The good news for us is, these playoffs, they’ve allowed us to get a routine," Day said. "We’ve continued to work on that routine.”

In past years, because there was a larger gap between the end of the regular season and the bowl games, teams would have to “shake off the rust” going into CFP bowl games.

Ryan Day and the Buckeyes are eyeing history

Ohio State's last national title came after the 2014 season. - Source: Imagn

Ohio State is one of the most storied programs in college football. However, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes are eyeing a national title that would separate them from some other great Ohio State teams of the past.

“We want to cement ourselves in Buckeye history," Day said. "That’s what these guys want to do. Ninth team to win the national championship, third over 50 years. There’s a lot of great teams that have played at Ohio State.”

Of those eight national championship teams, two have come since the turn of the century: in 2002 against Miami and in 2014 over Oregon. However, the Buckeyes have also lost the game three times in the past 22 years, losing back-to-back title games after the 2006 and 2007 seasons to Florida and LSU, and then again in 2021 versus Alabama.

They will look to even their championship game record when they face the Fighting Irish on Monday at 7:30 pm ET in Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium.