Ryan Day earned vindication, and as long as he does this one thing, he will keep it

Listening to the “College Gameday Podcast” recently, both host Rece Davis and ESPN senior writer Dan Wetzel really put into perspective what Ohio State achieved in their one-month run through the College Football Playoff to win last season’s national championship. To come back from losing The Game the way they did to win a national championship four games later, Buckeyes fans may never truly appreciate just how great an accomplishment that really is.

Part of that might be because a certain portion of Buckeyes fans are still justifiably frustrated about losing to Michigan four years in a row. And while beating your biggest rival is a primary goal every season, losing to them shouldn’t take away the joy that fans should feel seeing their team win a national championship. As a No. 8 seed, OSU won four playoff games by double-digits, including by 20 points against No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl, avenging the regular-season loss in Eugene a few months prior.

But that’s where Ryan Day comes into play here. As the head coach of a team that has lost four straight times to its archrival, much of the venom was focused on him following the late-November defeat. But what Day did from there, undoubtedly vindicated him, at least for most fans. However, just like vindication can be earned, it can also be lost.

Now that the Buckeyes are set to begin their national championship defense, fans are reasonably going to hold Day to an even higher standard than before; after all, he has proven he can get his team to the mountaintop, that now needs to be the bar to which every season’s success is judged. With all of the talent the Buckeyes have on their roster — unproven as much of it might be — anything short of a national championship could likely be seen as a disappointment. While it would be unreasonable for fans to completely turn on Day simply for failing to win back-to-back national titles, should TTUN make it five-straight wins in The Game, things could get ugly again for the OSU head coach.

There are Buckeyes fans who believe Day still tenses up in big games and doesn’t win them consistently enough. Look at the three games against Michigan from 2021 to 2023; the Buckeyes played far too conservatively, even when they had more talent on the field, seemingly simply to prove that they were tough.

But also look at last year’s regular game against Oregon; we saw clock mismanagement, an early lead slip away, and numerous other recurring themes that felt uncomfortably similar to the 2019 SFP semifinal against Clemson.

Most level-headed fans, regardless of how fervent their dismay over Day was in the days and weeks post-Thanksgiving, have forgiven the head coach, not just because the Buckeyes won the national championship, but because he could slay the demons that haunted him in the previous big games. There’s still the 1-4 record against Michigan, including 0-2 in Columbus. If the Buckeyes lose to Michigan again this season, that national championship back in January is going to feel like a distant memory.

Now, if the Buckeyes lose to Texas in Week 1, the portion of the fanbase most prone to volatile swings might come down hard on Day, especially if the game is not particularly close. While I think that would be a gross overreaction, as long as the Buckeyes look respectable, I can already imagine the blowback. A narrative could form that says the Buckeyes beat the Longhorns in the CFP Semifinals because Quinn Ewers was Texas’s starting quarterback and not Arch Manning. Ewers, a former Buckeye, was a good quarterback, but only good enough to be a late-round draft pick. Arch Manning? The hype speaks for itself.

If Manning comes in and torches Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, and the Buckeyes’ defense (as unlikely as that is) that would be a major talking point for the “lunatic fringe.” Of course, that would also lead to another topic of discussion: Jim Knowles. The man who oversaw last year’s historically dominant defense is now the defensive coordinator at Penn State. And while the general consensus is that the defense went from elite to legendary when Day got more involved on that side of the ball, a poor showing in the season opener could shift the postseason credit more in Knowles’ favor.

Day has a team that can absolutely repeat as national champions. And while losing at home to Texas and/or a conference game that they should win will surface questions amongst a subset of fans, in the modern, 12-game playoff era, it won’t be enough to truly move the needle in terms of the wide perception of the head coach. However, should OSU again fail to win the regular-season finale, that could change.

At a school like Ohio State, where a national championship is the expectation every season, wins and titles will always be what a season is judged by. But when you are part of the greatest rivalry in all of sports, beating your arch-nemesis — especially when you are an objectively better team — is also high on the priority list. Day hasn’t done that since 2019, and while winning a title cures all ills, at least for a while, things will get very tricky for Day should he lose to Michigan again.

That’s the position Day is in, and he is fully aware of it. He’s been largely vindication now, but at a high-pressure program like Ohio State, that is always on the verge of being taken back. But beating Texas and, most importantly, Michigan will go a long way towards Day getting any remaining monkeys off of his back. It also wouldn’t hurt to bring back another national championship in Columbus, but we don’t want to be too greedy.