Ohio — Two days after the Michigan Wolverines paraded through Ann Arbor with the national championship trophy in January, Ross Bjork met Ohio State coach Ryan Day for the first time.
Bjork was in Columbus, finalizing a deal to become Ohio State’s next athletic director. There and then, Day revealed a plan that ultimately produced one of the most prolific offseasons in college football history.
Since taking over as Ohio State’s head coach five years ago, Day has a sensational record of 53-8; among active FBS coaches, onKirby Smart owns a better winning percentage during that span.
But for the Buckeyes, that hasn’t been nearly enough. Day has yet to win a national championship. Far worse, he has suffered three straight defeats to That Team Up North, something that hadn’t happened this millennium. Stinging further, rival Michigan rolled to its first national title in 26 years. Only a week after maize and blue confetti showered the celebrating Wolverines inside Houston’s NRG Stadium, Day showed Bjork exactly how he planned to rebound.
“I was really just struck by his intensity, his thoroughness at the time,” Bjork said. “No one’s been happy with the last couple seasons and how they’ve ended. There’s a reset that had to take place. Coach Day was at the forefront of activating all of that. He had a methodical, intense, intentional plan. … To hear it directly from Ryan, I thought it was really exciting and encouraging.”
Day’s vision became a reality. Buoyed by a name, image and likeness war chest this year of $20 million, according to Bjork, the Buckeyes struck gold in the transfer portal, landing two of the SEC’s top players in safety Caleb Downs and running back Quinshon Judkins. Ohio State signed another star-laden recruiting class, featuring the country’s most hyped freshman wide receiver, Jeremiah Smith. Several key players from last year’s team, including preseason All-America wideout Emeka Egbuka, also put off the NFL to come back for a final season. Day even convinced sitting Power 5 head coach Chip Kelly to bolt UCLA and become his offensive playcaller.
One NFL scout called this the most talented team he has ever evaluated at Ohio State, with more depth than the 2021 national champion Georgia team that set a draft record with 15 players selected in 2022.
“Pound for pound, player for player,” the scout said, “they have as many good players as any [college football] team that I can remember.”
Ohio State’s previous two head coaches, Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel, who each guided Ohio State to a national championship, agree on just how talented these Buckeyes appear to be. On his podcast last week, Meyer said it “might be the best roster in college football in the last decade, as far as NFL talent, as far as depth. … They are loaded.”
An offseason for the ages has only enhanced the pressure to deliver a team for the ages — pressure that a Columbus title parade alone can quash.
“We’ll find out what this foundation looks like as we get into the season and get some of those storms that are coming our way,” Day said. “They’re coming. We’ve got to be ready.”
For Day, the storm has already arrived.
“To the masses of Buckeye nation — and this is not my opinion — I would argue it’s national championship or bust,” said Cardale Jones, the last Ohio State quarterback to win a national championship in 2014, who later cofounded one of the school’s two primary collectives, The Foundation. “I don’t think beating Michigan, I don’t think winning the Big Ten championship game and just going to the playoffs is enough.”
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