COLUMBUS, Ohio – The blowout had reached a crescendo inside Ohio Stadium when Ohio State senior leader Jack Sawyer pulled his coach close and shared some celebratory words.
“All ‘Day’ long,” Sawyer told Ryan Day, as the Buckeyes coach engineered a masterful resurrection, two weeks after suffering the most embarrassing defeat of his career.
Sawyer won’t claim ownership for the phrase. He credits Ohio State’s media relations manager Jerry Emig for using it first, days before the Buckeyes blasted Tennessee 42-17 on Saturday in the College Football Playoff’s first round.
“I kind of like that,” Sawyer recalls thinking when he heard Emig uncork the line.
Sawyer wants to make it stick. Ohio State’s performance against Tennessee gave that a chance of happening.
“I’d go to war with him any day,” Sawyer said of his embattled coach. “… I’d commit to him a hundred times over, if I could. This is a huge win for him.”
Maybe, you counted Day out after he lost again to Michigan, a gutting defeat that left Day subjected to some of the harshest criticism he’s ever faced.
Would Ohio State really fire a coach who’s won nearly 90% of his games and would be due a $37 million buyout? That question began around the time the Wolverines planted their flag inside the ‘O’ at midfield.
All one needed to do was observe Saturday’s crowd for a reminder of how some Buckeyes fans felt about Day. They no-showed. As Ohio State fans posted their tickets onto resale sites, eager Vols fans gobbled them up. Tens of thousands of fans wore orange to the stadium, creating a surreal environment. Tennessee fans even penetrated Ohio State’s team hotel before the game.
Vols fans were noisy at bars and tailgates, and they made their voices heard during Ohio State’s first drive, influencing a false start penalty.
That orange backdrop set up for Day to go out with a thud. Instead, he roared back. Ohio State’s players had the back of a coach who owns an .870 winning percentage.
Two plays after that early false start, Jeremiah Smith celebrated in the end zone after a beautiful pass from quarterback Will Howard.
The Buckeyes kept coming, scoring touchdowns on their first three drives. They sent Tennessee supporters to the exits early, and Ohio State fans who booed the team two weeks ago mockingly chanted “S-E-C! S-E-C!” in the closing seconds of this triumph.
“They thought they were going to take over this place,” Howard said of Vols fans, “and we showed them pretty quick that we weren’t going to let that happen.”
Afterward, CFP executive director Rich Clark presented Day with a commemorative game ball. Day wore a tightlipped expression as he posed next to Clark for a photo. His players were all smiles, brimming with satisfaction.
“I love that coach to death. That’s my coach,” senior defensive end JT Tuimoloau said. “Best coach in the nation.”
OK, so that last part sounds like hyperbole.
Kirby Smart owns two national titles to Day’s zero, and Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs loom on the opposite side of the playoff bracket. Smart beat Day in the playoffs two years ago. Day also is 0-1 against Oregon’s Dan Lanning, the wunderkind he’ll face again in the CFP quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl.
But Smart is the only guy left in the bracket who’s won a national championship as a head coach, so it’s a good bet someone will win his first national title this season.
Why not the coach with the nation’s most talented roster?
“He’s the best coach in the country, in my eyes,” Sawyer said, “and it’s wins like this that prove that.”
Against Tennessee, credit Ohio State’s staff for executing one of its most aggressive game plans of the season. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly called a woeful game against Michigan. He rebounded with a masterful plan to attack a Tennessee defense that had stymied so many opponents.
The Buckeyes boast a receiving core that’s the envy of college football coaches near and far, and Kelly positioned quarterback Howard to let it rip on a 25-degree night.
Howard, a Pennsylvania native who’s no stranger to tossing the pigskin in the cold, lit up Tennessee for 311 yards, his second-highest output of the season.
“We did some things in this game that maximized what we have in terms of our strengths and minimized our deficiencies,” Day said.
As Sawyer put it, losing to Michigan “sucked.” Painful as the result felt for team and coach, it didn’t suck the life out of the Buckeyes.
“We’re a real team, and we can respond to adversity,” linebacker Cody Simon said. “I’m super proud of our guys, because it’s not easy to go through a loss like that.”
It’s a little easier, though, when you have someone to rally around, and the Buckeyes did just that.
Have a day, Buckeyes. Have your Day.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.
