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Safe for another Day

Back in November, I put out there that Ohio State football coach Ryan Day needed to beat Michigan to avoid the John Cooper comparisons.

Well, that win over the Wolverines didn’t happen, and it set off alarms throughout the Buckeye state.

Toward the end, I said there was only one way for Day to fall to Michigan and keep his job: winning the national championship.

And by George, he did it.

Day got the Buckeyes to regroup in the time between the Michigan loss and the first round of the College Football Playoff. And the newly focused Buckeyes took the belt to their opponents in almost every quarter of the playoffs.

Tennessee didn’t stand a chance and Oregon fell in the rematch. Texas managed to keep it close before senior defensive end Jack Sawyer’s strip sack.

And after three dominant games, the Buckeyes’ strong first half send the Notre Dame Fighting Irish packing on Monday night.

It was Day’s first national championship since taking over for Urban Meyer in 2019. It also bought him a little time as the Buckeyes head coach.

There will be some that will say the championship exonerate his bad losses from this season, including a fourth straight loss to Michigan.

However, Ohio State fans can’t look past losses to the Wolverines forever. Eventually, Day has to win “The Game.”

To be clear, no one is or should be calling for Day’s head like they were several weeks ago. He just shouldn’t take any heat for the next few years.

Only three active head coaches have won a national title. It’s Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Day. That’s the complete list.

Being a part of the exclusive club should give him a little bit of a leash for the near future.

Quarterback Will Howard is moving on to the NFL, so let Day and crew get their guy under center and tell him to throw the ball to Jeremiah Smith every chance they get.

The defense will also need retooled with a number of starters moving on to the next level. Pieces are in place to fill some of the vacancies, like defensive ends Caden Curry (22 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks) and Kenyatta Jackson (16 tackles, three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks), but there are longtime starters that will move on.

Day will have the tools to compete next season, especially with the program’s willingness to use the transfer portal, so the standard should remain the same.

And the playoff — which sits at 12 teams and could expand in the near future — allows for teams like this year’s Ohio State squad to fail. The Buckeyes learned lessons from their losses to Oregon and Michigan, but that shouldn’t mean losses can’t come back to hurt teams. Ask Alabama and Ole Miss, they thought reputation could allow them to slide into the playoff.

Day just needs to win and everything will work out.

After all, he can’t bank on making championship runs every year to cover up for some bad losses.

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