As Jeremiah Smith caught that title-clinching 56-yard catch on third and eleven, the 11 years’ worth of natty wait finally rained down with praise for Ryan Day and his team. After all, they had won the national title, not in that 4-team playoff era but by beating giants like Oregon, Texas, Notre Dame, and Tennessee. But amidst those praises and achievements, there were also statements that Ryan Day bought the Natty with a $20 NIL investment. But if you ask former Ohio State offensive tackle Zen Michalski, it was truly the mindset, as he reveals in an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports, that Day instilled, which drove the team to Jeremiah Smith’s final catch of the season.

Ryan Day leveraged Ohio State’s NIL collectives and secured approximately $13 million to retain talent. But to be honest, the players he retained were the ones whom Ryan Day personally recruited and developed. It was not as if Day was buying the team but instead keeping his homegrown players together for that final moment. As Ryan Day himself said, “The majority of those guys were all guys that decided to come back or were already on the team that we recruited and developed.”

As for the reasons why the players returned? They knew all along what Ryan Day offered! Zen Michalski, who has now transferred to the Indiana Hoosiers after the 2024 season, details in an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports how Ryan Day went through a lot and how the team rallied behind him. “Coach Day, I mean, man. So we went through so much with Coach Day, obviously like from 2021 on. My freshman year, coming in, we lost to the team up North. And then, we don’t go to the playoffs, we go to the Rose Bowl, we win the Rose Bowl, and it was like, that didn’t really feel like the standard,” said Zen Michalski. The time that OL detailed was undoubtedly tough for Ohio State.

In the 2021 season, the team faced some tough losses—first to Michigan, which is a big no-no any year, and then to Oregon in Week 2. Dropping those games pretty much wiped out any hope of making the playoffs and put a lot of pressure on Ryan Day, who was in his third year as head coach. People really started questioning his in-game adjustments, especially since Ohio State was up 28-13 at halftime against Michigan.

That year, the defense really struggled, with Ohio State ending up ranked 122nd in the nation, which is why Kerry Coombs got fired. But in the midst of all that, Ryan Day was key in turning the program around and finally leading them to a national championship. “He did a really good job of, like, keeping the team to that standard,” Zen Michalski said of how Ryan Day helped maintain the OSU standard despite the disappointing 2021 season. And guess what? That same standard is still there at Ohio State, even after the team won the national title, as Zen Michalski detailed and highlighted his learning from the time he spent with Ryan Day.

“It seems like they are, you know, the standard is still high, they’re not satisfied. So I’d say that’s what I’ve taken away from Coach Day. Just always being hungry for that stuff and understanding, like what is achievable and what you should be doing. And not let the standard fall.” Undoubtedly, the standard is there, and Michalski, too, is expected to show that standard at Indiana.

Zen, who’s from Floyd Knobs, Indiana, spent four years at Ohio State, really learning the ropes in one of the best college football programs. Now he’s at Indiana, where he’s set to be the starting right tackle, protecting Fernando Mendoza, a guy many think has a shot at the Heisman. While he was at Ohio State, Zen mostly played as a backup, racking up 99 snaps over 11 games. His big moment came when left tackle Josh Simmons went down with a season-ending knee injury against Oregon. Zen stepped in to start against Nebraska but ended up getting injured late in the game, which put him out for the rest of the season. He reflected on it, saying it was “hard” to deal with.

Heartbreak, dejection, and disappointment—Zen Michalski describes the time after his injury

Zen Michalski was at Ohio State for four years and waited for his chance during that time. At this time, he sat behind the 2023 sixth draft pick, Paris Johnson, and then it was Josh Simmons, who ultimately got selected in round 1 by the Kansas City Chiefs. So, when Simmons got injured, the opportunity was all Michalski’s to grab. However, the injury he suffered against Nebraska was harder to cope with, as he says.

“It was kind of hard, because I just had to keep reminding myself that I’m here, I’m ready to go. Like I could have left after my third year, going somewhere, but I really wanted to stay. I believed in what we had built as a team for 2024,” said Michalski. But he also reminded himself that whatever happened couldn’t be changed, and he is raring to go for his next chapter at Indiana. “Obviously, everyone has a plan for stuff, and it’s not always going to go that way. But I think that I’ve been very blessed with, you know, how stuff has worked out, and I’m just really happy to be where I am.”

The Indiana Hoosiers were one of the feel-good stories last year under their head coach, Curt Cignetti. They exceeded all expectations and finished 11-2, which is a monumental feat for them in the Big 10. So, the winning momentum will be there at Indiana, too, and with the help of Curt Cignetti, Zen Michalski could surely do what he couldn’t do at Ohio State under Ryan Day.