Ryan Day and Ohio State were down bad last season after their fourth consecutive loss to Michigan, a 13-10 this time. Although still dazed and miserable, the head coach had taken it upon himself to transform the team and turn around the situation, which he did, of course. But how he was in those days didn’t go unnoticed by the person closest to him. And now, it’s out in the open for all. 

In a revealing excerpt from Bill Rabinowitz’s new book, Buckeye Brotherhood, Nina Day shared what used to happen during the Buckeyes’ playoff run. “He became maniacal. It was every second of every day. Even in the middle of the night, he would be up typing notes.”​​

What drove the head coach into this near-obsessive state is perhaps the context: Michigan arrived as an unranked team, barely bowl‑eligible, yet still outgained the Buckeyes on the ground, executed flawless field goals, and capped the game with tailback Kalel Mullings’ game‑winning 27-yard run in the final minutes. The rivalry’s sting was compounded by a history of near-misses, controversial coaching decisions, and off-field distractions— from staff departures and sign-stealing scandals to criticisms over quarterback selections. The toll extended beyond the field still. 

Nina revealed that the family received actual death threats in the aftermath of that defeat. The worst of it came when fans told Nina that her husband should “follow in his father’s footsteps and kill himself.” It was a reference to Day’s father, who died by suicide when he was just nine years old. Even Day couldn’t help but compare the loss to that tragedy. In an interview afterward, he even explained how losing to Michigan had become “one of the worst things that’s happened to me in my life, quite honestly— other than losing my father and a few other things.”

Nina had only seen her husband work that hard one other time in their marriage. “Only in the preparation for the Clemson game in the CFP semifinals in 2020, the year after losing that heartbreaker to the Tigers, had Nina seen her husband work as hard,“ Rabinowitz wrote in the book. 

Day was hellbent on avenging a 29-23 playoff semifinal loss to the Tigers in January 2020, and he took that same mentality times ten into the 2024 playoff after the Michigan disaster.​ 

“He was like that for that game, but he was like this for six straight weeks during this run. It was insane. He was running on adrenaline and anger and a lot of things, I guess. I think what got him up every day was the work and making things right for the program, for the players, for his family. The only time he felt peace during that time was when he was working, so I just let him go,” Nina said

But what drove him to such extremes is perhaps what produced the results to redefine the season. He acknowledged several areas where the team fell short, including struggles in the running game, missed field goals, and defensive penalties like the 12-men-on-the-field infraction during Michigan’s final drive. Still managing to remain focused on the College Football Playoff, he said, “We can’t let it beat us twice,” and well, it didn’t. 

Ohio State steamrolled Tennessee 42-17. Destroyed top-seeded Oregon 41-21 in the Rose Bowl. Outlasted Texas 28-14 thanks to Jack Sawyer’s iconic scoop-and-score. And topped Notre Dame 34-23 to win the national championship.

The Buckeyes became the first team to beat five top-five opponents in a single season, and Day turned what could’ve been his final weeks in Columbus into a crowning achievement. After the title game, the head coach sprinted down the sideline and chucked his headset into the crowd, finally able to exhale after six weeks of barely sleeping and constantly typing notes at 3 a.m.