The last two months have been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions for the Ohio State Buckeyes. After a 13-10 loss to Michigan in the final game of the regular season, it felt like there could be some changes coming to the program.
Ryan Day hasn’t been able to figure out Michigan over the past four seasons, and this latest loss came without any reasonable excuses. Then, the Buckeyes went on an absolute tear through the College Football Playoff, beating everyone who stood between them and a national title by double digits.
It finally came full circle for the most expensive roster in college football, but the players and coaches haven’t been the only ones who’ve had to deal with the crazy ups and downs.
Nina Day, wife of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, recently met with The Columbus Dispatch and opened up about some of the things her family has had to deal with in recent weeks.
Before the Buckeyes got their postseason started off with a blowout victory over Tennessee, things were not so jolly in Columbus, Ohio.
“The time between the Michigan game and the Tennessee game was as low and dark as you could possibly imagine,” Nina Day said. “Extremely negative. Unprecedented hate.”
There were even some people who got her cell phone number and inundated her with threats, insults, and some things that, honestly, should never be said.
“They told me multiple times to have Ryan follow in his father’s footsteps and kill himself,” she said.
Day’s father committed suicide when he was just eight years old.
While the texts and social media threads were being hurled their way, the Day’s children also had to hear about it at school, with 16-year-old RJ Day even receiving death threats.
“It got to a point where, ‘What are we doing here?’” she said. “It was hard to fathom that people could actually say and do some of the things they were doing.
“It’s very disappointing to me what some people are capable of, but you look at the news and you look at our society as a whole. People are very mean. They’re very negative. They’re nasty. I’m not saying everybody is, but there’s definitely a percentage of people that are just ruthless in their hate.”
There were still those who stuck by their side during the darkest times and, through it all, supported the program’s coach and his family.
“You can’t label the entire fan base because I think a lot of good, good people are getting wrapped up into the ‘lunatic fringe,’ as they call it,” she said. “They deserve all the credit for being a fan and being supportive and loving our family the way they have because we definitely couldn’t get to where we got without them.
“It’s been a roller coaster, to say the least,” Day said. “I want to reiterate my love for Buckeye Nation, and there have been some unbelievable people in this community that have stood by us. There are people who have (given) unwavering support.”
Of course, things changed after the Buckeyes won a national title, and the motivation to provide peace for his family might’ve been the very thing that helped Day finally break through.
“He fought like hell and got us out of a very dark place that we were in five weeks ago because of his resilience because I don’t think anybody really thought this was going to end the way it did,” Days recalled. “Everybody thought the season ended in November. All he kept telling me was, ‘I want to bring you guys peace. I just want to bring you guys peace.’ And he knew that for us to feel any type of peace, he had to win it all.”
“Everyone fails and it’s how you respond to your failures,” she said. “You’ve got to get back up. You’ve got to keep fighting. You’ve got to keep believing. Even when you don’t think anybody else believes in you, you’ve got to keep going.
“My husband failed in November, but he got back up and swung as hard as he could, and he won the program a national championship.”
