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Jack Trotter, ESPN Senior Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two days after the Michigan Wolverines paraded through Ann Arbor with the national championship trophy in January, Ross Bjork met Ohio State coach Ryan Day for the first time.
Bjork was in Columbus, finalizing a deal to become Ohio State’s next athletic director. There and then, Day unveiled a plan that ultimately produced one of the greatest offseasons in college football history.
Day has a sensational 53-8 record since taking over as Ohio State’s head coach five years ago; Among active FBS coaches, only Georgia’s Kirby Smart owns a better winning percentage during that span.
But for the Buckeyes, that wasn’t nearly enough. Day has yet to win a national championship. Worse, he has suffered three straight defeats to That Team Up North, the first time this millennium. More stinging, rival Michigan won its first national title in 26 years. Just a week after raining corn and blue confetti inside NRG Stadium in Houston, Day showed Bjork exactly how he planned to rebound.
“I was really struck by his intensity, his thoroughness at the time,” Bjork said. “The last couple of seasons and nobody was happy with how it ended. There had to be a reset. Coach Day was at the forefront of enabling all of this. He had a methodical, intense, deliberate plan… To hear it directly from Ryan, I thought it was really exciting and encouraging.”
The vision of the day has become a reality. Buoyed by a $20 million name, image and likeness war chest this year, the Buckeyes struck gold on the transfer portal, landing two of the SEC’s top players in safety Caleb Downs and running back Quinson Judkins, according to Bjork. Ohio State signed another star-laden recruiting class, including the nation’s most hyped freshman wide receiver, Jeremiah Smith. Several key players from last year’s team, including preseason All-America wideout Emeka Egbuka, also opted out of the NFL to return for the final season. Day even convinced Power 5 head coach Chip Kelly to bolt to UCLA and become his offensive playcaller.
One NFL scout called it the most talented team evaluated at Ohio State, with more depth than the 2021 national champion Georgia team that set a draft record with 15 players selected in 2022.
“Pound for pound, player for player,” the scout said, “they have as many good players as any (college football) team that I can remember.”
Ohio State’s two previous head coaches, Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel, who each guided Ohio State to a national championship, agree on how talented the Buckeyes appear to be. On his podcast last week, Meyer said it “might be the best roster in college football in the last decade, as far as NFL talent, as far as depth. … They’re loaded.”
An offseason for the ages only increased the pressure to deliver a team for the ages — pressure that the Columbus title parade alone could cancel out.
“We’ll find out what that foundation looks like as we get into the season and get some of the storms that come our way,” Day said. “They’re coming. We have to be ready.”
As for the day, the storm has already arrived.
“To the public in Buckeye nation — and this is not my opinion — I’d argue it’s a national championship or a bust,” said Cardale Jones, the last Ohio State quarterback to win a national championship in 2014, who later became one of its founding schools’ two primary congregants, the Foundation. “I don’t want to lose Michigan, I don’t think it’s enough to win the Big Ten championship game and go to the playoffs.”
Only two years Earlier, Day told boosters that the Buckeyes would spend $13 million to put together their team.
Tyvis Powell, director of player engagement for Ohio State’s other collective, the 1870 Society, said in the past the Buckeyes missed out on players they wanted because they didn’t have enough NIL money. Now, industry sources say Ohio State is one of college football’s biggest spenders in the NIL.
Both Powell and Jones, former teammates, said losing again to the Wolverines and then witnessing them win a national championship to give the NIL “lit a fire in more people’s hips” to get involved.
“This was the first year that people gave money to the fund very generously,” said Powell, the defensive MVP of the Buckeyes’ national title win over Oregon in 2014. A lot of people were like, it can’t be anymore.”
Along with longtime athletic director Gene Smith, who retired this summer, Day rallied prominent boosters to extend their commitment. Money has also started pouring in from smaller donors. Suddenly, the Buckeyes had the means to execute the offseason plans of the day.
Off the transfer portal, Ohio State snagged Kansas State quarterback Will Howard along with Downs and Judkins.
Howard, who started 28 games for the Wildcats and led K-State to the 2022 Big 12 title, was named Ohio State’s starter this month. Judkins tops the SEC with 2,725 rushing yards for Ole Miss over the past two seasons. At Alabama, Downs was the SEC Freshman of the Year; NFL Scouts called Downs the Crimson Tide’s “best player” last year.
Downs enters the portal after Alabama coach Nick Saban announced his surprise retirement on Jan. 17. Powell claims the NIL played a role in keeping Ohio State Downs out of high school. Many said Downs would return to his home state and play for Georgia, which had just hired Downs’ Alabama position coach, Travaris Robinson. But this time around, Ohio State traded Downs to come to Columbus (the Buckeyes also added top quarterback recruit Julian Sain in 2024 and center Seth McLaughlin from Alabama’s roster). Downs, a preseason All-American, said last week that Ohio State’s talented roster played a role in him joining the Buckeyes.
“I think that was a major part of it,” said Downs, who called Ohio State’s talent level “at or right above the same level” of any SEC team, including the Crimson Tide. “It’s always a plus to know you’re walking into a real fraternity and a real team.”
closed last year Team, only wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. left early for the NFL draft. Defensive end Zach Sawyer said he and other draft-eligible prospects are back “for one last ride” after coming up short against Michigan and in the playoff hunt the past three years.
“I wanted to go to the NFL and chase my dream more than the next guy,” Sawyer said. “But I didn’t win a championship. I didn’t beat a team up north. And you walk around Woody (Hayes Athletic Center) and all you see are championships and championship posters and banners. Being here for three years and our team never winning any of them. It didn’t help, it’s something that sticks with me and it’s something that motivates me every day.”
Day said Sawyer and the returning upperclassmen led the way in setting a tone by holding each other accountable. Egbuka added that the “scars of the past” created a new collective focus.
“Nobody on this team at Ohio State has ever won a big game in their career. We just couldn’t do it. It’s hard to say, but that’s the reality. We don’t have anything that matters, nothing that matters.” Dr. Egbuka. “But this is the hardest-working team I’ve ever been a part of. And we’re also the tightest-knit group I’ve ever been a part of. That’s our goal this year.”
Egbuka, Sawyer, guard Donovan Jackson, defensive tackle Tyleke Williams, defensive end JT Tuimolowu and cornerback Denzel Burke are among those who could have been selected on the first or second day of this year’s draft. ESPN Insider Field projects Yates Egbuka, Tuimolou and Burke to be first-round picks next year.
“No gold pants (given for beating Michigan), no natty, that was a big part … of why we came back,” Burke said. “We have to win every single game — it’s not about ifs, ands or buts.”
Day is initially noticed Former Penn State and Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien will be his offensive coordinator. But when O’Brien accepted the head-coaching job at Boston College, Day turned to Kelly, his longtime mentor. Day, a former quarterback, played for Kelly at New Hampshire and later coached with him there.
Day ceded pleckling duties to Kelly, who took a nearly $4 million pay cut to leave the Bruins to join the Buckeyes. Before becoming an NFL head coach with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, Kelly built Oregon into an offensive juggernaut. As Kelly head coach, the Ducks averaged 45 points per game from 2009 to 2012, leading the nation in scoring during that span.
Kelly and Day both grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire. During Big Ten media days, Day said he didn’t just trust Kelly with Ohio State’s offense, he trusted Kelly with his life.
“I feel the same way,” Kelly said. “There’s a long history. We grew up in the same town, we’ve known each other for about 40 years. … The coaches that coached him in youth sports are the same coaches that coached me in youth sports. That’s always going to be the connection.”
Kelly will have plenty of playmakers to deploy.
In Judkins and returning leading rusher Trevion Henderson, Kelly will have arguably the top running back duo in college football at his disposal. Kelly may have the nation’s top receiving duo to work with. Jeremiah Smith shined in the spring and preseason.
“You’re okay, okay, there’s four guys on this team who can kill us with the ball in their hands — what are we going to do?” NFL scout Dr. “When you have a lot of good players in every position you should destroy everybody.”
What figures to be another elite defense with stars at every level, the Buckeyes show no apparent weakness, on both sides of the ball.
“There’s a great energy around this team,” Day said. “They know what they want. There’s an urgent need, there’s a purpose and they’re united. You just see it. … You can feel it when you’re around the guys. It’s real. So what does everything do? His Does that mean we won’t be given everything we can get?”
Bjork has come together to plan the day. All that’s left is to earn what matters most.
“We’ve got the best. Every position group is stacked with depth. So we have no choice but to win the national championship,” Powell said. “A lot of people love Coach Deke. I think he’s a really good coach. (He has) all the assets to probably win it all. And if he doesn’t, the writing is on the wall. … Nobody really listens to any excuses. No.
“But if he did, then it was all worth it.”
