ATLANTA — Nina Day looked around, tears welling up in her eyes as gold and gray confetti fell from the sky. She was shocked by everything that had happened, not only in Ohio State’s 34-23 victory over Notre Dame in the national championship game, but over the past six weeks, a heartbreaking and exhilarating journey of 52 days, unlike any a college football family had ever experienced. lived. About 20 feet away, her parents, twin sister and other family members beamed as they watched her and her childhood sweetheart from New Hampshire, Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day, celebrate a College Football Playoff championship with their team.
In late November, after Ohio State lost to rival Michigan for the fourth straight time — at home, as a three-touchdown favorite — that moment perhaps seemed unfathomable to everyone other than the Buckeyes themselves . Day’s family, particularly the coach’s three children, suffered the wrath of some Ohio State fans after losing again to the hated Wolverines. Threats were made, resulting in Days receiving 24-hour police protection.
“We had security at home. The school was really bad,” said Day’s son RJ, a high school sophomore. Athletics. “I didn’t really leave the house until the Tennessee game (three weeks after the Michigan game, in the first round of the CFP). It was difficult, but you have to hang on in these difficult times, because eventually things will get better again.
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As the daughter of Stan Spirou, a legendary former Division II basketball coach at Southern New Hampshire University who won 640 games in 33 years, Nina Day grew up knowing the challenges of being a child of coaching and the emotional roller coaster that coaching families can go through, but what they experienced after the Michigan game was much different. There have been a lot of tough times in recent years after the losses to The Team Up North, but this year things took a much more toxic turn.
“She knows the ups and downs, but she had never experienced what they have experienced over the last month and a half,” Spirou said. Athletics Monday evening. “Certainly, I had my share of setbacks, but it got personal there for a while (for the Days). This had a huge impact on the immediate family and children.
“I had been in the business for a long time, but I hadn’t seen anything like this. You have to give a lot of credit to the players. They could have gone either way. That’s leadership. I couldn’t be happier or proud of Ryan. He knocked him off the mat. He took full responsibility for everything that happened in Michigan. I never put any blame on the players or the coaching staff, and he just got to work.
Spirou told his son-in-law a few days ago how his story compared to that of Sisyphus from Greek mythology: “You keep pushing this rock, and pushing this rock, and tonight he put it in the— above the mountain. »
THE MOMENT WE KNOW. pic.twitter.com/vvl6IIAklj
— Ohio State football (@OhioStateFB) January 21, 2025
Day’s winning percentage as head coach of the Buckeyes (.873, with a 69-10 record before the national title game) was incredible, but for a portion of the Ohio fan base State, it didn’t seem to matter. But even though the team’s passionate fans – and some in the media – had written Day off, his family and team never gave up hope. The Buckeyes came out and crushed Tennessee 42-17 in a game that wasn’t even that close. Then they stunned No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl and knocked off Texas in the CFP semifinals at the Cotton Bowl, before facing Notre Dame on Monday night.
“I just think it’s amazing what resilience and belief and faith does,” Nina said, choking up, as she tried to put it all into context. “You can climb out of the hole.”
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Her husband, one of the most talented coaches in the sport, had already gone through excruciating heartbreak in his life before reaching this point. His father committed suicide when Day was 9, and the Days became strong advocates for child and adolescent mental health through their “On Our Sleeves” initiative. Some skeptics who saw his promotion from Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator to leader of a blue-blood football power may have doubted Day’s determination, but few who really know him did. have never done. That also includes his team, made up of fourth- and fifth-year players who voiced their support when the criticism was loudest.
“It’s been a huge challenge,” Nina said. “It’s hard to block out the noise, but we have to stay positive and strong in our home and just believe in what we believe in. He has overcome so much. He’s always been a fighter and he’s fought his way here.
“The children look at their father and know what he went through. He lost his father at the age of 9. He showed resilience and fought, and look at him now.
She paused for a few breaths and emphasized the seriousness of the appointment. The Buckeyes were dancing on the field to celebrate their national title on Jan. 20, the date Day lost her father in 1988. “I don’t think anyone realizes it,” she said.
“My children will tell you they couldn’t be more proud of their father, and even after this terrible loss, we told them we still believed in him and that no matter what, we are still one for the other. We just stayed together. The most important thing is that you learn to fail but you have to get back up. That’s the most important thing they’ve learned through all of this: everyone fails, but you have to get back up and keep swinging.
RJ Day said he was just as proud of his mother and how she handled everything.
“My mom is amazing,” he said. “She moved nine or ten times on her own while my dad would already be ahead working in this other state. We call it the rock of the family.
“I learned lessons last month that I will use for the rest of my life. I learned so much about integrity in people and how to get up and work every day.
Lauren Frye, the wife of Buckeyes offensive line coach Justin Frye, has been close to the Days since the families worked together at Temple and Boston College. She calls Nina Day “a warrior.”
“She endured so much, more than people in Columbus can imagine,” Frye said. “I think she did an incredible job. When they preach family, that’s really what they’re talking about, and it’s always been that way for them, from Temple and in British Columbia all the way up to here.
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“Seeing him succeed makes me so happy, and seeing his wife’s smile, (knowing) what she’s had to go through,” said Buckeye defensive end Jack Sawyer, Day’s first recruit at Ohio State. “Being in Columbus after losing this game four years in a row is terrible, and to come out tonight and win this game for them is awesome.”
The threats the Days have faced from what Nina described as a small, fanatical group of Buckeye fans since the last Michigan game have worried Nina, she said. Athletics. “You can’t take anything lightly these days,” she says. “I was very worried.”
RJ, their eldest, has had to face many difficulties in recent years. The same goes for their two youngest daughters, Nia and Grace. Which made it even sweeter that they were all there to soak in as their father joined Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Georgia’s Kirby Smart as the only active Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches with a national championship.
“Everything we’ve had to go through as a family hasn’t been easy,” RJ said. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with in my life; dealing with really grown men coming after me for something I had no part in, but just to see the joys and tears on the faces of my sisters and my mother and see the joy on my father’s face . It’s a testament to hanging on when things go wrong, and I’m so happy for my dad and my family. I know how hard he works. I see the evenings where he comes home at 1 a.m. then goes back to work at 5 a.m. I see how much he puts into these kids, and seeing the results and seeing him lift that trophy with a smile on his face is something I’ll never forget.
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(Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
