When Ohio State beat Notre Dame 34–23 on Jan. 20 to win college football's national championship, the big individual winner was understood to be Buckeyes coach Ryan Day.
He'd defied doubts from his own fanbase to steer his team through a buzzsaw four-game stretch in the College Football Playoff, shaking off a bitter loss to Michigan in the regular-season finale. His protracted victory lap felt earned, and yet the entire saga diminished the complexity of Day's story.
On Friday, appearing on , Day discussed thinking of his late father after the national championship. Day's father died by suicide when the coach was nine years old.
"For me, it was my father… I lost my father on Jan. 20," Day said, noting he had not previously made that information public. "I saw when the schedule came out that the championship was on the same day when I lost my father. And so I just knew that he was with me that day."
Day has been a mental-health advocate throughout his Ohio State tenure, establishing a fund dedicated to pediatric mental health.
