Skull Session: Sisyphus No More

By Chase Brown on January 23, 2025 at 5:00 am
Ryan Day
Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

**SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT** 

This video of Will Howard is so, so good.

Have a good Thursday.

 THE NEXT DEAN SMITH + MICHAEL JORDAN? On March 30, 1982, North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith won his first national title in his fourth championship game appearance as the Tar Heels defeated Georgetown, 63-62, in New Orleans.

"A great writer in Charlotte once said that it was our system that kept us from winning the national championship," Smith told Ken Rappoport of the Associated Press, who asked Smith about the criticism he had received during his tenure in Chapel Hill. "It's the most ridiculous comment ever made. I've always wanted to say that. We don't have a 'system.' We try to use our talent."

In the 1982 NCAA Tournament, Smith leaned on All-American forward James Worthy and freshman Michael Jordan to knock off James Madison, Alabama, Villanova, Houston and Georgetown en route to the national title. In the Tar Heels' championship matchup with the Hoyas, he leaned on Jordan a little harder. Smith asked the future NBA Hall of Famer to deliver in the most important moment of the game.

Hmmmm... a coach who had knocked on the door of a national championship several times asked a freshman to deliver in the most important moment of the game... that sounds familiar.

Like Dean Smith trusted Jordan to take his team to the Promised Land, Ryan Day trusted Jeremiah Smith to do the same.

"We felt like we had an advantage with Jeremiah on that shot. We talked about it all week," Ryan Day said Monday. "We hadn't really thrown one all game, and it was like, 'You know what? Game on the line. Let's go. Let's be aggressive.' I thought to myself, there's one national championship – you get one opportunity a year to do this – so let's lay it on the line and put it out there and be aggressive. That's what we did."

Ten hours later, Day added, "As we said from the jump, (Smith) is a generational talent. He's a special player, but he's also a great person. Just to see the way he came up clutch in that game but also in some of the other games – and make no mistake about it, (Notre Dame) did all it could to take him away... but his body language and energy couldn't have been better. What a season for such a young player who we all know is special."

Seated next to his head coach, Will Howard heaped on more praise.

"All I had to do was give No. 4 a chance and let No. 4 be No. 4," he said.

That, dear reader, is greatness.

 SISYPHUS NO MORE. This week, Pete Thamel of ESPN took college football fans behind the scenes of Day's redemption and Ohio State's national championship.

While Thamel followed Day from the field to the locker room, watching the head coach celebrate on the sidelines and crack open a Garage Beer in his office, that's far from Thamel's best material. No, that belongs to the quotes he gathered from the people closest to Day – his father-in-law, Stan Spirou, and his brother, Tim.

Day's visceral reaction in the Buckeyes' locker room in front of the team after the game resonated as a catharsis. There were external calls for his job after Ohio State suffered its fourth straight loss to Michigan and a security detail guarding his home for an extended period in the aftermath. Things were so dark that his father-in-law, Stan Spirou, told ESPN he stayed in town for 10 more days after the game just to support the family.

"Just to help the family out because there were some tough times there," Spirou said. "Know what I mean? Tough times. Having security and so forth. And tonight was a redemption tour. And I think the whole playoff thing was to win four. ... It's hard enough to win one ballgame. And they won four, and they did it the hard way."

Thamel said Ohio State's championship – which made Day one of three active coaches to win an FBS title along with Dabo Swinney and Kirby Smart – was an unparalleled triumph in a career full of "painful near-misses" for Day. A 3-point attempt at the buzzer that rimmed out in high school, an incomplete pass in a double-overtime loss to Southern Florida in college and a number of heartbreaking losses to Swinney, Smart, Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh.

"He was like Sisyphus, pushing the rock halfway up the hill, three quarters of the way up," Spirou said. "And I told Ryan, 'Trust me that thing's going to go over the hill.' And it happened tonight. I couldn't be any happier and more proud of the way he picked himself up after that Michigan game. He got up the next day and he says, 'I'm going after this.' He just went to work."

Added Day's brother, Tim: "There's a look in his eye that was extremely rewarding to see as his brother. And it goes back to the days that we grew up. For him to win this one is extremely rewarding for our family."

The look only arrived after two dramatic field-flipping plays that sealed the final two games. The go-ball to Smith, who'd cruised past vulnerable Irish corner Christian Gray out on an island, will be the final highlight. And it will resonate in Ohio State lore alongside Jack Sawyer's strip/scoop/score after tomahawking his old roommate Quinn Ewers in the Buckeyes' win over Texas.

"Those are the plays that you remember the rest of your life," Day told ESPN, "Jeremiah's play and Jack's play. You have those special moments to win a championship."

Ryan Day, our Sisyphus.

Once condemned to life rolling a boulder endlessly up a hill, Day has pushed the rock over the edge. It's in no danger of falling again.

Day is now one of five Ohio State coaches to win a national title with the Buckeyes, joining Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. When asked Tuesday what it means to add himself to class – or, as I have liked to think of it, make room for himself on the Buckeye Coaches Mount Rushmore – Day called himself thankful.

"It's an honor. It's an honor to be the head coach at Ohio State," Day said. "This job is not for everybody, but every year I have learned more about myself than I thought going into the season. A big part of it is these players, and I shared that with them this season. I felt like we were knocking on the door several times leading up to this game. You think about the '19 team, you think about the '20 team. Every year, I felt like we were close, but we just couldn't get through. This team was different. This team was special.

"The message was to leave no doubt. Don't leave it to one play. Don't leave it to one call. Don't leave it in the hands of somebody else. Don't do that. I felt like the throw-and-catch there to Jeremiah at the end was like, OK, we're leaving no doubt with this thing.

"But to answer your question about the other part of it, I don't know. I just know that Ohio State is a special place. It's an honor to be here, an honor to be around some of those names, because when you hear names like that, they're some of the best coaches in the history of the game. But the only way you (are remembered like that) is with great players and great people. Obviously, this is a great place."

 THE GREATEST DEFENSE EVER? Ohio State's 2024 defense was elite – so elite, that I think it could be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, defenses of all time. Here's a look at where the Buckeyes ended the season in defensive stat categories (H/T Brian Walton):

  • No. 1 in scoring defense
  • No. 1 in total defense
  • No. 1 in total yards allowed per play
  • No. 1 in total touchdowns allowed per game
  • No. 1 in opponent total touchdowns scored in the red zone
  • No. 2 in sack yards
  • No. 2 in tackles for loss yards
  • No. 2 in total sacks
  • No. 2 in passing touchdowns allowed per game
  • No. 2 in opponent red zone scoring percentage
  • No. 2 in opponent red zone touchdown percentage
  • No. 3 in rushing defense
  • No. 3 in passing defense
  • No. 3 in sacks per game
  • No. 5 in total tackles for loss
  • No. 6 in passing yards allowed per attempt
  • No. 10 in forced fumbles

All of that production came as Ohio State beat six teams who finished in the top 10 of the final AP Poll: No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Oregon, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Penn State, No. 9 Tennessee and No. 10 Indiana. (Of the six teams, five were ranked in the top five when Ohio State faced them.) Collectively, the Irish, Ducks, Longhorns, Nittany Lions, Volunteers and Hoosiers averaged 35.7 points per contest. The Buckeyes held them to an average of 19.2 points per game.

Yeah, this defense was goated.

 THIS AND THAT. Another Skull Session, another This and That™.

You know the drill.

The national media continues to make the fact that Ohio State's roster cost $20 million seem like the main reason the Buckeyes won it all. It's convenient that the national media also continues to leave out that Oregon and Texas paid more than the Buckeyes to build their teams and that LSU and Georgia weren't far behind.

A sentence I didn't know I would ever write for Eleven Warriors: Will Howard and Cam Newton have something in common.

One more note about Howard: The Ohio State quarterback had the fourth-best performance in a national championship game since Pro Football Focus started in 2006, following Georgia's Stetson Bennett in 2022, Oregon's Marcus Mariota in 2014 and LSU's Joe Burrow in 2019. That's pretty good!

I have yet to mention the funniest social media post I have seen since Ohio State won the national championship – that being Lathan Ransom's video of Thanos watching the sunrise on a grateful universe after he defeated Earth's Mightiest Heroes in Avengers: Infinity War.

That's all, folks!

 SONG OF THE DAY. "At Last!" - Etta James.

 CUT TO THE CHASE. Notre Dame's Al Golden is expected to become the Cincinnati Bengals next defensive coordinator... Mittens the cat is mistakenly left on a plane and becomes a frequent flyer...  Ryan Gosling in talks to star in "Star Wars" movie from Shawn Levy... Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari drive "one of the best feelings of my life"... Bills fans raise nearly $80,000 for charitable cause of Ravens’ Andrews after dropped 2-point try.

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THE SITUATIONAL: Cross Your Heart

an 20, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard (18) reacts after a play against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the second half the CFP National Championship college football game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Ohio State vs. Notre Dame Draws 22.1 Million Viewers With Peak Audience of 26.1 Million

Ohio State celebrates winning 2025 CFP championship
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