Ohio State AD Ross Bjork appeared on "Morning Juice" on The Fan in Columbus Thursday morning to confirm that Ryan Day will return seventh season as the Buckeyes' head coach in 2025.
"How confident are you that, regardless of what happens in the CFP, when Ohio State kicks off against Texas next year on Aug. 30, Ryan Day is on the sideline?," Bjork was asked.
"Absolutely," Bjork said. "Coach Day and I have just hit off so well. I've been really, really impressed every single time I've talked to him, I learn something. He's innovative. He recruits at the highest level. He's got a great staff. There's always tweaks, there (were) tweaks after last year. You're always going to tweak things."
When we last saw Ohio State, the Buckeyes were fresh off a stunning 13-10 loss to a 6-5 Michigan team. The loss, one of the worst in program history, knocked Ohio State out of the Big Ten Championship and called into question Day's fitness to lead the program moving forward considering the program's all-consuming focus on The Team Up North and his four straight losses in the rivalry game.
“Our full focus right now is on the College Football Playoff and making a strong run,” Bjork said. “We have a ton to play for. We have a great team made up of talented players and great young men. Coach Day does a great job leading our program. He's our coach.”
The phrasing -- "right now" -- called into question what would happen if Ohio State fails to make a College Football Playoff run. The eighth-seeded Buckeyes will face No. 9 Tennessee in the first round on Dec. 21 (8 p.m. ET, ABC).
The Michigan loss also sparked speculation that Day would leave Ohio State on his own. Day has since squashed that chatter.
"Yes," Day said last week when asked if he planned to return in 2025.
"This is a wonderful place," he continued. "I have one of the best jobs in America. I'm disappointed more than anybody. We'll continue to move and figure out what it is and overcome this obstacle."
So, with Bjork and Day now confirming the plan moving forward, the question becomes: how does Ohio State move forward?
Day and Ohio State cannot possibly place more emphasis on the Michigan game, given that Michigan has been Ohio State's 365-day focus ever since Jim Tressel prophesied the Buckeyes would beat the Wolverines back on Jan. 18, 2001. Tressel, Urban Meyer, and Day were a combined 17-2 versus Michigan from 2001-19.
The obvious answer is to spend less time focused on Nov. 29, 2025, and more time focused on Dec. 12, 2024. That's tough for Day to come out and say, given that he compared losing to Michigan to the death of his father before his worst loss yet in Ohio State's now 4-game losing streak. Ohio State fans are not ready to hear "Actually, we've placed too much emphasis on The Game" from the guy who's lost four straight, even if that is obviously the correct answer.
That brings us back to why Bjork was on local radio on Thursday morning.
"This whole mentality of about, and look, we sign up for it, if you get fixated on the end result and not have the process fully baked every time, you're going to lose," Bjork said. "The mindset's going to lose because you're only fixated on one thing. What we have to do is this whole 'Championship or bust' mentality, you want that as a goal, but it has to be about the process. We've got to maybe change some conversations a little bit, I think we maybe need to approach things a little bit differently. Coach Day is awesome, he's great to work with, he totally gets it, he loves being a Buckeye, and so we're going to support him at the highest level."
To be clear, this mindset did not begin with Day. It started with Tressel and was amplified by Meyer, who "respected the rivalry" 365 days a year and unhelpfully went 7-0 in The Game. Tressel and Meyer put pressure on Day this summer when they agreed they'd never seen a more talented Ohio State team.
Ohio State did not beat Michigan and did not win the Big Ten, but they could still win a national championship.
"We're still breathing. We're still alive. The season's not over. The book is not closed, right? We've got to have confidence," Bjork said. "To me it's the process as much as it is the end result. If the process is right, the end result will take care of itself."