After defeating Notre Dame 34-23, Ohio State just won their ninth national championship in school history. Despite the successful finish to the season, just one month ago fans were demanding that Ryan Day be fired from his job, following a fourth consecutive loss to their rival Michigan.
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In spite of having the third-best winning percentages in college football history (70-10 record), Day found himself on the hot seat after the Wolverines defeated the Buckeyes 13-10 on November 30.
And this not only led to uncertain job security for Day, but also resulted in unconscionable fans sending he and his family death threats.
In a recent interview, Nina Day, the wife of the Buckeye coach, opened up about how their family were sent horrifying messages following their upset loss to Michigan.
To note, their 16-year-old son RJ started to receive death threats on social media, which was certainly alarming for the family, who also had to worry about their home address being posted.
All of this led to Ryan Day hiring actual armed security guards to protect their house in Columbus.
To emphasize the lack of humanity from some of the angry fans, multiple egregious text messages they received suggested that Day should commit suicide.
"They told me multiple times to have Ryan follow in his father's footsteps and kill himself," Nina Day told the Columbus Dispatch.
For those who don't know, Day's father took his own life when he was only eight years old.
HORRIBLE: Ohio State HC Ryan Day received death threats after the Michigan loss, per his wife, Nina.
The messages from fans urged him to “follow in his father’s footsteps” and end his life.
Ryan’s dad died by suicide when he was 8.
Their home address was also leaked online. pic.twitter.com/fvZqJxRAUr
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 24, 2025
"It's very disappointing to me what some people are capable of, but you look at the news and you look at our society as a whole," Nina Day said. "People are very mean. They're very negative. They're nasty. I'm not saying everybody is, but there's definitely a percentage of people that are just ruthless in their hate."
She continued, "I think he, at times, second-guessed his decision to get into this and be in the spotlight that we're in. He felt responsible and just felt bad that he had put us in this position."
"He promised us he'd get us out of it," Nina concluded.
Day certainly helped silence the ruthless haters as he now joins an elite company of former Buckeye coaches, who won a championship, such as: Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer.
Ohio State is the most deserving champion in the history of college football.
They’ve beaten every single team in the top 8 of the final rankings except Georgia. And they did it with an average margin of victory of 15.5 points.
Ryan Day rewrote the narrative. He’s a legend. pic.twitter.com/0CYPznzAwY
— Steve 🤙 (@SteveKBark) January 21, 2025
Related: Ryan Day Insists He's Not Going Anywhere, Offering Little Comfort To Some Ohio State Fans
