Dear Buckeye Nation,

Let me guess: You don’t want to fire Ryan Day now, do you?

Listen, perfection in a sport like college football is unattainable. No matter how great a player or a team can possibly be, there are simply too many moving parts to play a perfect game. It just can’t happen. But that didn’t stop Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes from flying oh-so-close to that unattainable goal Monday night.

The reward for said near-perfect effort: a national championship.

Ohio State looked like the team of destiny it ultimately was meant to be inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, dominating Notre Dame 34-23 to win the program’s 9th national championship and the first since 2014.

Anyone want to trade an incoming gaudy national championship ring for a chintzy pair of Gold Pants?

Didn’t think so.

In the 52 days between what was undoubtedly Ohio State’s darkest hour in 2024 and Monday night, something clicked with the Buckeyes. Gone was the team that bumbled and stumbled around for 60 minutes against arch-rival Michigan. Nowhere to be found was the unit that couldn’t find a single spark at home against the thoroughly average Wolverines.

In the ensuing games between that 13-10 game and the one against Notre Dame, all Ohio State did was get better – lots and lots better, seemingly every time out. First was a cathartic first-round Playoff victory at home against Tennessee – a 42-17 beatdown that was a statement by the Buckeyes against anyone who wanted to doubt Day’s coaching bona fides. Tennessee valiantly tried to take advantage that night, Vols fans coloring The Shoe with that sherbet orange from pillar to post, only to witness the home squad send a 60-minute message.

Then came the Rose Bowl against Oregon, a 41-21 thumping of the Ducks to avenge 2024’s other loss back on Oct. 12. And then it was a 28-14 victory against Texas in the Cotton Bowl/CFP semifinals – a knock-down, drag-out win to climb to within spitting distance of the sport’s summit.

Each time out, even as opposition presented tougher and tougher challenges, Day’s Buckeyes looked better and better on both sides of the field. Instead of the air getting thinner with every step toward said summit, Ohio State simply looked fresher, dominant and poised.

But those 3 Playoff dubs were nothing, pure prelude, compared to Monday night. Sure, Ohio State went off as a 9-point favorite against Notre Dame – a literal pile of smart money going toward the Buckeyes with every passing day. But it’s one thing to earn the respect of Las Vegas, it’s a whole different thing to dominate another legacy program like Ohio State did.

Not that the Fighting Irish laid down to Ohio State, not by a fair stretch. Instead, Notre Dame came out swinging and connecting straight on the Buckeyes’ chin – engineering an 18-play, 75-yard drive for a game-opening touchdown that ate up almost all of the first quarter.

Trailing 7-0, Ohio State didn’t even blink – instead answering with an 11-play, 75-yard TD drive of its own capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Will Howard to Jeremiah Smith.

What happened next, though, was the real story. Ohio State’s defense flipped the proverbial switch and ended Notre Dame’s ensuing 3 first-half possessions after just 7 plays which amassed a grand total of 3 yards. And the Buckeyes’ offense continued its systemic progression, with Quinshon Judkins rumbling in for a 9-yard touchdown and then catching a 6-yard Howard TD toss late in the half for a 21-7 advantage.

That’s 3 touchdowns on 3 possessions, with Howard going 14-of-15 in said 30 minutes of football for 144 yards. That Howard somehow mixed in an incompletion at some point was almost as remarkable as punter Joe McGuire not even sniffing the field the entire half.

Ohio State got the ball to start the second half and picked up right where it left off, going 75 yards again on just 5 plays – with Judkins rumbling for 70 yards on one carry and finishing it with a 1-yard plunge to make it 28-7.

Not that Notre Dame folded the tent and retreated to South Bend without a tussle. The Irish answered an Ohio State field goal later in the 3rd quarter with another full-field TD march and a 2-point conversion to make to make it 31-15. But even after the Fighting Irish forced a Buckeyes fumble early in the 4th quarter and marched to the Ohio State 9 – Notre Dame stalled out and ultimately doinked a short field-goal attempt.

Marcus Freeman’s Irish had one last gasp left in them, with Riley Leonard hitting Jaden Greathouse on a sterling 30-yard TD pass and Notre Dame adding a second 2-point conversion to draw within 8 points. But Ohio State rolled the dice on a 3rd-and-11 at the Buckeyes’ 34-yard line with 2:40 to go, Howard dropping a 56-yard dime to Smith all the way to the Notre Dame 10 that effectively clinched it.

All the post-Michigan hysteria made Day – who has only won 70 games in 80 attempts (an absurd 87.5% rate) at Ohio State – inexplicably the nexus of coaching hot seat talk. Such is life, I guess, when you go 0-4 against That Team Up North. But what everyone seemed to miss in the wake of said lackluster effort on Nov. 30 was that these Buckeyes were too good to keep screwing up.

As we postulated Monday morning, Ohio State would be well served to actually thank the 2023 and 2024 Wolverines for the motivation needed to get to college football’s summit and plan their own scarlet-and-gray flag.

Week after week, popular opinion revolving around Day has slowly and steadily morphed from vilified to deified – Day himself likely going from wondering when the movers were going to voluntarily appear to wondering what flavor of Gatorade was coming in the closing moments of Monday’s game.

And once the confetti was done fluttering and the oversized oblong trophy was being passed around from one set of Buckeye hands to the next, there was Day – grinning through that impossibly black beard – surely marveling at the accelerated journey he and his team had just completed.

In less than 2 months, Ohio State went from punching bags to national champions. From laughingstocks to legends in just 52 days.

Who really cares about those Gold Pants now?