Ryan Day enters his 10th year at Ohio State, the past seven as head coach, having grown from a mostly unknown assistant into one of college football's elite coaches.

"I hear Ryan sometimes, I listen to Ryan, and I'm like, 'Whew, he sounds tired,'" said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, who worked with Day on Ohio State's staff from 2017 to 2018. "It's an exhausting, exhausting place, a pressure cooker."

Day, 47, boasts an .872 winning percentage, top-10 finishes in each season, two Big Ten titles, and a national championship two years ago. His on-field credentials are unmatched, though his losses are magnified at a program where, as Day notes, you're never allowed to lose.

Unlike predecessors Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel, Day is not a native Ohioan and hadn't dominated Michigan or piled up conference titles early. Yet his resilience has proven that a first-time head coach can thrive at college football's brightest stage. With a tough 2026 schedule ahead, Day could claim a second national title — something neither Meyer nor Tressel achieved.