ATLANTA — Ryan Day deserved to feel vindication when he won a national championship less than two months after it seemed his Ohio State job was on the line.

That relief only lasts so long. Day made that clear when it was suggested to him on Tuesday morning that Monday night’s 34-23 national championship game victory over Notre Dame meant he would feel less pressure to win big in the 2025 season.

“Try losing the first game and see how that goes at Ohio State,” Day said.

Leading the Buckeyes to their first national title since 2014 earned Day redemption when so many questioned his ability to win the big game following his fourth straight loss to Michigan in November.

‘We’ll Go Down in History’

Day praised his players, saying they deserved to be mentioned with the greatest teams in Ohio State history. Quarterback Will Howard, wearing a “National Champs” cap, and linebacker Cody Simon joined Day at Tuesday’s College Football Playoff champions news conference.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Day said. “And again, we’ll go down in history and cement themselves as champions.”

Day didn’t say that he similarly deserved his place on the list of coaches who have led the Buckeyes to national championships. It includes Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Woody Hayes, and Paul Brown.

“It’s an honor,” Day said when asked about joining that roster of greats. “It’s an honor to be the head coach at Ohio State. I’d probably say that this job is not for everybody.”

Day earned his spot in Ohio State and college football history.

There were unexpected bumps, including on the golf cart ride to Monday night’s postgame news conference. The CFP’s driver misjudged the turning radius of the cart, driving the vehicle into a wall outside the Ohio State locker room with Day sitting in the front row and Howard, howling with laughter, in the back row.

The impact caused Day to lurch forward in his seat.

“Obviously the golf cart incident was pretty funny,” Howard said Tuesday. “Coach Day, I hope you’re all right. He got jolted a little bit.”

Said Day: “Send the medical bills to the CFP.”

$500K Bonus for Winning National Title

Day won’t need help paying any bills. His financial reward was a $500,000 bonus for the championship game win, added to $500,000 bonuses already earned and his $10 million base salary.

Day’s generous compensation came for surviving the challenges of a long season, including the CFP’s first 12-team playoff.

With five national titles, Hayes set a standard that may never be matched at Ohio State. Meyer coached the 2014 championship team.

Ohio State was No. 1 in the final AP Top 25 of the season, followed by Notre Dame.

Day is 68-10 in his six seasons, but winning 87.2% of his games seemed easy to overlook when he suffered his fourth consecutive loss to Michigan and fell short of the Big Ten championship game.

“None of us ever doubted for a second that he was the right guy to lead this team,” Howard said. “We stuck together and we said we want to do it for each other, we want to do it for our coach, and let’s do this thing, man. I’m really glad that we were able to finish it the right way.”

Added Simon: “No one ever on our team lost any type of faith.”

Noise of Michigan Loss

Simon said he realized “there’s noise all over the world” following the loss to Michigan. He said his faith in Day was based on knowing how hard the coach worked every time he reported to the practice facility and saw Day was already there.

“You think you’re getting work done and you go and walk past the head coach office and he’s already there,” Simon said. “He’s been watching film. His eyes are bloodshot. He puts that extra time in that no one in the world is really putting in.”

As the clock expired on Monday night, Day hurled his headset into the air.

Asked Tuesday if he felt happiness or relief at the time, Day said “I guess both.”

“I don’t know if it’s a spectrum. All of the above. Yeah, all of the above,” he said. “There’s a mix of emotions there. It’s hard to really put into words.”