Caleb Downs does not care about the success of Ohio State during the 2024-25 college football season. He supposedly told head coach Ryan Day to erase any reminders of last year’s national championship from the team facility because this year’s roster has yet to win a single game.
Once a disciple of Nick Saban, always a disciple of Nick Saban…
Downs, a former five-star prospect in the college football recruiting Class of 2023, played his freshman season at Alabama. He immediately burst onto the scene as a superstar with 107 total tackles, 70 solo. The 205-pound hard-hitting safety ultimately chose to transfer to Ohio State after Saban retired and helped to lead the Buckeyes to their ninth national championship in program history with 81 total tackles.
That was last year. This is this year.
With that in mind, Caleb Downs supposedly made a request to head coach Ryan Day regarding all of the banners and posters at Ohio State’s football facility that celebrate the national title. He wanted them to be removed from the walls as soon as possible because this current Buckeyes team has yet to win a single game. They no longer deserve to celebrate the past because the focus is on the present.
Mind you, it was disgraced assistant coach Zach Smith who was the first person to “report” this news so I have to take it with a grain of salt. There is a decent probability that this never happened.
Caleb Downs said WHAT to Ryan Day?
— Ohio Divided (@BuckeyeNatty) May 23, 2025
Some NFL team is getting a real one
🎥 @Menace2Sports pic.twitter.com/jLig2nd6ud
And yet, I choose to believe that it is true. Caleb Downs played for Saban as a freshman. Saban refused to acknowledge the past as soon as a new season began. He did not want his players to get complacent and refused to praise them for something that no longer matters. He refused to inflate their egos through the celebration of success that was not yet earned.
I could see Downs wanting to be a leader. I could see him looking at a national championship banner and then looking around the locker room, only to realize that this year’s team looks nothing like the last. Transfers have arrived. Freshmen are on campus. It is a completely different roster.
Why should they receive the praise of people who came before them? Why should the players be reminded of past success when it no longer matters?
I love this move. Caleb Downs is a dog!