Ryan Day and Ohio State will play for a college football national championship against Notre Dame on Monday. His wife, Nina, is proud of how he has carried himself over the last few weeks after yet another loss to the Michigan Wolverines sparked calls for his head— both figuratively, and unfortunately, literally.
The fanbase in Columbus was not kind to their head coach after the demoralizing defeat to close out the regular season at the end of November.
For those who are not familiar with the inner workings of college football, few things matter more to Ohio State than beating Michigan. The same can be said in reverse. Both programs will consider their season a complete failure if they do not win a national title or win the cross-state rivalry. Everything else is largely irrelevant so Urban Meyer employed a full-time coach to focus singularly on the Wolverines. One single game matters more than the other 11 combined.
Well, Ryan Day is 1-4 against the Wolverines including four-straight losses. This year’s loss was especially shocking for a Buckeyes team that, on paper, is far superior. He was even (briefly) placed on the hot seat because of the result.
Ohio State fans were not happy and took their frustration to the utmost extreme. It became a legitimate safety concern.
I’m a friend of Ryan Day. He and I talk on a regular basis about more than just football, so I hear things that he and his family go through. Especially Nina, his wife. His son, who gets death threats from multiple, multiple people. And what it’s doing to them as a family […]
When I hear that, it really frustrates me that he has to deal with putting an armed guard outside his house 24/7 for his own fanbase. That hurts my heart that that is a reality for the Ohio State coach.
— Kirk Herbstreit
Nina Day recently opened up to WBNS10 about the challenges her family has faced over the last 50 days. She is proud of their resilience, especially that of her husband, and thinks it will serve her children well to see their dad struggle and then succeed.
The greatest thing for our family is that our children saw him fail. They saw a lot of people come at their dad. They saw a lot of people attack him and attack our family. And I think for them to see him fight the way that he has, not back down and continue believing in his players and his coaches and staying steady, I think it was really wonderful to see my kids see him win these last three games [in the Playoff.]
— Nina Day
All of the hardships brought the Day family closer.
My daughter said to Ryan after this last game “Dad, I never stopped believing in you, even when everybody else did.” So, you know, it has brought us closer together because we’ve been fighting for the past month. I’m just happy for Ryan and my kids that we got to feel some of this joy for the past month.
— Nina Day
No matter how hard things got, their belief never wavered.
We never stopped believing. We just all leaned on each other and just kept fighting. There are really hard times, but I think you figure out who you are in those times of adversity
— Nina Day
You can find her full comments here:
Needless to say, these last few days, weeks and months have been extremely taxing on Ryan Day and his family. Having to hire an armed security guard to protect yourself from your own fanbase is unfortunate. He has a chance to prove all of those people wrong with a big win on Monday night.