Ryan Day Says Ohio State Players Had 1 Request This Offseason

Head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes reached the top of the college football mountain last season, winning the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff and the national championship.

The Buckeyes are certainly proud of their accomplishment, but they're not going to rest on their laurels. In a recent interview, Day explained the simple request that his players had for him heading into 2025.

“We brought the leadership committee in and we talked about what we want to get done … and the first thing was reinforce the culture,” Day said in an interview with CBS Sports' Josh Pate.

“And the leaders from this year’s group said, ‘Reinforce? There’s guys in this room that don’t even know what the culture is. You’ve gotta rebuild the culture.'

"And they asked for a lot of the national championship paraphernalia to be taken down in the facility because they're like, 'We didn't win a national championship. The last group did.' So that was a good sign because they understood that this was going to be a new year."

The 2025 team will hold itself to the same standard that the 2024 team did - nothing has been accomplished and we're starting back at square one. 

Instilling the hunger and desire to win into a new team can be a challenge for college coaches, especially ones as successful as Day, but it seems that the players themselves want to avoid complacency.

The Buckeyes will be tested early this season, as they will open up the campaign on August 30 with a Cotton Bowl rematch against Texas. We know that Arch Manning will be the quarterback for Steve Sarkisian's team, but Day's starting signal caller has yet to be determined.