Ohio State Fans Will Love Ryan Day’s Answer About Leaving Legacy With Buckeyes

Big Ten Media Days might as well be the unofficial kickoff to the college football season, as Day 2 festivities featured coach Ryan Day from the Hilton Chicago.

Outside of mandated media opportunities Wednesday, such as the traditional press conference podium question-and-answer session (that roughly lasted 15 minutes), select media members had one-on-one opportunities, including 10TV's Adam King.

King and Day met in the hallway just outside of the International Ballroom, which is located on the second floor of the 99-year-old hotel that saw all 18 Big Ten programs, featuring a head coach per team and 54 student-athletes make their rounds across three days.

Nonetheless, Day got straight to the point about what makes this year's team special. Stripping away the Xs and Os rhetoric for approximately 45 seconds, Day tasked his team to read a book called Legacy. It tells the story of New Zealand's Rugby team in a comprehensive breakdown of why the team has been successful across multiple decades and the lessons learned along the way.

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"Well, the book that we're reading is Legacy, which is a book about the New Zealand rugby team," Day told King. "And for us, we want to leave a legacy behind. In a day and age where it's about NIL, it's about me, it's about how much money can I make. These guys need to understand: they're at Ohio State, and this program means more than anything else. It's bigger than any one person."

Day said Ohio State's objective is simple: ensure its legacy has a clear, concise definition come the end of the season.

"And so we want to leave a legacy behind," Day said, which King followed up about.

Day kept it simple. No fluff. No filter, and no corners cut. Not even a little bit.

"Well, you do it by leaving the jersey in a better place than you found it, leaving something behind," Day said. "But it also is by winning. You want to tell your story; you want to leave a legacy behind, leave a legacy of winning."

The "legacy of winning," as Day describes it, is a three-part process.

"Win the rivalry game," Day said, referencing the Michigan Wolverines. If Day is victorious in November, it'll be back-to-back wins in the series and Ohio State's first win head-to-head in Columbus since a Nov. 2018 62-39 rout.

Step two, of course, is ending a six-year drought.

"Win the Big Ten Championship," Day added.

And, finally, finishing the mission when it's all said and done.

Win a national championship," Day said, which is something he hasn't done since Jan. 2025. "That's really, really important."

Day said he wants this year's team to be discussed for generations. Simply because, it will have been done collectively without any doubt.

"And so when you come back in 10, 20 years down the line, you can be proud of what you've done to uphold the tradition of Ohio State," Day concluded.

In under 40 days, Ohio State's next chapter in its storied football history will be officially established when it begins its season vs. Ball State. Kickoff is set for Saturday, Sept. 5, at 12:30 p.m. ET from Ohio Stadium (aka "The Shoe") on Big Ten Network.

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