Ohio State coach Ryan Day made it to the promised land and delivered the Buckeyes their first national title since 2014, but the journey was far from a fairytale, according to his family.
Day’s wife Nina said the couple and their three kids, son R.J. and daughters Nia and Grace, received threats and needed security at their home after Ohio State’s fourth straight loss to rival Michigan, 13-10, on Nov. 30.
“You can’t take anything lightly these days,” Nina told The Athletic in a story published Monday, adding that the threats came from a small, fanatical group of Buckeye fans. “I was very concerned.”
R.J., who is a high school sophomore, recalled barely leaving their home due to uproar over the loss.
“We had security at our house. School was really bad,” he said. “I didn’t really leave the house much ’til after the Tennessee game (three weeks after the Michigan game, in the CFP first round). It was rough, but you’ve gotta hang on in those rough times because eventually things will turn back around again.”
R.J. explained that he received backlash from “grown men” and recalled seeing his sisters in tears.
“Everything we’ve had to go through as a family, it was not easy,” he said. “It was some of the hardest stuff I’ve ever had to deal with in my life; dealing with really grown men coming after me for something I didn’t have a part of but just to see the joys and the tears in my sisters’ face and my mom’s and see the joy in my dad’s face.
“It’s a testament to how you just have to hang on when things are bad, and I’m just so happy for my dad and my family. I know how hard he works. I see the nights when he comes home at 1 a.m. and then goes back to work at 5 a.m. I see how much he puts into these kids, and to see the results and see him hoist that trophy with the smile on his face is something I’ll never forget.”
R.J. added that they call Nina the rock of the their family.
“It’s been a huge challenge,” Nina said. “It’s hard to block out the noise, but we have to stay positive and strong in our house and just believe in what we believe in. He’s overcome so much. He’s always been a fighter, and he fought his way here.”
Nina, who praised her husband for overcoming tough times, mentioned that OSU’s 34-23 victory over Notre Dame in the CFP national championship game came on anniversary of his father’s death.
Day’s father died by suicide on Jan. 20, 1988.
“I don’t think anybody realizes that,” Nina said. “The kids look at their dad and know what he’s been through, he lost his dad at 9 years old. He showed resilience and fought, and look at him now.
“My kids will tell you that they couldn’t be more proud of their dad, and even after that awful loss, we told them we still believed in him and no matter what happens we still have each other. We just stuck together. The biggest thing is you learn to fail but you’ve got to get back up. That’s the biggest thing they’ve learned through this whole thing: Everyone fails, but you’ve got to get back up and keep swinging.”
ESPN’s lead college football analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit, who was in the booth for Monday’s game, said he’s heard stories about what Day and his family endured this season.
“I’m a friend of his. Very objective. [I] try to be as fair as I can be,” Herbstreit said. “But I hear the stories behind the curtain, I know what he and his wife and his family go through. It’s really, it’s tough. It’s tough to be a coach at a premium school where you’re expected to win every game. He handled it with such class. And he gets on top of the mountain.”
Nina’s father, Stan Spirou — a former basketball coach at Division II Southern New Hampshire University who won 640 games over 33 years — explained that she knows how hard it is to be a coach’s kid.
“I’d been in the business for a long time, but I hadn’t seen anything like this,” Spirou told The Athletic. “You have to give a lot of credit to the players. They could’ve gone either way. That’s what leadership is all about. I couldn’t be any happier or proud of Ryan. He got the off the mat. He took all the blame for everything that went on with Michigan. Never put any of it on the players or the coaching staff, and he just went to work.”
