Ryan Day is carrying the legacy of Ohio State football’s sustainability because of three things: foundation, people, and culture.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Legendary Ohio State coach and 5-time National Champion, Woody Hayes, preached a foundational message: “You win with people.” Decades later, Ryan Day and the Ohio State football program are still embracing that mantra. “It always comes down to people,” Day told reporters and The Silver Bulletin when asked about his philosophy as a leader, running a program, acquiring talent on the coaching staff and roster, and living out the team’s culture daily.

In six words, Ryan Day described the operating principle of his entire program. Everything else inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center flows from that fundamental truth. At Ohio State, culture is more than a talking point. Day believes it’s an infrastructure project, and as the leader, he’s responsible for creating the culture that drives the necessary behavior to yield the desired results.

This winter, Ohio State retained Matt Patricia as defensive coordinator and hired former LSU wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton to replace Brian Hartline, who departed to USF as the head coach. In addition, the Buckeyes elevated Keenan Bailey’s responsibilities after bringing in Arthur Smith, who adds a wealth of NFL experience as a head coach and offensive coordinator.

Keenan Bailey on Arthur Smith and Ohio State’s offense:

🗣️ “I’ve never been more excited for the direction of this offense.”

Bailey praised Ryan Day as the “best offensive mind in the country,” then highlighted each offensive assistant coach, and noted Smith’s NFL experience. pic.twitter.com/UMjigcDoER

— Blake T. Biscardi (@BlakeBiscardi) April 2, 2026

At the same time, Ryan Day and his staff welcomed 51 new faces this spring. 2026 is the first time the program has seen that level of year-over-year roster change. Much like hiring coaches and recruiting players, Day’s approach was just as intentional in the transfer portal, bringing in players like Terry Moore, Kyle Parker, James Smith, and Qua Russaw.

There were pre-established relationships with the players. Matt Guerrieri coached Moore at Duke, Kyle Parker followed Hankton from LSU, and then Caleb Downs remembered Alabama transfers Smith and Russaw from his time in Tuscaloosa. One of the elements Ryan Day mentioned about this year’s team is that they need to learn to practice at Ohio State, explaining that, with so many new faces, it’s part of the assimilation process.

FOUNDATION

Ryan Day has a ritual he returns to with his players again and again. After every practice, a brick is awarded to someone who exemplifies the standard that day. That brick gets placed on a pallet. Throughout the season, the pile grows, signifying the foundation that’s being built, so when adversity, or “storms” as Day puts it, strikes, his team’s foundation is stronger than their opponent’s.

“That pallet represents the body of work that we put in,” Day explained, “and that allows us to play with confidence knowing that we put that in every day.”

While the pallet of bricks is unique to each team, it also symbolizes the program’s history and tradition, especially given what Ohio State has built. A program with a .737 historic winning percentage has found victory at an .872 clip under Day’s watch. He’s 82-12 overall in seven seasons, including a 2024 national championship.

As we’ve covered extensively here at The Silver Bulletin, Ryan Day’s greatest cultural accomplishment may be that his teams rarely beat themselves. That is the product of intentional leadership. Day’s players repeat his mantras and speak about accountability, owning their units, and understanding the standard. All of that has come from building a strong culture, brick by brick.

PEOPLE

If culture is the spine of the program, then the coaching staff is the nervous system. Ryan Day spent this offseason enhancing it with the same intentionality he preaches to his players.

The 2026 Ohio State coaching staff is headlined by a pair of former NFL head coaches: offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia. Ohio State will pay its assistant coaches $15.3 million this season, an increase of more than $3.5 million from a year ago and the largest assistant coaching budget ever for a college football program.

Smith comes to Columbus with 17 years of NFL coaching experience, including a run as offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, where he helped Derrick Henry rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season, and a three-year stint as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons before spending the last two years running the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense. He is the third former NFL head coach Day has installed as a coordinator in three years, following Chip Kelly’s national championship season in 2024 and Patricia’s top-ranked defense in 2025.

Ryan Day was direct about what that means on the recruiting trail. “If I’m a recruit and I come in and I have Arthur Smith on offense and Matt Patricia on defense, I know I’m going to get coached like an NFL team, like an NFL organization,” Day said.

On Pro Day, Ryan Day outlined the blueprint for development and building the total player in all three phases to be prepared for life. He said it’s not a theory like in other places, but that Ohio State has real testimony to back it up. When Day tells recruits that the expectation is a first, second, or third-round draft grade, he’s backing it up with a staff that has produced and developed those rooms.

CULTURE

Perhaps the clearest proof that Day’s culture runs deeper than a press conference quote came when Patricia had a decision to make this offseason.

Despite his storied history in the professional ranks, including three Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots, Patricia noted that the culture established by Day and the stability for his family were the deciding factors in his decision to turn down NFL interest and stay in Columbus. “Coach Day’s got a great staff, great culture,” Patricia said. “It wasn’t something where it was like you are necessarily looking to leave.”

Patricia’s deal makes him the highest-paid assistant in the country at $3.75 million this season. But money alone doesn’t keep coaches like that; culture and people do.

The staff around Patricia reflects the same philosophy. Larry Johnson enters his 13th season at Ohio State in 2026, with nine defensive linemen earning first-team All-America honors under his watch. Tim Walton, a former Buckeye cornerback, guided Ohio State’s defense to a No. 1 national ranking in multiple categories during the 2025 season and also produced a sweep of the Big Ten’s top defensive honors.

Cortez Hankton was brought in from LSU to replace Brian Hartline as the wide receivers coach. Hankton developed consecutive first-round picks Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., and previously won a national championship at Georgia.

Robby Discher arrived from Illinois to address a persistent special teams concern, bringing a reputation as one of the nation’s elite specialists in that unit. Each hire is as much a cultural decision as a football decision.

“Think Big When You Come to Ohio State,” Day said.

Day is also acutely aware that the program’s expectations aren’t just internal. They’re a recruiting tool, an identity marker, and a pressure point all at once.

“When you build a team, you want to make sure that you have guys that understand what you want to get done and understand that the team is more important than themselves,” Day said. “And today’s day and age, we all know that’s not easy to do.”

He knows the cultural tension that comes with roster management in the NIL and transfer portal era. Ohio State brought in 17 scholarship transfers this offseason, most of whom are upperclassmen expected to play significant roles, modeling its approach more closely to NFL free agency than to traditional recruiting.

Ryan Day acknowledged that the team-first mandate becomes harder to sell when every player has market value and leverage. That’s exactly why the culture has to be airtight before those conversations start.

When Brandon Inniss was asked to describe the 2026 Buckeyes in a single word, he didn’t hesitate to say: “Elite.” That’s the expectation Day has set.

Importance of the Right People

Day’s remarks carry an undercurrent that anyone following Ohio State closely will recognize. The 2025 season ended with consecutive losses to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship and to Miami in the CFP quarterfinals, following a 16-game winning streak. Ohio State has 51 new players to integrate, but the faces are not strangers. The Buckeyes took a familiar, pre-established-relationships approach in the transfer portal this offseason.

Ryan Day has been here before, though, with the Michigan losses driving a national narrative. The scrutiny follows a program that refuses to lower its own expectations, and Day’s response has always been the same: steady the program, trust the culture, rebuild the foundation.

Day said, “When you go through a setback, you go through adversity, that’s when you really find out about the people that are around you,” he said. “You find out how tight your group is.”

This offseason, Ohio State found out about its people as Matt Patricia stayed, and Columbus was viewed as a destination by top coaches and players alike. Top-rated recruits like Chris Henry Jr. remained committed despite Brian Hartline’s departure. Cortez Hankton and Arthur Smith both expressed their desire to coach the Scarlet and Gray.

Using talent as an attraction point is an understatement for the stable of athletes stockpiled in Columbus. However, the desire to coach the Buckeyes goes deeper than that for newcomers Arthur Smith and Cortez Hankton. While both coaches have some of the most elite players in the country, Smith and Hankton also praised Day as a leader, the people around the program, and the opportunity.

Matt Patricia on his decision to stay with the Buckeyes:

🗣️ “Ohio State is such a special place. Not only just the history, the tradition, the football program, the school, but the people that are here.”

Patricia also said Columbus feels like home. pic.twitter.com/lG5Am2urmF

— Blake T. Biscardi (@BlakeBiscardi) March 26, 2026

Matt Patricia echoed the same sentiments when he detailed his decision to stay earlier this spring. “Ohio State is such a special place. Not only the history and the tradition, the football program, the school, but the people that are here and the kids that are here and Coach Day,” Patricia said.

The consistent mentioning of people is a constant theme around the Buckeyes, which is an indicator of its importance, especially the right people. But it’s not just those inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center that have gotten Patricia’s attention. Central Ohio’s residents and Buckeye fans have won the hearts of the Patricia family, too.

Patricia said, “Everybody’s been so nice and welcoming, and it feels like home. So it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for us to be in a place where everybody’s happy. It’s really important.”

That’s what culture looks like when it’s practiced instead of proclaimed. It’s not a slogan on a wall, but something a team can feel in their bones and believe in their hearts because that’s where multiplication happens. Whether in meetings, walkthroughs, practices, or games, all those things add up to form the foundation that gets tested when it matters most.

In Columbus, the keys to success are the same under Ryan Day as they’ve been for over 130 years. Surround yourself with the right elite people while teaching in a relentlessly competitive, healthy culture predicated on a rock-solid foundation.

NEXT: Read and watch the latest updates on Ohio State at the midway point of spring practice.