Ryan Day is positioned to accomplish a feat no Ohio State football coach has since Woody Hayes: win multiple National Championships.

Woody Hayes used to say it plainly. While the legendary Ohio State football coach led the Buckeyes to five national championships, he embedded four words that have outlasted every generation of players, every coaching search, and every era of the sport: You win with people.

The reason Ohio State has won a national championship with three consecutive head coaches: Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer, and Ryan Day, is that conviction never left the building. It traveled from Hayes to Tressel, from Tressel to Meyer, and from Meyer to Day like a torch handed off in a relay.

The talent changes from cycle to cycle, the schemes evolve with the sport, and the faces wearing Scarlet and Gray are different every few years, but the standard around the program does not change.

However, the story of Ohio State football is not about any one man, but about a culture built with intention, maintained with discipline, and passed down with purpose over decades of sustained excellence.

Ryan Day’s Path to a Second Title

Woody Hayes won five titles, the last arriving in 1968, and since that moment, no Ohio State head coach has won more than one. Day has one, earned on the back of a postseason run that will be celebrated in Columbus for a generation. Now the conversation turns to whether he can become the first since Hayes to win multiple titles in Columbus. The infrastructure surrounding him right now makes a compelling case that the answer is yes.

After winning the national title, Day famously said the Buckeyes would not be defending champions; they would be attacking national champions. He baked that mindset into everything Ohio State did last season with elite intentionality. While the Buckeyes fell short, Day continued to strengthen the program’s infrastructure.

Earlier this Spring, Ryan Day spoke about the current landscape of the sport and said, “You either adapt, or you die. We’re not going to die, we’re going to adapt.” It is a worldview that Day has made the operating posture of a program that refuses to translate a championship into complacency, and as a destination rather than a point along the journey. Around Ohio State, there’s always more.

2026 Outlook

The pieces surrounding him heading into 2026 are built for another run. Julian Sayin returns as the starting quarterback entering his second full season under center. The continuity in the offense gives the Buckeyes an advantage because of Sayin’s command and the chemistry with the players around him.

Jeremiah Smith is a name that needs no introduction across the sport. He is the best player in college football and is still wearing scarlet and gray. Smith, as a true freshman, caught 76 passes for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns before elevating even further in the College Football Playoff with 19 catches, 381 yards, and five touchdowns across four games against top-10 opponents.

Through two years, Smith accumulated 2,558 yards and 27 touchdowns, the most of any receiver in the country over that same stretch. He walks into 2026 with the Ohio State record books within reach and at the center of the Heisman conversation, with sky-high expectations.

The defensive attrition was addressed through the transfer portal, adding stars like Earl Little and Dominick Kelly on the backend. New coaching additions Arthur Smith and Cortez Hankton will elevate the offense, too, as the Buckeyes have continuity in the positions that matter.

You Win With People

Day built a culture in which expectations and beliefs are aligned, and preparation is valued as much as performance. In the biggest games, against Michigan, Texas, Oregon, and Notre Dame, culture was the separator that made the difference when talent alone could not have been enough.

That separator is still present and being instilled in the new Buckeyes, with the same intentionality that coach Day has modeled since the day he took this job. His combination of bold vision and disciplined patience is rare in college football, and Day sees the big picture and stays committed to the foundation he has spent seven years constructing.

Entering Year 8, he continues to adapt and set the benchmarks for the sport, which is a major indicator of continued success. Ryan Day knows he has the right people in the facility, coaching, recruiting, and playing, and that it takes everyone to be successful.

Woody Hayes won with people. Jim Tressel won with people. Urban Meyer won with people, and Ryan Day has won with people. Every indicator surrounding the program right now suggests there’s another level of excellence the football program can reach. The standard is the standard: to win every game. If history foreshadows the future, Ryan Day will continue to win with people, and the Buckeyes are in the best hands possible.

NEXT: Read the Leadership Blueprint of Ryan Day: How Ohio State’s Head Coach Built a New Era in Columbus