"Son's in high school, my daughters are in middle school": Ryan Day gets real on family being first of its kind for Ohio State environment

Prior to Ohio State's College Football Playoff campaign, Ryan Day and his family faced intense criticism and backlash from Buckeyes fans. This stemmed from the program’s fourth consecutive loss against rival Michigan, ruling it out of the Big Ten Championship Game.

However, things turned around for the coach in the playoffs. He led Ohio State to arguably the most dominant display in the CFP's history as it claimed the national title. The Buckeyes defeated Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame en route to championship success.

In his appearance on a recent installment of “The Steam Room” with Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, Ryan Day discussed what the intense scrutiny from the fans looked like for his family. He pointed out how his family was the youngest to have ever faced such a level of hostility from the Buckeyes fanbase.

“It's one thing when it's you, it's another thing when it's your family,” Day said (timestamp 6:19). “We're really the first family that's had – My son is in high school, my daughters are in middle school – the first kind of young family that's gone through this here at Ohio State.

“There's a lot that comes with that. You want to protect your kids and protect your wife, but the truth is, this is part of the job. Nobody puts more pressure on themselves than us and me.”

Ryan Day outlines the lessons learned by his children

Ohio State's national championship story is nothing short of dramatic. It's a story of commitment, resilience and management of adversity. Ryan Day believes the way it all turned out is a big lesson for his children, who had their fair share of the pressure mounted by the fans.

“There are a lot of lessons learned for my children because I know there's going to be adversity that hits them in their life and I hope that they use this as an opportunity to say ‘I remember when Dad was down and they counted him out, he just kept fighting,'” Day said (timestamp 7:26).

“I think that's also a lesson for our players and then hopefully there's people across Buckeye nation that can use this as motivation that when things aren't going well, you just have to hang in there and fight as hard as you possibly can.”

For Ryan Day, the way you manage adversity defines you as a man. He noted after the dominant display against Tennessee that this was his message to his players while preparing for the playoffs. Despite the backlash, Ohio State went on to claim the national title in a convincing manner.