Ohio State's Ryan Day credits ‘timeless principles’ to Buckeyes' CFP win

Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes reached the college football mountaintop in January, winning the storied program's first national championship in 10 years, and the head coach joined Friday's edition of "The Herd" to break down how exactly his team accomplished such a feat.

"I think about the NIL (name, image and likeness), the transfer portal, the conference realignment with 18 teams — in the Big Ten we [now] travel to the West Coast — and you have the playoff change (to 12 teams)," Day told Colin Cowherd. "Those are just four things that have all happened. Those are major, major changes, so you just had to be comfortable being uncomfortable. … What matters is talent acquisition on the field and putting a team together.

"As much, though, as things have changed … I felt with this team [that] it was about the kind of timeless principles of hard work and sacrifice and loyalty and resilience that separated us."

Ohio State was among the busiest schools in the transfer portal last offseason, bringing in new quarterback Will Howard, starting running back Quinshon Judkins and star defensive back Caleb Downs, among other players.

The Buckeyes began the 2024 season 5-0 before a grueling, one-point loss on the road to Oregon. Then, Ohio State won five consecutive games before a crushing, 13-10 loss at home to archival and then-unranked Michigan.

Ohio State, which was 10-2 at the time (7-2 in Big Ten play), claimed the No. 8 seed in the College Football Playoff and proceeded to destroy No. 9 seed Tennessee in the first round, 42-17, followed by handling top-seeded Oregon in the quarterfinals, 41-21. The Buckeyes then beat No. 5 seed Texas in the semifinals, 28-14, thanks to an 83-yard scoop-and-score from defensive end Jack