Ohio State and Ryan Day's National Title Doubters Silenced with Win over Penn State

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

For the first in a long time, Ryan Day smiled. If we're being honest, it was a bit weird.

Well, maybe more unexpected.

Given all the emotions that have hovered around his tenure—the many wins, the painful losses and the enormous, mounting pressure to win a Big Ten Championship and a national championship—it was an unexpected sight.

That burden to deliver, at least momentarily, was set aside. The demands from an anxious fan base in desperate need of better results, as unreasonable as these demands might feel sometimes, were momentarily met.

As Day answered questions in the afterglow of Ohio State's 20-13 win over Penn State that was ugly at times but undeniably…