Ryan Day on modern college football: "Either you adapt, or you die."

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You know it's peak offseason when head college football coaches are talking about dinosaur Netflix documentaries. Head coach Ryan Day brought up the new documentary miniseries The Dinosaurs from Netflix on Tuesday after the Buckeyes' sixth spring practice. While this shouldn't be news, the way Day talked about it and the comparison he made were quite intriguing and got the average college football fan thinking about the state of the sport.

Ryan Day on dinosaurs and college football programs

"I watched that Netflix documentary on the dinosaurs," Day told reporters Tuesday. "If you want to feel insignificant, watch that because it talks about how the dinosaurs were on Earth, like, 250 million years ago. Throughout time … the world changed, the climate changed, the Earth changed. Some dinosaurs figured out how to continue to adapt, and some died. I guess that's a little extreme, but I think it's kind of the way it is in college football. The people who know how to adapt are going to continue to move on, and the ones who don't, they die. As frustrating as it all is, as much as we all want to just pull our hair out and throw our hands up and realize that this is all extremely crazy, even being with some of the NFL personnel last Wednesday. When they look at you and say, 'You are insane to be in college football,' they're right. But either you adapt, or you die. This is another phase of it is, half of your team is new. They've never played a down in football here. And we're not allowed to lose a game. So we're going to adapt. We're not going to die."

It was fascinating to hear Day speak so candidly about where Ohio State stands right now. Like the dinosaurs millions of years ago, the Buckeyes find themselves at a crossroads as the sport shifts beneath them. The message was clear, though. They are not going to lie down and die. They are going to adapt and thrive in 2026.

How this 2026 Buckeyes roster was constructed

Day went on to address how the way college football rosters are built has fundamentally changed and how Ohio State approached that reality this offseason. The Buckeyes brought in 17 players from the transfer portal, good for the 5th overall-ranked transfer class according to 247Sports, and added 29 commits from the 2026 recruiting class, also ranked 5th nationally. It is a deliberate blend of veteran experience and youthful energy that Day was careful to frame with intention.

"This isn't just a bunch of guys coming in off the street that we don't know," Day said. "Obviously, there's been relationships built. Doesn't guarantee anything, but it's not just random. I think that's intentional, but there's no question that these guys haven't played for the Buckeyes before. I mentioned it out there, there's guys in that group right there that have scars here, that have had success here, and there's a lot of guys that haven't played one snap here yet. All that comes in, into play this season. We're not unique to that, though. It's the same way across the country, and it's just something that we have to continue to figure out."

The shift of college sports and the importance of the transfer portal

What makes Day's perspective so refreshing is that even at the pinnacle of the sport, running one of the most premier programs in the nation, these are the conversations being had in meeting rooms. The old model of recruiting blue-chip high schoolers and developing them over four years is no longer the only path forward. The transfer portal has become a necessary weapon, and Indiana football proved that to the entire country last season.

The shift is just as visible in college basketball. Michigan and Dusty May got creative in a major way, adding four high-profile transfers in Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr., Aday Mara, and Elliot Cadeau while also leaning on four returning players and three highly touted freshmen. That combination of seasoned transfers, talented underclassmen, and holdovers from the previous regime has worked beautifully for the Wolverines, who now sit just two wins away from a national title.

College sports are in a genuinely strange and fascinating place right now. The programs willing to think differently, to adapt rather than cling to the old ways, are going to be rewarded before the rest of the sport even catches up. Ryan Day understands that. Ohio State understands that. And if the last year of college football has taught us anything, the ones who figure it out first are the ones still playing in January.

This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Ryan Day on modern college football: "Either you adapt, or you die."

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