All I know is pain and suffering.

Breaking: Reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year and #Browns star Myles Garrett has requested a trade.

Exclusive statement: pic.twitter.com/LgS5YCeCnP

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 3, 2025

Have a good Tuesday.

 A SPORT AND ITS ISSUES. In an appearance on The Joel Klatt Show, Ryan Day discussed tampering in college football. While most coaches would call it the sport’s most prominent issue, Day would argue for another: the lack of enforcement regarding the game’s rules.

“One of the biggest problems in college football right now is enforcement. I’m not talking about tampering, I’m just saying in general,” Day said. “The enforcement just isn’t there.”

As a result, Day believes coaches have adopted a routine for lawlessness.

“I think there’s a generation of young coaches that are coming up in this profession that are saying, ‘Why do I follow the rules?’ Integrity, sure, we all have integrity. But there needs to start becoming some sort of penalties for breaking the rules,” Day said. “Otherwise, I don’t know. We’re just going to have a generation of young coaches that see what’s going on across college football and continue to have a disregard for any rule. Again, I’m not just talking about tampering. I’m just saying in general.”

There’s so much Day could be referring to here. For me, the Connor Stalions scandal and teams offering Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate millions of dollars to enter the transfer portal come to mind. But, of course, that’s just me.

“If you make a rule, but you can’t enforce it, then you have no structure,” Day continued. “We’re putting these Band-Aids and patches and different things on them and we continue to move on — and that’s fine, the product’s great – but I said this a few years ago that we would look up in a few years and not recognize what’s going on.

“I think we still have an obligation to do things with integrity and to raise young men to do things the right way in this profession. I think that’s of the utmost importance. Again, I’m not talking about one rule. I’m just saying in general. I think structure has to be looked at across the board.”

What I’m hearing is college football needs a commissioner.

How about College Football Commissioner Nick Saban?

Eh?

 MOVING DIFFERENT. Before I move on from Day’s appearance on The Joel Klatt Show, I have to address the head coach’s comments about spending time between the national championship game and spring football resting. Why? Because he rivaled LeBron levels of cap.

“I need a few weeks just to catch my breath. You know what I mean? Before I put my pedal to the metal,” Day said when Klatt asked him about his desire to win another title. “We got to get the staff right. And then I do need a little time because even since the (national championship) game, there’s been a lot we’ve had to do – recruiting, we’re on the road, we got to make sure we get the staff organized.”

Klatt added that he’s seen Day on The Kelly Clarkson Show and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

“Yeah, yeah,” Day said, laughing. “We’ve got to recharge a little bit, but that’s alright. Once you recharge, it’s all systems go, and then you move forward. We’ve got a really good group of guys coming back. I mean, a really good group of guys coming back. It’s exciting.”

Those comments indicate Day is still focused on celebrating Ohio State’s 2024 title. I’m sure he is. But he’s as focused on the future as he is on the present. The proof? Day posted an image of Ohio Stadium to his Instagram story over the weekend. The story featured the number of days until Aug. 30, when Ohio State hosts Texas in the Horseshoe.

No matter what Day has said on podcasts and television shows, the 45-year-old has caught his breath, rested and recharged. That man is moving different, and I couldn’t love it more.

 “HE IS SUCH A TREMENDOUS LEADER.” Seth McLaughlin was one of six transfers thispast season for Ohio State, and even though his season ended early due to an Achilles tear, it’s clear the impact he made on the 2024 Buckeyes was substantial.

Over the weekend, McLaughlin appeared on the Cube Show with Cole Cubelic to discuss leaving Alabama and winning a national championship at Ohio State. While the entire interview deserves attention, I have limited myself to three things that stood out to me as I listened:

On Ohio State’s players-only meeting

“Coach Day made it different. It was a players-only meeting with Coach Day in there. He is such a tremendous leader. I don’t think a lot of people give him credit for that. He lives and dies with his guys in the room. A lot of people respect that and love Coach Day for that. 

“But that meeting – it really did change in that one meeting, man. Everybody in there was holding each other accountable, they were holding Coach Day accountable and there were a lot of great conversations that went on over a couple of hours with a bunch of people speaking from all different age groups and position groups. It was really just about getting people to buy back into what we (could) do in the postseason.

“After losing that (Michigan) game, you know you have a playoff game coming up. If you don’t get everybody on the same page, it’s hard to go out and practice for those two or three weeks, knowing that people don’t even care if we win this last game. … The guys in that room, there was a ton of senior leadership on that team. They did a good job of getting everybody to come back to that goal and realize that we can win, and here are the changes we’re gonna make, and here’s what we’re gonna do differently and here’s what we learned from the regular season.”

On what separates Day from other coaches

“When he’s in the locker room and in these meetings, he wears his heart on his sleeve. Like I said, he lives and dies with his players. We get a lot of s— because the Ohio State fan base is very enthusiastic about (the team). … When you win, it’s great. When you lose, it’s bad. But that’s why you play college football, and that’s why Ohio State is such a big deal because people care a lot about it.

“But Coach Day gets just as much of it as the players do. It’s like a bond formed through that. He walks through the locker room every day. He says, ‘What’s up?’ to the guys. He has a genuine relationship with everybody on the team. It doesn’t feel very transactional. He’s a great ball coach. He has a great history of winning. He can adapt – he adapts to what his players need, he adapts to what the program needs. He’s just a tremendous leader.”

On leaving Alabama for Ohio State

“My last year at Bama was a crazy year. I didn’t play my best football. I was just struggling a little bit adapting to that role with a new quarterback, new offensive coordinator and a bunch of new guys on the line. I was just eating off more than I could chew with the leadership aspect and getting everybody on the same page. I felt like I had become stagnant in my development and not by anything that my coaches did, but there were a ton of younger guys that needed to be developed to get on the field and play. When you’re the guy who always knows what he’s doing, there’s a lot more coaching on what people are doing at that point than how to do it. 

“I just knew I kind of wanted to leave and get more development on myself. I thought I could do that if I switched programs. All of those thoughts culminated after the Rose Bowl Game. I get back in the locker room, I check my phone and everything is blowing up, kind of placing the whole loss on me. I see my address get leaked on Twitter. It was kind of a surreal moment. I had those conversations I needed to with my position coach and head coach. I talked to Coach (Nick) Saban. He didn’t want me to leave, but he told me he really understood why I would want to, but he wished I would come back. I told him, ‘I’m not gonna do that.’ I had to go and find a new place to grow and become the player I knew I could be. I’m glad it worked out that way.

“(Ohio State) was the first school that reached out to me. I sat down with Coach (Justin) Frye, went through film, and he told me what I had to do to correct my weaknesses in my game, showed me the drill tape that was gonna address those issues and there was no other fit that was better. … They brought me in and knew that I could compete. Without that other kid, Carson Hinzman, competing against him – he’s a freak in the weight room, freak on the field, a really good football player – so competing with him the whole offseason and even in fall camp for the starting spot, it really furthered my game, and it was exactly what I needed to get to where I was at the end of the season. I’m glad it all worked out that way. I don’t think that would have happened at Alabama.”

I will miss McLaughlin as Ohio State’s center. He was tough as nails on the field and an incredible leader off of it. It seems, however, that McLaughlin believes the Buckeyes will be in good hands with Hinzman, whom McLaughlin called a “freak” in the weight room and on the field. He certainly proved that during Ohio State’s championship run, and I hope to see him continue to prove it in 2025!

 THE BREAKING POINT. Brandon Marcello and Richard Johnson have the tea about Jim Knowles. The CBS college football writers reported Monday that Knowles, like other veteran coaches, “has a breaking point with directives.” After the Oregon game, when Day said Ohio State re-engineered its defensive philosophy and scheme, Knowles “reached his limit.”

Jim Knowles’ defense is not static and is certainly malleable to suggestions, but even a veteran coach has a breaking point with directives.

The coordinator reached his limit after three years at Ohio State, where he successfully revamped and revitalized a struggling unit into a championship-caliber group in short order — but not without interference and pressures from head coach Ryan Day, who inserted himself in defensive meetings more often this season and asked for changes to be made midway through the season, sources told CBS Sports. Last week, their short marriage ended with Knowles bolting for rival Penn State. A bigger payday and more autonomy to run his scheme await him in State College, where he will be introduced Tuesday in a press conference.

The departure was not a surprise for Ohio State staffers. Knowles also fielded discussions with Oklahoma and Notre Dame, and rumors of a departure for the Sooners hit a fever pitch as the Buckeyes prepared for the national championship game against the Irish. It never distracted Ohio State, particularly because Knowles, lovingly referred to as a hermit with a coach’s whistle, never relented from his habits: locking himself in his office, studying opponents’ film and developing concise game plans before emerging behind closed doors with a plan that always seemed to wow his players.

That’s it. That’s the tea.

Knowles’ departure is increasingly looking like the best outcome for both parties. If winning a national championship couldn’t help Knowles look past Day’s directives post-Oregon loss – directives that, you know, led to the Buckeyes winning said national championship – then the relationship was irreparable.

Oh, well.

Before the season, if someone told me Ohio State would win a national championship but lose Jim Knowles, I’d make that deal. (Damn good deal.)

 SONG OF THE DAY. “What Was I Made For?” – Billie Eilish, FINNEAS.

 CUT TO THE CHASE. Dick Vitale will announce his first basketball game in two years on Saturday… Scientists hope these tiny froglets can save their species… Dramatic drop in monarch butterfly count nears record 30-year low… These bonobos know what you don’t know… Do doctors still recommend aspirin? Yes, but it’s complicated.