I saw an excerpt of Bill Rabinowitz’s new book, Buckeye Brotherhood, floating around on Twitter yesterday. The topic of OSU’s players only + Day meeting has been one of great interest to a lot of us fans, and as it turns out, Mitchell Melton (who has since transferred to UVA and is having a very solid season as a starter) was the driver in wanting Coach Day to take some accountability.

Very thankful for Mitchell Melton

Wish he was still a Buckeye, glad he is having success at UVA pic.twitter.com/95FRlAdneO
— Official Ohio State DG (@DylanEveryday) October 21, 2025

Melton’s courage led to other players speaking up. 

pic.twitter.com/f5WlAqdUEG
— Slick (@ScootnBoogie) October 21, 2025

As it turns out, a lot of the frustration with Day trying to prove a point in beating Michigan at their own game was true. But, despite Day’s shortcomings in his approach to The Game, I can’t commend him and the players enough for showing a healthy amount of vulnerability to have these conversations. How many hard-headed college football coaches would have done what Day did and actually listened and took accountability? How many players on a team with bad culture would have taken the opportunity of pointing fingers and use it as chance to feed their own ego rather than give constructive feedback to make the program better moving forward?

It takes a lot of people being comfortable in who they are as a person to foment that much community in a time where the program could have seen cracks in its foundation. That group of seniors were something special, but I especially want to give a shoutout to Mitchell Melton for showing true leadership. Players and coaches deserve to hold each other equally accountable, and it seems evident Day took that meeting to heart and formed him into the coach he is now.