Ohio State Buckeyes get Gold Pants at spring practice for the first time in seven years
The Buckeyes received their spoils for their 27-9 victory over Michigan last fall.
COLUMBUS — Ryan Day was handed his pair of Gold Pants on Tuesday, raised his arm in the air and shouted, “Yessir!”
Gold Pants will do that to Buckeyes, especially when they’ve been rare to find around the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
The drought of a spring pants celebration at the Woody is even longer than you think. Before Ohio State’s victory in 2025, the Buckeyes’ last win over Michigan occurred, as you know all too well, in 2019. But the Buckeyes didn’t receive their Gold Pants the next spring, as is customary. Because COVID short-circuited 2020 spring practice, Ohio State players weren’t given their pants until the team reconvened for workouts in July.
So a day quite like Tuesday hadn’t happened since the spring of 2019.
None of the players who received their Gold Pants on Tuesday had earned a pair before. Day, whose reaction was shown in a clip released by Ohio State, got his second pair as a head coach. Among the 12 full-time assistants currently on staff, only defensive line coach Larry Johnson had earned a pair as an assistant, while Keenan Bailey was around for a Michigan win as a staffer and James Laurinaitis won them as a player.
Cornerbacks coach Tim Walton also played for the Buckeyes but never beat Michigan. That’s why he was shown in the team video saying, “Appreciate BIA and the Silver Bullets getting an OG his pair of Gold Pants.”
When you finally get a pair, you often think of those who never got a pair. That’s what offensive lineman Carson Hinzman said he thought of, mentioning teammates like Donovan Jackson, Josh Fryar, Josh Simmons, Toby Wilson and Zen Michalski who never beat Michigan.
Fellow offensive lineman Luke Montgomery said getting handed his Gold Pants by offensive line coach Tyler Bowen was a little awkward — the pants came with a handshake — “but we had fun with it. It was obviously a memorable moment.”
“Getting a pair of Gold Pants … that means a lot for an Ohio kid growing up and wanting to play in that game,” Montgomery said. “It was a winter wonderland that day, so that made it even better.”
Montgomery also was reminded that Michigan had recruited him pretty hard.
“Thank goodness I didn’t go there with what’s going on the last few years,” he said, before adding that the Wolverines did a fine job recruiting him and he wished the best for all those he got to know during that process.
Both Montgomery and Hinzman said they would give their pants to their mothers. (Montgomery said that was a secret, but I don’t think his mom subscribes here.)
“It’s pretty special,” Hinzman said, “to finally get some of these and be a part of that.”
For what it’s worth, my nephew was a walk-on for the 2014 team. I asked him which meant more to him, the natty rings or gold pants. I was beyond shocked when he said the gold pants.
Great to see. It’s been a while.