Fifteen preseason All-Big Ten picks, eight preseason All-Americans and at least two Heisman contenders. It’s going to be hard for any team to compete with the volume of talent Ohio State brings to the field in 2015. There are a few numbers surfacing this week that the Buckeyes’ biggest threats might have to exploit in an effort to keep Ohio State from repeating as Big Ten champs.
Michigan State and Wisconsin are the two schools best positioned to knock the Buckeyes off course. According to a couple college football number crunchers, their path to closing the talent gap is through experience and home field advantage, respectively.
The Spartans will be the most experienced team in the conference this season, according to a five-part metric concocted by Phil Steele for his annual preview magazine. The formula includes offensive line starts, percentage of tackles and yardages returning from 2014, percentage of lettermen returning and the number of upperclassmen in each team’s projected two-deep depth chart. Michigan State ranks 27th overall in Steele’s lists, which is only a slight edge on Ohio State, who comes in second in the league and 30th overall.
Continue Reading: Searching the numbers for an edge over Ohio State
