Overlooked or Overrated? Ohio State Is College Football’s Great Unknown in 2016

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Between the loss of nearly a starting lineup’s worth of NFL talent, but the return of arguably the Big Ten’s best player and one of college football’s winningest coaches, this much seems to be certain when it comes to Ohio State’s outlook on the 2016 season: nothing’s for certain. Despite very little having changed for the Buckeyes between the mass exodus of talent that occurred at the end of the 2015 season and the dead period that is this point of the offseason, prognostications on Ohio State’s upcoming campaign have seemingly varied by the day. The latest public projection has painted a surprisingly bleak picture for the Buckeyes, with Las Vegas’ Golden Nugget sportsbook (via Covers.com) setting Ohio State’s regular-season over/under win total at a meek 8.5. Unsurprisingly, according to at least one Las Vegas patron, the line on Buckeye regular-season wins has already moved to nine following last week’s initial posting. And with good reason: Even with five first-round picks, 12 total draft picks and 16 former starters having moved on from last year’s team, winning eight or fewer games would be a massive disappointment for an Ohio State program that’s averaged 11.5 regular-season wins and compiled an overall 50-4 record since Urban Meyer arrived in 2012. “We certainly don’t lower our standards just because a player moves on,” Meyer said this offseason. “That’s not what this place is all about.” The early predictions when it came to the…

Ohio State Football: 5 Toughest QBs Buckeyes Will Face in 2016

The Ohio State football team will be challenged by a number of elite teams this fall, headlined by Oklahoma on the road in Week 3, but the Buckeyes won’t have to defend an elite group of quarterbacks. The departures of Connor Cook from Michigan State, Nate Sudfeld from Indiana, Christian Hackenberg from Penn State and Jake Rudock from Michigan has created a void of experience in the offenses Ohio State will face this year. All four of those quarterbacks heard their names called in the NFL draft a few weeks ago, so the Buckeyes will be facing a lot of good teams with a new signal-caller behind center. However, this next group of five quarterbacks should challenge Ohio State the most due to their skill level, experience and/or the coach they’re learning from. Begin Slideshow

Ohio State Football: 3 Recruits Who Would Be Perfect Fits for Buckeyes Defense

Ohio State already has seven elite defenders in its No. 1-ranked recruiting class, highlighted by 5-star cornerback Shaun Wade. But Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes are looking to tighten their grip on that top spot by recruiting some of the nation’s top blue-chip prospects. These 5-star standouts, in particular, would not only help Ohio State maintain pole position in the recruiting standings, but they would also be perfect fits in an already-dominant defense. Last week, we identified three players who would take Ohio State’s offense to the next level. This week, we’re providing a look at three recruits who would make the Buckeyes a defensive nightmare over the next four years. Dylan Moses, 5-Star Linebacker Ohio State has loaded up on linebackers in recent years, signing eight prospects in the last three classes, so the position group wasn’t one of the highest priorities for the 2017 recruiting cycle. That urgency lowered even more when the Buckeyes landed 4-star linebacker Antjuan Simmons from Ann Arbor, Michigan. But when a kid as talented as 5-star linebacker Dylan Moses is interested in your school, those priorities change. That’s the reality for Meyer and Ohio State after Moses tweeted about his desire (via Cleveland.com) to visit Columbus. Rated as the nation’s No. 1 outside linebacker and the No. 2 overall prospect nationally, Moses has offers from pretty much every school worth mentioning. He’d be an incredible fit in Ohio State’s…

Biggest Challenges Facing Urban Meyer and Ohio State in 2016

Urban Meyer was supposed to have one of the easiest jobs in college football last year, fueled by a loaded roster that returned seven starters on each side of the ball from a team that had just steamrolled its way to—and through—the first-ever College Football Playoff. Ohio State entered the 2015 season as the first unanimous preseason AP No. 1 team in college football history, and no one anticipated the Buckeyes struggling with a schedule that provided few obstacles. The pressure of living up to those enormous expectations, though, proved to be too much for Meyer and the Buckeyes, as they stumbled down the stretch against Michigan State and ultimately fell short of a second consecutive playoff berth. With the 2016 season on the horizon, Meyer has a whole new set of hurdles ahead of him. But fortunately for the Buckeyes, none of those hurdles will be as big as the expectations that wore the team down a season ago. Getting a Young Team Ready The main cause for those decreased expectations is the youth movement that’s underway in Columbus. After pasting Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day, an incredible nine underclassmen declared for the NFL draft, leaving an enormous hole in Ohio State’s depth chart. The Buckeyes had a record 10 former players selected in the first three rounds of the draft, highlighting the talent exodus that’s headed to the NFL. Meyer was left with a team needing to replace 16 total starters—eight on each side…

Ohio State Football: 3 Recruits Who Would Be Perfect Fits for Buckeyes Offense

Head coach Urban Meyer has Ohio State at the top of the college football recruiting world with 2017’s No. 1-ranked class, and when looking at the Buckeyes’ top remaining targets, there are three players who would not only strengthen their hold on the top spot, but they would also be perfect fits for Meyer’s spread-power offense. Ohio State already has the cornerstone of its future offense in the fold with a verbal pledge from Josh Myers, a 5-star left tackle who’s rated the No. 3 overall player for 2017. Adding this trio of 5-stars would lay a foundation for an offense that could dominate the Big Ten and pave the way to more playoff berths down the road for the Buckeyes. Tate Martell, 5-Star Quarterback Ohio State doesn’t have a particularly big need at quarterback—in fact, some could argue the position room is getting quite full with J.T. Barrett, Joe Burrow, Stephen Collier, Dwayne Haskins and 2017 pledge Danny Clark on board. But when a school has the chance to land a talent as special as Tate Martell, it can’t afford to pass on it. The 5’10”, 203-pound signal-caller is rated the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback nationally and the No. 33 prospect overall. His offer list includes Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, LSU, Michigan and USC, and for a long stretch, Martell was committed to play out his collegiate career at Texas A&M. Following a bizarre series of events, Martell decommitted from the Aggies and reopened…

Why J.T. Barrett Makes Ohio State the Big Ten Favorite in 2016

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It hasn’t taken long for the hype to build for Michigan as it spends its second straight offseason in the spotlight thanks to Jim Harbaugh. But with J.T. Barrett returning for his third season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback, the road to the Big Ten title—and in effect, the College Football Playoff—will once again run through Columbus. Yet, as preseason polls have begun to pop up with fewer than four months to go until the start of the 2016 season, the Wolverines have found themselves a popular prediction to crash the College Football Playoff—an even trendier pick than their archrival Buckeyes. The logic? After a 10-3 debut season under Harbaugh, Michigan not only appears to be ahead of schedule, but it returns several key pieces—and 2017 NFL draft prospects—on both sides of the ball. “In between his Twitter wars with other coaches, recruiting extravaganzas and spring break trips, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is quickly building a playoff contender,” ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach wrote in this week’s “Way-Too-Early Top 25,” which ranked the Wolverines third. Approximately 190 miles south of Ann Arbor, Ohio State can’t claim the same carryover and consistency the Wolverines are about to enjoy—not with what the Buckeyes saw walk out the door during last month’s NFL draft. Altogether, Urban Meyer finds himself replacing 16 starters, including 12 NFL draft picks and five first-rounders in a crop of players…

Despite Offseason Controversies, Urban Meyer Remains Big Ten’s Best Recruiter

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Although college football has entered the quietest portion of its offseason, Urban Meyer’s name has made a habit of staying in the headlines recently. And not necessarily for the best of reasons. While satellite camp announcements have seemed to be the only consistent mainstay in the college football news cycle this spring, the Ohio State Buckeyes head coach has come under attack publicly not once, but twice from prospects whom the Buckeyes once had interest in but ultimately didn’t land. The result has been a pair of mini-controversies during a particularly slow period on the sport’s calendar, which when combined with one another, have made Meyer’s notoriously aggressive recruiting approach a hot topic of conversation. Yet despite the negative press, Ohio State has never been hotter on the recruiting trail. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just look at the recruiting rankings, where the Buckeyes currently lay claim to the nation’s top-ranked 2017 class. You wouldn’t necessarily know it based on a pair of recent interviews on SECCountry.com, the first of which ran in early April. In a Q&A with David Collier, 2016 Kentucky signee and 4-star offensive tackle Landon Young recalled his recruitment, where he claimed to be “treated like crap” by Ohio State’s three-time national championship head coach. In particular, the Lexington, Kentucky, native took issue with Meyer’s response to an inquiry about why the Buckeyes waited so long to…

Ohio State Football: 5 Toughest Defenders Buckeyes Will Face in 2016

The Big Ten had 24 of its premier defenders selected in this year’s NFL draft, but with players such as Michigan cornerback Jourdan Lewis, Northwestern linebacker Anthony Walker and Michigan safety Jabrill Peppers back, Ohio State will see no shortage of defensive standouts this fall. The elite playmakers won’t just come in conference play, though, as a Week 3 showdown with Oklahoma will throw a talented cornerback at quarterback J.T. Barrett and a young wide receiver corps. Ohio State is looking to continue its incredible run under head coach Urban Meyer, averaging just one loss per season since the start of 2012. The Buckeyes will have to come up with answers for these five defenders for that success to continue. Begin Slideshow

Ohio State Football: Predicting the Buckeyes’ 2016 Win-Loss Record

With road games against College Football Playoff contenders Oklahoma and Michigan State, Big Ten contenders Wisconsin and Penn State and the regular-season finale against rival Michigan, Ohio State’s 2016 schedule is one of the most difficult in all of college football this year. This would have been a great schedule for last year’s loaded team, which looked like it was sleepwalking through most of its walkover slate. But with 16 new starters this year, the young Buckeyes will have a hard time keeping pace in the playoff race. How will head coach Urban Meyer’s fifth Ohio State team fare this fall? Begin Slideshow

Ohio State Football: True Freshmen Who Need to Make an Instant Impact in 2016

Ohio State will field a very young team when it kicks off its 2016 campaign against Bowling Green this September, and with so many holes in the current depth chart, true freshmen Austin Mack, Michael Jordan and Nick Bosa have a big opportunity to make an impact this fall. The Buckeyes, who are replacing eight starters on each side of the ball, wrapped up spring practice last month and are bracing for summer conditioning and fall camp. That’s when head coach Urban Meyer and the coaching staff will cement their depth chart and determine who will see the field for a potential Big Ten title and playoff run. Those championship aspirations will be easier to achieve if these three players acclimate to the collegiate level right out of the gate. Austin Mack, Wide Receiver Ohio State lost the players responsible for over 80 percent of its receiving yards in 2016 with the graduations and early departures of wide receivers Michael Thomas, Braxton Miller and Jalin Marshall, running back Ezekiel Elliott and tight end Nick Vannett. In desperate need of perimeter playmaking ability, Austin Mack could provide a huge boost to a depleted wide receiver corps in 2016. The former 4-star wideout graduated high school early to take part in winter conditioning and spring practice, and that extra time paid off for both him and Ohio State. Mack showed an exceptional tenacity and work ethic during workouts, and that extended to the field when spring camp opened. He…