Did Ohio State win a national title, lose 14 NFL Draft picks ... and get better?
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Cameron Teague Robinson
Even after winning a national title, Ohio State entered this season with a chip on its shoulder and something to prove. Can it repeat?
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ask almost anyone around the Ohio State football program, and they say coach Ryan Day has had a different look in his eyes this season.
“I just feel like ever since that Team Up North loss last year, it’s been a different coach Day,” wide receiver Brandon Inniss said.
So how different is this Ohio State team?
Even after winning a national championship a year ago, Ohio State entered this season with a chip on its shoulder, needing to end a four-game losing streak to Michigan and prove it could reload after losing 14 NFL Draft picks and both coordinators. It’s done just that.
Though the championship lifted a weight off his shoulders to put him more at ease, Day came into the season on a mission to avoid complacency. He often says that each team, every year, is different. The same goes for him as a coach. The intensity he brings to this year’s team has been much higher, players say.
“We have a grimy team, we have a little bit of an attitude to us and I think coach Day instills that in us,” linebacker Sonny Styles said.
The Buckeyes, who beat preseason No. 1 Texas and spent 14 weeks at No. 1 in the polls before losing to undefeated Indiana 13-10 in the Big Ten title game, certainly haven’t gotten worse from last year after having more questions than answers all offseason: How would Julian Sayin do in his first year at quarterback? Who would replace a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins? Who steps in for first-round receiver Emeka Egbuka? How could Ohio State replace four NFL Draft picks on the defensive line? And how could it do it all with two new play callers in Brian Hartline and Matt Patricia?
In an era when many teams go to the transfer portal to make wholesale changes, Day and Ohio State largely looked inward, staying true to their philosophy of recruiting and developing high school athletes while strategically filling holes with transfers.
Ohio State is the favorite to win back-to-back national titles for the first time in program history, according to The Athletic’s projections. Indiana loss or not, the Buckeyes’ play this season has thus raised a legitimate question: Did Ohio State somehow get better after winning the national championship?
“They’re not scary to me on offense but they are suffocating on defense,” said a Big Ten coach who has faced Ohio State, granted anonymity to candidly discuss an opposing team. “Their defense compared to last year’s is probably the same margin better compared to the two offenses from this year to last year.
Ohio State’s 2021 recruiting class was a big one for Day’s career.
It was his first full cycle since taking over for Urban Meyer as the head coach in 2019, and he finished with the No. 2 class in the country. That group of Egbuka, Henderson, Donovan Jackson, Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, among others, led Ohio State to the national title in 2024.
When Ohio State signed that 24-person class, it never thought that eight of them would stick around through the 2024 season — including five of the seven five-star signees. The NIL era changed the calculus, as Ohio State has invested in retaining talent. Last year’s roster made waves with portal additions like Downs and quarterback Will Howard, but the foundation was a group of seniors that returned. That meant other promising players had to sit longer than expected.
That bridge period can be an anxious one for coaches who see players come and go at the smallest inconvenience in a time of unlimited transfers. Only seven of Ohio State’s 21 signees in the 2022 class are still on the roster. The retention last year didn’t mean Ohio State just gave up on developing its talent, but it put a heightened emphasis on this season as a time to build a new foundation, all while not letting the product slip.
“What happens is that they stop, right? You hold these other guys back because these four are playing, so you’ve lost some experience and then you almost lose a recruiting class because nobody is coming in because those guys are coming back,” defensive line coach Larry Johnson said. “So we’re in that logjam that this has to be the year to build going forward for the future.”
The defensive line is the best example and maybe the biggest reason for Ohio State’s growth. Players like defensive linemen Kenyatta Jackson, Caden Curry and Kayden McDonald had to wait their turn and develop as role players for years before their 2025 breakouts.
The development process there has been a slow one for many players, not just this year’s group. Sawyer was a five-star recruit when he signed in 2021, but it took until the midway point of the 2023 year for him to break out due to some positional changes. It’s often that third year when Johnson expects players to make a leap, and that’s no different now.
“We’ve been doing it since freshman year and getting better every day,” Jackson said. “I don’t know why people thought there would be a huge fall-off. We didn’t think that.”
Matt Patricia helped Ryan Day and Ohio State beat Michigan for the first time since 2019. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)
Ohio State added 11 transfers this past offseason, but the bulk of its production has come from returning players, whether it’s players who were patient with their development or even past transfers like Sayin, the Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback, and All-American safety Caleb Downs, who have been at Ohio State for two years after leaving Alabama when Nick Saban retired.
In fact, 10 of the 11 starters on Ohio State’s top-rated defense were either signed out of high school by Ohio State or have been on the team for two or more seasons.
“It’s been very similar to a lot of successful NFL teams,” general manager Mark Pantoni said. “It seems like the teams who do great in the draft and only have to fix a few needs here and there through free agency are the ones who have sustained success. So far, I think our model has shown to work pretty well.
“We are trying to keep that culture very strong. I think the more guys you have that have grown up through it, the better you’re going to be.”
Ohio State was considered by many to be the most talented team in the country last season at this time despite being the No. 8 seed in the Playoff. That was evident when it was favored in the Rose Bowl against top-seeded Oregon.
Despite losing in the regular season to the Ducks and Michigan, the Buckeyes dominated the competition on their run to a championship, beating Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame by double digits.
It’s hard to deny the similarities between this year’s team and last, both of which had 14 players selected to the All-Big Ten teams by conference coaches and have similar statistical profiles in many respects.
Ohio State offense FBS rankings
2024
Stat
2025
12th
Points per game
16th
4th
Points per drive
4th
28th
Yards per game
24th
3rd
Yards per play
12th
3rd
Pass efficiency
2nd
29th
Yards per rush
41st
20th
Pressure rate
10th
5th
Red zone TD %
34th
33rd
Third down %
2nd
Ohio State still has arguably the nation’s top receiving corps led by Smith and Tate. The group as a whole isn’t as explosive, but it is similarly efficient behind the accuracy of Sayin, who leads the FBS with a 78.4 percent completion rate. The Buckeyes are averaging 3.44 points per drive, actually up from 3.12, though they managed just 24 points total against Texas and Indiana, their two highest-ranked opponents.
“I watched 2024’s film, but about three quarters in, I was like, this is not beneficial to me,” Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines said. “This is a different offensive coordinator. It’s a different quarterback. There’s too many new pieces for these things to link up.”
Ohio State’s play-calling strategy will shift in the Playoff from Hartline, who called plays in the first 13 games. Hartline was named the new head coach at South Florida three days before the Big Ten title game but is still with the team. However, Day said he will take back the lead play-calling duties that he gave to Chip Kelly last year.
Can Day shake off the problems of the Indiana game, where Ohio State especially struggled in the red zone? The anonymous opposing Big Ten coach said the offense has taken a step back for a few reasons. The experience downgrades from Howard to Sayin at quarterback and Henderson and Judkins to freshman Bo Jackson at running back, plus Sayin’s lack of mobility compared to Howard, are is some of the reasons the unit isn’t as dynamic.
“(Howard is) a bigger guy, more of a run threat,” the coach said. “The things that he had over Julian — the size, the experience, the running ability — show up in big games. I don’t think Julian Sayin looked rattled other than early in the Michigan game, but then he settled down, and he throws it better than Howard. Will had more help around him. I think their offense is limited this year. Bo Jackson is a good player and he’s only a freshman.
“They were definitely more multiple last year. They gave you more difficult things to deal with on defense. Now it feels like they only have a couple of wrinkles they’ll throw at you, whereas last year, it felt like the whole game was that way.”
Ohio State defense FBS rankings
2024
Stat
2025
1st
Points per game
1st
1st
Points per drive
2nd
1st
Yards per game
1st
1st
Yards per play
1st
18th
Pass efficiency
9th
2nd
Yards per rush
6th
8th
Pressure rate
9th
2nd
Red zone TD %
2nd
30th
Third down %
7th
As for the defense, Ohio State had the top unit in the country last season, giving up just 1.11 points per drive, per TruMedia, but Patricia has taken it to an even higher level after Jim Knowles departed for Penn State. Ohio State has yet to allow more than 16 points. In the BCS/CFP era dating back to 1998, it’s tied with 2011 Alabama’s vaunted defense for the fewest points allowed in the first 13 games of a season.
After eight defensive players were drafted last spring, Ohio State now has four defensive players projected to go in the first round alone in 2026 by The Athletic’s Dane Brugler: Downs, McDonald and linebackers Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese. A unit known for its versatility has allowed just eight touchdowns in 24 trips by opponents into the red zone.
“Their red zone defense is unbelievable,” said the opposing Big Ten coach. “It’s very NFL scheme. It’s versions of man. They’re gonna double your best player, and if your quarterback can run, we’re gonna put Arvell Reese on him, so he’s not going anywhere. They’re not worried about sacking you cause you’ll freak out before we have to. They put Downs in the middle of the field and he roams. There’s just nowhere to go with the ball.”
For all of their differences, there’s a common theme with both the 2024 and 2025 football teams: They entered the postseason after a loss.
In 2024, it was the Michigan upset, a result that galvanized both the players and coaching staff to reach their potential. This year, Ohio State beat Michigan but lost the Big Ten championship to Indiana. Whether a younger team can rally from that loss is to be determined, but the talent is there to do it again.
So is the chip on the shoulder.
“We’re nobodies,” Jackson said. “We come in each and every day, we put our heads down and we work. We’re nobodies. We haven’t done nothing yet. Forget the awards, we haven’t done nothing yet, the job is still not finished.”
— The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman and Scott Dochterman contributed to this report.
