Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer puts pressure on Penn State quarterback Drew Allar during a game last season. Sawyer is one of a large group of NFL draft eligible players who chose to return to OSU for this season.
Don Speck | The Lima News
COLUMBUS — Since the mid-1990s the years Ohio State has gone into a college football season seeming to have a chance to compete for a national championship probably outnumber the years it didn’t by a comfortable margin.
The Associated Press poll voters have made the Buckeyes No. 1 or No. 2 in their preseason poll 11 times since 2003. Their fans, players and coaches have probably thought they were contenders many more times and they were probably correct.
Once again this season Ohio State, No. 2 behind Georgia in the preseason poll, seems positioned to make a run at joining the 2002 team and the 2014 team as the only Buckeyes teams to win national championships in the era of head-to-head competition on the field in a title game.
But this year feels different than those previous years. The expectations are higher than ever. The way teams are assembled has dramatically changed. Players have much more freedom to choose where they play and can receive financial rewards for their services. And the process of choosing a champion is different now that 12 teams qualify for the College Football Playoff.
This year’s team on paper might be among the most talented teams Ohio State has had, though there are still some questions going into the opener against Akron on Saturday. For sure, no OSU team before this year has added as much proven experienced talent in such a short time as the 2024 Buckeyes.
Thanks to the transfer portal, players like quarterback Will Howard, safety Caleb Downs, center Seth McLaughlin, running back Quinshon Judkins and quarterback Julian Sayin were added to the Buckeyes’ roster.
Howard, who had 27 career starts at Kansas State, will be the starting quarterback. Downs, who was Alabama’s best defensive player as a freshman last season, will make an already strong defensive backfield even better. Judkins, a first-team All-Southeastern Conference running back at Ole Miss, will share time with TreVeyon Henderson. McLaughlin will be the starting center. And Sayin, a freshman who was regarded as Alabama’s quarterback of the future, could now become OSU’s starting quarterback next season.
Maybe even more importantly, Ohio State was just as good at talent retention as it was at acquiring that new talent.
Ten years ago, five years ago, even three years ago before six- and seven-figure NIL deals, seeing nine of Ohio State’s top draft-eligible underclassmen choose another year of college football over the NFL draft would have seemed extremely unlikely.
But that’s what defensive ends J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, cornerbacks Denzel Burke and Jordan Hancock, safety Lathan Ransom, offensive lineman Donovan Jackson, defensive lineman Tyleik Williams and Henderson did.
“A lot of us had great opportunities to go to the next level and it was tough for a lot of us to come back,” Sawyer said. “Obviously it’s been a dream of all of us playing at this level to play at the next level since we’ve been little kids. So making that decision to forego going to the NFL to come back and play one more year was a very tough decision for a lot of guys and myself.
“We came back for one purpose and one goal and that’s to beat the team up north (Michigan) and win a national championship,” he said.
Burke created an unofficial motto for that pursuit of the national championship during spring practice when he said,
“It’s natty or bust. That’s our mentality. No excuses. We’ve got to win it all. That’s what we’re trying to do.
“We’re trying to preach that every single day. Our goal is to go out there every Saturday, hold each other accountable, play hard, make plays and turn the ball over.
At Big Ten football media days in July he said, “Natty or bust. I put it out there to get the younger guys and transfers to understand that I ain’t come back for no b.s. We’re here to win it all and we’re going to need everybody. We’ve got to hold each other accountable and every game is a match-up game. No matter who we’re playing it’s our job to just take them out and dominate.
“I feel like we have all the chips in. We have a lot of talent but talent doesn’t mean anything. You’ve still got to line up and put the football down and compete. We have one common goal and we can’t let anything get in the way of that,” he said.
There also might be a little more urgency, or at least impatience, to get to the postseason and succeed there because of three straight losses to rival Michigan and watching the Wolverines win last season’s national championship.
“The past few years were three seasons where we came up short against those guys. I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t burn a fire inside of us. It’s definitely something we think about. We know what’s at stake when we play those guys,” Sawyer said.
“All of our goals and aspirations for the season ride on that one game in November. They hate us, we hate them. That’s the way it’s got to be. That’s the way we want it to be. That’s what makes the rivalry so much fun.”
Burke said, “It’s not something we try to emphasize daily but it’s definitely something that’s in the back of our heads, especially the guys who came back for this year. That’s what we want to be able to do — get our gold pants, win every single game, win a national championship.”
With USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten this season, the conference eliminated its divisions. This year’s Big Ten championship game will be between the two teams with the best records.
The College Football Playoff will also look different after expanding to 12 teams.
The College Football Playoff committee will determine the 12 teams who will be in the playoff. Those teams will be the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven teams in the CFP rankings. No conference automatically gets one of the 7 through 12 spots and there is no limit on the number of teams from a conference.
The four highest-ranked conference champions, presumably from the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12, get first-round byes.
First-round games will be Dec. 2o at 8 p.m. and Dec. 21 at noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the stadium of the higher ranked team.
Quarterfinals will be at the Fiesta Bowl at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 31; at the Peach Bowl at 1 p.m. Jan. 1; at the Rose Bowl at 5 p.m. Jan. 1; and at the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m. Jan. 1.
The semifinals will be at the Orange Bowl at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 9; and at the Cotton Bowl at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 10. The national championship game will be at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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