Phil Steele Says Ohio State is the Most Inexperienced Team in the Country Heading into the 2016 Season

By D.J. Byrnes on June 30, 2016 at 12:30 pm
Phil Steele says Ohio State is most inexperienced team in the country.
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Quarterback J.T. Barrett and middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan will lead a band of Ohio State greenhorns into the 2016 season. That's what happens when 12 players get drafted and three others sign undrafted free agent deals.

Ohio State fans, however, might be surprised to learn just how inexperienced their team will be.

College football oracle Phil Steele already rated Ohio State as the No. 6 team in his preseason rankings. Apparently, that makes him a firm believe in Urban Meyer's recruiting and coaching because his formula pegs the Buckeyes as the most inexperienced team in the country.

From philsteele.com:

I then devised a formula that factors all [five experience measurements] into the total points equation and then turned the point total into a number from 100 to 0. A 100 would be a team with 25 seniors (NCAA scholarship limit) in the two deep and every yard and tackle returning and 120+ career starts on the offensive line. A 0 would be a team with no experience and 0 seniors in the two deep. Just as in years past the first number is where each team ranks in the NCAA.

The good news for Buckeye fans is experience doesn't appear to be a strong indicator of future playoff success. Here are the 10 most experienced teams in the country, according to Steele's formula:

RANK SCHOOL CONFERENCE EXP. POINTS
1 KENT STATE MAC 79.9
2 CHARLOTTE C-USA 77.4
3 TENNESSEE SEC 76.9
4 BYU IND 75.9
5 EASTERN MICHIGAN MAC 75.6
6 OKLAHOMA STATE BIG 12 75.4
7 PITTSBURGH ACC 74.3
8 LOUISIANA STATE SEC 74.2
9 COLORADO PAC-12 73.7
10 CENTRAL FLORIDA AAC 73.2

By comparison, here are the 10 bottom teams, thus the most inexperienced:

RANK SCHOOL CONFERENCE EXP. POINTS
119 CALIFORNIA PAC-12 46.1
120 MASSACHUSSETS IND 45.6
121 NOTRE DAME IND 45.4
122 STANFORD PAC-12 44.5
123 LOUISIANA TECH C-USA 43.7
124 AKRON MAC 43.5
125 BUFFALO MAC 42.9
126 ARIZONA STATE PAC-12 41.7
127 NAVY AAC 41.6
128 OHIO STATE B1G 38.9

As you can see, the inexperience gap between Ohio State and Navy, the second-to-last place team, is almost as big as the gap between No. 127 and No. 121.

Alabama, the reigning national champion, is No. 116 with 47.2 experience points.

Here is how Ohio State's 2016 regular season schedule stacks up:

RANK OPPONENT CONFERENCE EXP. POINTS
50 BOWLING GREEN MAC 64
53 TULSA AAC 63.1
99 at OKLAHOMA BIG 12 54
28 RUTGERS B1G 67.54
77 INDIANA B1G 59.1
105 at WISCONSIN B1G 52.2
81 at PENN STATE B1G 57.8
45 NORTHWESTERN B1G 64.7
64 NEBRASKA B1G 61.3
71 at MARYLAND B1G 60
117 at MICHIGAN STATE B1G 46.8
61 MICHIGAN B1G 61.7

Ohio State opens fall camp Sunday, Aug. 7. Its 2016 season begins Sept. 3 against Bowling Green. If the chart above is any indicator, Meyer may want to start prepping for Rutgers right now.

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