Like you all, the loss last night still stings and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Iy sucks to be so close to greatness and lose due to circumstances that aren’t necessarily in our control. That being said, I’ve seen a lot of sad posts about our team’s outlook for next year, based on what we are losing talent-wise. It’s clear, we’re losing a lot of great players, but we’ll have a bunch of great players emerge next year too. This is Ohio State. We don’t rebuild, we reload.
With that being said, I’d like you all to try and name teams that are definitively as good or better than us for next year. There’s literally only one that comes to mind for me: Clemson. Maybe Alabama if Tua comes back to school; he’s very good as well. But that’s it. LSU loses Burrow and a ton of talent. Oklahoma is still a mess on defense and will have a new starting quarterback. Georgia is still offensively inept. Oregon will be breaking in a new starter that isn’t absurdly talented like Herbert was.
We’re going to start next season ranked in the top three, based on the fact that Fields and his weapons best weapons, Olave and Wilson, are back, along with an offensive line that is replacing it’s lost starters with five-stars waiting in the wings in NPF and Harry Miller. Justin Fields was a new starter last year taking his first snaps ever in college. Imagine what he’ll look like next year with a year under Ryan Day under his belt. Dwayne Haskins never got that chance. Our offense will be elite at minimum.
Our defense starts with our defensive line, which will always be solid. I’m excited to see Jonathon Cooper put it all together, and Zach Harrison and Tyreke Smith are freaky talents, it sucks that Smith was banged up this past year. We have some special talents at Defensive Tackle with Togiai, Vincent, and Garrett finally starting. Obviously Chase Young is a big loss, but this line will be great next year. Linebackers will be solid, as we are essentially replacing Malik Harrison with Teradja Mitchell, and we know he can play. The secondary looks like a huge question mark right now, but all three guys, Banks, Riep, and Brown have shown flashes of greatness this season. If Kerry Coombs is our next secondary coach then this secondary WILL be championship caliber by the end of the season.
We start the season with an easy game, then travel to Eugene, Oregon for a top-10 matchup. College Gameday and Fox Big Noon Kickoff will both probably be there. We’re going to win that game by at least two touchdowns, and then we’re right back to where we need to be, a top-2 powerhouse rolling through the season. Or am I getting ahead of myself?
