Ohio State Football Forum

Ohio State Football Forum

Ohio State football fan talk.

Ranking the Schedule from Easiest to Hardest 2023

+8 HS
buckslan's picture
May 29, 2023 at 4:14pm
24 Comments

I'll try and rank the 2023 schedule from easiest to hardest. The list isn't exactly about the best teams Ohio State will face, but it takes into account when the game is played on the schedule, if it's on the road, is it a possible trap game, etc.

Last year I ranked them as followed.

12. Arkansas State (45-12)
11. Toledo (77-21)
10. Indiana (56-14)
9. Rutgers (49-10)
8. At Northwestern (21-7), this game came as a shock to everyone
7. Wisconsin (52-21)
6. At Michigan State (49-20)
5. Iowa (56-10)
4. At Maryland (43-30), I had a feeling this would be a major trap game and it was. A 3 point game with less than 10 minutes to go
3. Michigan (23-45) turned out to be the true #1
2. Notre Dame (21-10), Was trailing 10-7 at the half
1. At Penn State (44-31), Was trailing 16-21 with less than 10 minutes to go before scoring 4 TD's

Okay for the 2023 schedule

12. Youngstown State - Pretty self explanatory, they're FCS and it's the first home game (2nd game overall)

11. WKU - A G5 team and the 3rd game of the season. I'm not sure exactly how good they're suppose to be this year but they finished 9-5 last season and tied for 2nd in the CUSA

10. Michigan State - They're not suppose to be very good this year and have a lot of transfer issues, but the game is played in early November (10th game) so who knows, maybe they'll have something figured out by then.

9. At Indiana - First game of the year on the road. Indiana is going to be really bad, even worse than Michigan State. However it's also the first game of the year for McCord and the OL so expect some issues. Indiana gets extended offseason time to prepare for this game so we're likely getting their absolute best shot.

8. Minnesota - This is the game before THE game and it's at home. Ohio State should be rolling by then hopefully.

7. Maryland - 5th game of the season and Ohio State gets a bye week before it. Early byes suck

6. At Purdue - Road game in the middle of the schedule, 6th game of the season and second after the bye. I don't think they're going to be a serious contender but I also wouldn't be surprised if this is a big night game there. It's also the 3rd road game of the season and 3rd time going to the state next door so they should be use to it.

5. At Rutgers - This is the trap game this year. So this game falls on the first week of November, it's also the 2nd of a back to back road trip after going to Camp Randall the weekend before, and Rutgers gets a bye week before playing this game. It's an eerily similar situation to the Wisconsin/PSU stretch in 2016. This will be Ohio State's 5th game in a row after their bye and will be coming off a game against a likely physical Wisconsin team. Also worthy to note that the record of teams in their 2nd game of back to back road games is very bad.

4. At Wisconsin - Here begins the stretch of what I feel will be really good teams and very hard games. I almost put this game at #3 but it's splitting hairs. I think Fickell will have his team pumped and ready to play, the environment is going to be insane. This game is the last weekend of October and it comes after PSU. I guess one advantage OSU might have is this will be their 4th road game so they're going to be pretty battle tested by this point.

3. Penn State - The game is at home but I feel like Penn State is going to be a very good team especially on offense. This game is the week before the Wisconsin game. I also think Penn State could have one of the best QB/RB duo's at this point that no one is talking about in Drew Allar and Nick Singleton.

2. At Notre Dame - I think ND will be pretty solid again and they're getting a massive upgrade in Sam Hartman at QB. He's night and day different from Tyler Buchner. It's the 2nd road game of the year and the first one in a major hostile environment, and the 4th game of the season.

1. At Michigan - Pretty self explanatory, last game of the year, they'll probably be loaded again this season moreso on offense. Blake Corum is back who we did not face, Day needs to get it done it's now or never.

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

View 24 Comments