There's a lot to look forward to for Ohio State football, but will that include a full 2020 season?
With only a little over two months to go until the scheduled Sept. 5 start of the Buckeyes' 2020 campaign, that question remains without a clear answer as the coronavirus pandemic lingers on. Although optimism has been building for a full season this fall, especially after the NCAA's Division I Council approved a preseason practice plan last week, the reality that the season remains on shaky ground became clearer over the past week as numerous college football programs reported COVID-19 outbreaks within their programs.
Given that, we start this week's show by discussing the hurdles that college football still must clear in order to play this fall and what a modified season could look like, including the potential for a regular season of only conference games.
In more exciting news, Ohio State announced last week that it will play a home-and-home series with Alabama in 2027 and 2028, so we also spend a significant portion of this week's show looking ahead to the Buckeyes' matchup with the Crimson Tide. We discuss why that was such an ideal addition to the future schedule and whether we think Ryan Day and Nick Saban will still be on the sidelines for those games, and rank the games we're most looking forward to in a non-conference slate that also includes Oregon, Notre Dame, Washington, Texas and Georgia.
We also continue our State of the Position series by looking at the present and future of Ohio State's defensive ends, in which we consider who most needs to step up to fill the massive shoes left behind by Chase Young.
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