Ohio State aims high as always

COLUMBUS – Jeremiah Smith summed up Ohio State's 2025 football season in 10 words at the Big Ten Football Media Days. "It feels like we left something out there last year," the Buckeyes' All-American wide receiver said, referring to OSU coming up short in its quest to win back-to-back national championships. Obviously, back-to-back didn't happen. But, led by Smith, quarterback Julian Sayin, 10 other returning starters, some of last season's best back-ups and nearly 20 reinforcements from the transfer portal, the Buckeyes are ready to try for two out of three. Last season Ohio State started the season 12-0 despite losing 14 players from its 2024 national championship team to the NFL draft. After a 14-7 win over Texas in the season opener OSU won its next 11 games by at least 18 points, including a 27-9 victory over Michigan to break a four-year losing streak against its rival. But a 13-10 loss to eventual national champion Indiana in the Big Ten championship game and a 24-14 defeat against Miami in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game brought an earlier than expected end to Ohio State's season. In retrospect, it is easy to say that maybe Ohio State's regular season schedule other than the Texas game and the game at Michigan wasn't the greatest. But the bottom line is the Buckeyes didn't respond well in two big postseason games on offense, defense and special teams. Eleven Ohio State players were selected in this year's NFL draft. OSU has eight returning starters on offense, led by Sayin and Smith. Sayin was the most accurate passer in major college football with a 77 percent completion rate, 3,610 yards passing and 32 touchdown passes last season. He was fourth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. Smith caught 87 passes for 1,243 yards and 12 touchdowns a year ago and was sixth in the Heisman voting. Bo Jackson, a freshman who became Ohio State's starting running back halfway through last season and finished with 1,095 yards rushing, is back, as are wide receiver Brandon Inniss and starting offensive linemen Luke Montgomery, Carson Hinzman, Austin Siereveld and Phillip Daniels. The biggest hole to fill will be the one left by wide receiver Carnell Tate, a first-round draft choice of the Tennessee Titans, who caught 51 passes for 875 yards and nine touchdowns last season. Ohio State's offensive line was under much scrutiny after the losses to Indiana and Miami and still was when preseason practice began. After giving up only six sacks in the first 12 games of the season, it permitted five against Indiana and five more against Miami. "We're going to try a couple different combinations. Finding the best five is what we're going to do. We'll see how it goes. The good news is we've got some different options. But we've got to find the best five," OSU coach Ryan Day said. Siereveld's ability to play tackle and guard is one big reason Day can talk about having options. Three possible options for how the offensive line lines up are Ian Moore (LT), Montgomery (LG), Hinzman (C), Siereveld (RG), Daniels (RT); or Siereveld (LT), Montgomery (LG), Hinzman (C), Josh Padilla (RG), Daniels (RT); or Siereveld (LT), Montgomery (LG), Hinzman (C), Padilla (RG), Moore (RT). Jackson had six 100-yard games, including personal highs in rushing yards (117) and carries (22) against Michigan. OSU's coaches would like to see more explosive runs from him and see him get to the end zone more times than the six times he did last year. New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who was the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive cooridnator last season, might bring a few new variations to OSU's offense. Could that include mixing in a few runs by Sayin? During spring practice Day said having Sayin run "when appropriate" could be "an x-factor" for the offense. At Big Ten media days Sayin said, "Coach 'Mick' (Mickey Marotti) pushed me pretty hard, and I think the extra weight has helped me in throwing the ball and running the ball. I grew a lot in my physical traits." Sayin ran 42 times for -44 yards last season, less than 1/3 the 143 times Washington's Demond Williams ran the ball to lead all Big Ten quarterbacks. Sayin completed 77 percent of his passes last season, which ranked first nationally. He threw for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns. Smith caught 87 pass for 1,243 yards and 12 touchdowns. Ohio State's defense led the nation in fewest points per game allowed per game (9.3) and fewest yards per game (219.1) last season but has only three returning starters from that group. Three of last year's defensive starters were NFL first-round draft choices (linebacker Arvel Reese, linebacker Sonny Styles and safety Caleb Downs) and two were second-round choices (defensive tackle Kayden McDonald and cornerback Davison Igbinosun). Safety Lorenzo Styles Jr. was a fifth-round selection. OSU's returning starters on defense are cornerback Jermaine Mathews, safety Jaylen McClain, and defensive end Kenyatta Jackson. Several of the open spots on defense could be filled by experienced transfer players, like defensive tackle John Walker (Central Florida), defensive tackle James Smith (Alabama), and defensive end Qua Russaw (Alabama), all seniors. Middle linebacker, Payton Pierce, a first-year starter, has been at Ohio State three years but Wisconsin transfer Christian Alliegro, could also get into the starting lineup. OSU addressed the departures in its defensive backfield by bringing in safety Earl Little Jr., who was second-team All-ACC last year at Florida State, and Terry Moore, who was second-team All-ACC at Duke in 2024 before missing last season with a torn ACL. Adding Little and Moore to cornerbacks Devin Sanchez and Mathewss and McClain at safety might make the defensive backfield the defense's strongest unit. On special teams, the big hope is that kicker Connor Hawkins, a transfer from Auburn, can bring consistency, long distance accuracy and peak performance in pressure-filled situations. Hawkins was 18 of 22 last season and hit three field goals of more than 50 yards.