We are not even two weeks removed from the end of Ohio State’s 2020 football season and the thirst of fans to talk about the upcoming 2021 season is very real.
It was a strange journey for the Buckeyes to get to the College Football Playoff Championship Game and while the outcome of the final game was not to the liking of any Ohio State fan, there is a major level of satisfaction generated from the 2020 season, starting with even having a season in the first place.
Sure, a trip to Oregon was called off as was what almost assuredly would have been yet another thrashing of the Michigan Wolverines, but the Buckeyes did finally get past the Clemson Tigers as well as becoming the first team in Big Ten history to win four outright league titles in a row, something that had never been done in the 100-plus year history of the league.
Let’s fast forward to the 2021 season now, and if we learned anything last year, we know that we should not put any schedules down in pen, or at least make non-refundable travel arrangements.
But with that being said, let’s look ahead to the 12-game slate that is on paper for the Buckeyes and drop a few notes about each opponent that the team is scheduled to play starting in seven-plus months with a road trip to Minneapolis to open the season in league play against the Gophers.
We talked about the first four games of the season on Wednesday, let’s move ahead to games five through eight.
October 2nd, 2021
vs. Nebraska
Nebraska 2020 Record: 3-5, 3-5 – 5th in B1G West
Overall Series: Ohio State leads 8-1-0
Well, it is another critical year for Scott Frost and the Huskers. Ohio State fans still have some warm feelings toward the Huskers as the two programs (and Iowa for that matter) stood arm-in-arm in trying to get a season played in 2020. The league rewarded Nebraska with an opening date at Ohio Stadium, and while the final score read 52-17, the Huskers did show that this Ohio State defense had a few issues with it, even if Nebraska really was the only team to run against Ohio State last season and the rest of the issues would arise in Ohio State’s pass defense.
When it comes to Big Ten foes, we can (and will at a later date) write much longer form pieces on what is going right and wrong for each program. At the risk of alienating any Husker fan reading this, not much is going right for Frost’s team and the departure of Wan’Dale Robinson (ended up transferring to Kentucky) certainly does not help things for an offense that was not exactly scoring at will.
The Huskers were 101st in scoring offense and an identity crisis at quarterback did not help things as Adrian Martinez has not exactly blossomed from the product that he was as a freshman and impatience in Lincoln (Neb.) called for a much more steady dose of Luke McCaffrey, with both players starting games along the way. The Husker QBs combined for five passing touchdowns against nine picks, a horrible ratio any way you break it down. The departure of Robinson takes 30.3-percent of the passing yards and 32.7-percent of the receptions out of this offense, without even advancing one player out of the roster due to graduation.
It is hard to win when you can’t put points on the board, but the Huskers have not really been able to play a consistent brand of defense since joining the Big Ten… well that may not be true, consistently bad is a brand.
The Blackshirts have been relegated to the history books as this defense may have been better than a few of its predecessors but middle of the NCAA pack is not what anyone around this program wants or is willing to accept. Take the few performers out like DiCaprio Bootle, Marquel Dismuke and Ben Stille and things get that much dire.
At least the Huskers finished off their season winning two of the last three but the win at Purdue may be deceiving as the Boilers were about as thin as a team could be before cancelling a game.
October 9th, 2021
vs. Purdue
Purdue 2020 Record: 2-4, 2-4 – 6th in B1G West
Overall Series: Ohio State leads 40-15-2
This is going to be the game that everyone calls a “trap game” though I have never been one to call any home game a trap game, if we are being honest. I also have a hard time calling any game against Purdue a true trap game because that would lead one to believe that Ohio State would be looking past the Boilermakers. There is an open week on the back end of this game and then a game at Rutgers beyond that, so the skeptics out there would even call that a second open week. And coming off of Nebraska doesn’t shape up to be Ohio State’s biggest challenge of the season either, so there really should be no excuses for any predicted lack of focus going into this one.
Of all the teams on Ohio State’s schedule, Purdue is the team that holds the most recent win over the Buckeyes, going back to a 49-20 loss at Purdue in 2018. Since then the Buckeyes only have two losses, one to Clemson and one to Alabama.
Purdue never really had a fully-healthy Rondale Moore last season and that really put the Purdue offense in a bit of a bind as teams were able to focus more on David Bell. If Purdue would have had both receivers, it would have certainly lifted the Boilermakers to the level of a Chris Olave/Garrett Wilson tandem. The comparisons would have stopped there however as there was not a Justin Fields in the QB room as Adian O’Connell and Jack Plummer split time and had nearly identical numbers in attempts, yards, completions, touchdowns and interceptions. The greatest variance was for O’Connell and the amount of times he was sacked, nine compared to Plummer’s three.
Will Purdue be able to compete in a 12-game schedule with Zander Horvath at running back? He had an impressive 5.0 YPC average but our guess is that is not going to be the answer and until Purdue solves that, success will be limited to teams that Purdue is talented equated to or better than.
October 23rd, 2021
at Rutgers
Rutgers 2020 Record: 3-6, 3-6 – 5th in B1G East
Overall Series: Ohio State leads 7-0-0
Is this the year we need to talk more about Rutgers? An opening week against Michigan State was an eye-opener, but then we realized how bad Michigan State was last year (sorry Michigan). Then Rutgers was able to hang around against Indiana before a three-game losing streak happened, started by Ohio State and also encompassing Illinois and Michigan (sorry Rutgers). It seemed as if the season we destined to be just another Rutgers year but then Greg Schiano’s team managed to salvage a split in their last four games with wins over Purdue and Maryland and if we are being honest, played Nebraska tough in the finale during “champions week”.
If we are being honest, the offense and defense were nothing special, both ranking in the bottom 30 of the nation, but you can see the roots of something with Rutgers, they just need players and year one under Schiano saw a heavy emphasis on the transfer portal. That might have to be the norm for a couple more years as it is going to be a tough sell to keep a lot of New Jersey players at home.
So, what does this mean for a game against Ohio State? The 22-point margin of victory by Ohio State in 2020 was the smallest in the history of this series and also showed some of the cracks in the Ohio State defense in terms of not playing a full four quarters, or even three quarters in many games. A 49-27 game likely should have been more like a 49-14 game. Does this mean that the Scarlet Knights are starting to close the gap? Probably not, it was more of a case of an Ohio State defense that really suffered from a lack of a traditional run up to the season and number of games to “jell”.
Who will be the man at QB? Artur Sitkowski? Johnny Langan? How do you make up for the production of receiver Bo Melton? Is there enough of a running game to try and limit offensive possessions for Ohio State and other opponents? This just feels like a year where Rutgers has to take a step back before it can take a step forward
October 30th, 2021
vs. Michigan State
Michigan State 2020 Record: 2-5, 2-5 – 7th in B1G East
Overall Series: Ohio State leads 35-15-0
Was there a more difficult team to understand than Michigan State last season? The Spartans won just two games under Mel Tucker, but the two wins were on the biggest of stages and the Spartans beat in-state Michigan, in Ann Arbor (Mich.) to add to Jim Harbaugh’s woes and then would beat previously undefeated Northwestern and knock the Cats out of the top-10.
This is the same team that gave up 52 to Ohio State, 49 to Iowa and was shutout 24-0 to Indiana,
Michigan State fans and opponents won’t have Rocky Lombardi to kick around any longer, as he has transferred out and it appears that this is the Payton Thorne show moving forward. If we are being honest with ourselves, it was not Michigan State’s passing game that was the issue, and while it was not great, it was lightyears ahead of a dormant rushing offense that was No. 122 in the nation and averaged 91.4 yards per game on the ground. It has been a minute since LJ Scott was wearing green and white and even longer than that since the Spartans have had a rusher among the Big Ten leaders.
This team is going to sorely miss one-time Ohio State commit Antjuan Simmons, easily the best defensive player on the team. Add to that the loss of Naquan Jones among others and Tucker will have a lot of work to do in trying to get this unit firing once again, because without the defense, this team has a lot of losses in its future if it can’t fix some very large issues with its offense.
