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Ohio State Football: Buckeyes, AP Top 10 should be ranked differently

By Blake Biscardi

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 14: Justin Fields #1 and Chris Olave #17 of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrate a touchdown in the game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Memorial Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 14: Justin Fields #1 and Chris Olave #17 of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrate a touchdown in the game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Memorial Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
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The Ohio State football team has seen the widest range among AP voters despite coming in at No. 5. But should the Buckeyes be ranked higher?

Ohio State checked in at No. 5 in the latest AP Poll released yesterday afternoon, but should the Buckeyes be ranked higher? What about the SEC teams and Clemson?

Ryan Day has his team playing determined football with a chip on their shoulder and it has shown as the Buckeyes have dismantled all four of their opponents so far.

The Chase Young led Silver Bullets have been a stone wall only giving up an average of nine points per game. Only one touchdown has been given up by the starting unit and it was on a double pass from Indiana. Young already has seven sacks on the year despite rarely seeing the field in any second half thus far.

Offensively, Justin Fields has accounted for a school and Big Ten record 19 touchdowns through four games. Like Young, Fields hasn’t seen much playing time after the first  half. Some of these stats out of Columbus are staggering as Ohio State has been among the best teams in the country, especially via the eye test.

Some analysts like FOX’s Joel Klatt have the Buckeyes ranked atop all of college football. Check out Klatt’s rankings he posted on Twitter.

"1a) @OhioStateFB1b) @AlabamaFTBL1c) @ClemsonFB4) @LSUfootball5) @OU_Football6) @BadgerFootball7) @GeorgiaFootball8) @TexasFootball9) @NDFootball10) @AuburnFootball"

Whereas others have Ohio State around the 4-6 area like most pollsters and outlets, the Buckeyes are the team in the top 10 with the largest range.

Continuing off of this, what if there were no such thing as preseason polls? Which team would be ranked No. 1 based on the results of the first four weeks?

In my opinion, it wouldn’t be Clemson, but LSU who would be slotted No. 1 with Alabama and Ohio State following closely behind.

Clemson has not looked the part as the top team in America, and quite frankly, even if the Tigers go undefeated I believe they will find themselves sliding a spot or two later in the season as the team behind them gain quality wins. The Tigers will not have the opportunity to get a true quality victory until possibly the College Football Playoff due to the weakness of the ACC.

LSU looks to be legit with Joe Burrow in his second year as he’s putting up Heisman type numbers. The Tigers should head to Tuscaloosa unbeaten in what will likely be the game of the year and the evaluator on just how good Coach O’s group really is this season.

Ohio State has done exactly as they’ve been expected against lesser opponents, and then some. The Buckeyes have dominated on both sides of the football and haven’t shown signs of potential weaknesses like last year.

Ohio State will have the country watching as they travel to Lincoln to face Nebraska and the most hostile crowd of the season to this point.

Playing in front of “Big Red Nation” will be the first true road night game for Ryan Day and also Justin Fields. Seeing how the two handle the big stage will be telling.

I have no problem ranking the Buckeyes higher than they currently are in the polls because of these reasons, namely the eye test.

Despite not having the tough opening set of games, Ohio State has not given any reason to slot them lower. LSU, Georgia and Auburn have the best wins so far among the top teams but I would slate LSU’s win over Texas as the best.

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Georgia’s win over Notre Dame eliminated the Irish from playoff contention, and also showed more about Georgia than Notre Dame. I think the Bulldogs could have played better and didn’t throw the ball all that well.

Taking the bias of the preseason polls out of consideration, I would rank the Top 10 as follows. And yes, Ohio State should be ranked higher than No. 5.

  1. LSU
  2. Alabama
  3. Ohio State
  4. Clemson
  5. Georgia
  6. Oklahoma
  7. Auburn
  8. Wisconsin
  9. Florida
  10. Texas

Next. Justin Fields is proving Georgia wrong. dark

I know it’s just four weeks into the season but that’s how I would rank the top 10 teams at the  moment.

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