Ohio State Football: ESPN ranks Buckeyes high in Way-Too-Early Poll
By David Wysong
ESPN recently released its Way-Too-Early Top 25 for the 2020 college football season and they actually ranked the Ohio State football team pretty high.
In ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 for the 2020 college football season, the Ohio State football team ranked at No. 2 in the country – and they rank high for good reason.
The haters will say that they shouldn’t be ranked that high since they are losing Chase Young, J.K. Dobbins, Jeffrey Okudah, Malik Harrison, Jonah Jackson, and Jordan Fuller, and I guess they have a point. But they return some key guys too, including star quarterback Justin Fields.
Fields will be a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy next season after throwing for 3,273 yards, 41 touchdowns, and only three interceptions in his first year as a starting QB. This is in addition to running for 484 yards and 10 touchdowns.
They will also return Chris Olave who led the team in receiving yards and touchdowns, catching 48 passes for 840 yards and 12 touchdowns, and Garrett Wilson who caught 30 passes for 432 yards and five touchdowns in his freshman season.
Losing Dobbins in the backfield will be tough but Master Teague will be back after running for 789 yards in a limited role. It will also be tough to replace guys like Young, Okudah, and Fuller on defense but Shaun Wade coming back is huge and you know that Ohio State doesn’t rebuild, they just reload.
The Buckeyes have the fourth-ranked 2020 recruiting class in the country so they will be bringing in guys with immense talent.
The only team ranking in front of Ohio State in this poll is Clemson who loses guys like Tee Higgins but returns quarterback Trevor Lawrence and wide receiver Justyn Ross. Alabama, despite losing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, is ranked third but they also always reload, and the reigning champion LSU Tigers rank fourth.
I personally don’t think that will be the top four for the College Football Playoff as I think Bama and LSU could lose a game or two, but you can’t put the reigning champs down too low and Alabama has built enough respect as a program to not be ranked in the top five to start any season.
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Every team next season will look pretty different in some sort of capacity, but ESPN got it right putting Ohio State in the top two. The 2020 Buckeyes have a chance to be very good.