Ohio State Football: Linebackers key to title run in 2020
You can expect the Ohio State football team to score plenty of points again next season but the play on the other side of the ball will be the key to a title run.
With Ryan Day at the helm of the Ohio State football program, the offense will always steal the spotlight. Since his arrival in 2017, the offense has been on fire improving from 41.1 points-per-game in 2017 to 46.9 points per game last year.
With Justin Fields, an offensive line with potentially three All-Americans, a ridiculously good pair of tight ends and a receiving corps that might be the best in college football all back, this will be Day’s most productive offense.
That bodes well for the Buckeyes, especially when we all watched LSU steamroll its way to a title last season behind an unstoppable offense. Ohio State is not only favored to win the Big Ten and make it make it back into the College Football Playoff for the second-straight season, but it should be favored to win the championship this time.
Despite having a lethal offense, the defense will determine this team’s ultimate fate. There were plenty of losses on this side of the ball meaning it will be reloading except for linebacker.
Five years ago, Darron Lee, RaeKwon McMillan and Joshua Perry combined for 290 tackles and nine-and-a-half sacks leading a defense that finished No. 2 in the FBS in scoring allowing just 15.1 points-per-game.
Perry made First-Team All-Big Ten and McMillan and Lee made Second-Team.
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To some in Buckeye Nation, it may seem like an eternity since the linebackers played to historical standards, but the groundwork was laid last year for the resurgence. Under first-year coach Al Washington, Malik Harrison, Pete Werner, Tuf Borland and Baron Browning restored the luster on a unit that struggled with consistency in 2017 and 2018.
Harrison is off to the NFL, but the other three are primed to have fantastic seasons.
Coupled with an abundance of depth including Justin Hilliard, Teradja Mitchell, Dallas Gant and K’Vaughn Pope, Washington has versatile, athletic, fast and strong guys to rotate keeping them fresh throughout the season.
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On January 11, don’t be surprised if Day shuns his offense and hands the championship trophy to one of his linebackers.