Ohio State football: 3 best teams to not win a National Championship

Last year’s Buckeye squad was absolutely incredible. First-year coach Ryan Day had a ridiculous assortment of talent and dominated most of their schedule. The only team to score more than 14 points on them in the first 9 games was FAU in the opener.

Led by Justin Fields at quarterback and J.K. Dobbins in the backfield, the offense put up insane scoring numbers. The Buckeyes scored more than 40 points nine times, more than 50 points six times, and topped 70 points twice en route to a dominating regular season.

The Buckeyes had two Heisman finalists in Fields and dominating defensive end Chase Young. The defense was just as intimidating as the offense and led Ohio State to the number 1 ranking in the college football playoff rankings until the week of the first semi-final game.

Because they struggled with Wisconsin in the first half of the Big Ten Championship, OSU fell to number two behind LSU. That meant they had to face Clemson in the first semi-final game. Ohio State jumped out to a 16-0 lead that could have been more after two dropped touchdown passes from Dobbins.

You know the rest of this painful story. Shaun Wade gets ejected after an extremely questionable targeting call. Replay overturns a fumble recovery for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that would have given the Buckeyes a lead, despite the receiver having taken three steps before the ball came loose. Fields throws an interception on the final play in the end zone after a miscommunication with Chris Olave. They end up falling 29-23.

Last year’s squad is the best Ohio State team I’ve ever seen. They had 10 players taken in April’s draft, including three first-rounders with two of the top three picks overall. It was crushing to see them not even get a chance to win it all.

This year’s squad is loaded too though. Hopefully, they can exercise last year’s demons and win a title to vindicate last year’s team.