Ohio State football: Biggest challenge for Ohio State

Ohio State will enter the 2020 season as favorites to win every game, win the Big Ten, make the playoffs, win a Heisman, and compete for a National Championship. What is the biggest challenge standing in the way of the Buckeyes making these goals?

It would be easy to try and find a game or group of games on Ohio State’s schedule that would be the reason for not achieving the lofty expectations. Oregon, Penn State, and Michigan are all games against quality opponents are there are chances to slip up to one or more of these teams.

But that’s not the biggest concern. Some may point to injury as the thing that must be avoided.

Remember last year when Justin Fields went down against Michigan and all of Buckeye Nation saw their hopes and dreams gone before he came back in the game? There is a little bit more depth this year which helps mitigate this concern.

But injuries are not the biggest concern.

The changing environment of college football is also going to be difficult to manage this year. With COVID-19 limiting the amount of pre-season team activities that will take place and most likely reducing or eliminating the fans, there will be some major changes this year.

These changes are not the biggest concern this year.

I believe the biggest opponent for the Buckeyes this year is complacency. Knowing you are the best team before a game starts can lead to players preparing less.

Knowing that this should be the year that many awards are achieved for individuals and the team can make it easy to expect greatness to happen without working towards it.

2015 was the last time that Ohio State had so many expectations and had one of the best returning teams in the country. That season ended in disappointment.

The challenge for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes in 2020 is to take every practice rep, film session, and play seriously. The moment this team starts to look ahead, the moment the entire plan can fall apart.