Ohio State Football: Looking ahead to the 2021 season
With the recent devastation of Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren’s decision to postpone the Big Ten football season, we now look ahead to the 2021 Ohio State football season.
With no guarantee of a spring season, let’s see what the Ohio State football team’s “revenge” tour looks like for the 2021 fall season.
To kick off the Ohio State season, the Buckeyes will travel to Minnesota to play the Golden Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium. Finishing 11-2 in 2019, the Gophers will face off against the Buckeyes with their senior quarterback Tanner Morgan.
The first quarterback in Gophers history to throw for over 3,000 yards and 30 touchdowns, Morgan will be in the Heisman conversation when he takes the field for his final season. With both teams most likely ranked in the top 25, the Buckeyes will be in a dog fight when they take the field for this conference showdown.
Although travel plans were canceled to go to Eugene, Oregon to watch #2 ranked Ohio State take on Oregon this year, the Buckeyes will host the Ducks week 2 on September 11th. This will be a highly anticipated game due to the cancellation of the 2020 matchup.
Hopefully COVID free, there is no doubt that Ohio Stadium will be a record-breaking, sold-out crowd when Ryan Day leads the Buckeyes out of the tunnel. This will be the first meeting between the two schools since Ohio State won the 2015 College Football Playoff. In a statement win for the Buckeyes, they defeat the Ducks 56-21.
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Despite a difficult 2 week stretch to begin the season, the 2-0 Buckeyes will face off against Tulsa and Akron in week 3 and week 4, respectively. In 2 blowout victories at home, Coach Day’s 4-0 Buckeyes will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to go up against the Cornhuskers.
This will be a good matchup early in the game due to the electrifying sold-out crowd. However, the Buckeyes will pull away after halftime to beat the Huskers in a 42-10 victory. Following a return to Columbus, the Buckeyes will have Purdue at home, then a bye week and followed by a trip to Piscataway, NJ to take on the Scarlet Knights.
Returning home after a dominating win against Rutgers, the 7-0 Buckeyes will head into the toughest stretch of their season as one of the top teams in the country. The Buckeyes will face the Spartans at home followed by a trip to Bloomington to take on the Hoosiers.
In 2 hard-fought Big Ten wins, the Buckeyes have a matchup at home with Maryland. This could possibly be a potential ‘trap game’ for the Bucks if their focus is looking ahead to their final 2 games against Penn State and Michigan. Nonetheless, the Bucks will pull away then the preparation begins for Penn State.
With Penn State traveling to The Shoe, the Buckeyes’ home-field advantage will be too much for James Franklin and company to handle in this late fall showdown. After another statement conference victory, the Buckeyes have one last opponent to finish off an undefeated season, ‘The Team Up North’ in Ann Arbor.
It will be hard to say if Jim Harbaugh will still be the head coach for the Wolverines or not but that will make no difference. Although Coach Day comes up short in his quest to ‘hang 100 on them’, the Buckeyes win big 56-17.
With an undefeated season complete, the Buckeyes will head to Indy for the Big Ten Championship for a rematch against the Minnesota Gophers.
Could Ohio State football be played in a bubble?. dark. Next
Crowned Big Ten Champions, the Buckeyes will be the #1 seed in the College Football Playoff and, well, the rest is history. Ryan Day will hoist the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy with confetti falling from the rafters in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.