Ohio State Football could struggle in first half vs. Minnesota

Just because the Ohio State football team is clearly the more talented group doesn’t give them immunity from struggling early on in the opener against Minnesota.

The Ohio State football team opens up their season just over a month from now in Minnesota on a Thursday night. It will be the first time since 2019 that they will play in front of Big Ten fans. It will surely be a rowdy environment that will take some getting used to.

Not only that, but the Buckeyes will be breaking in some new players at some key positions. The biggest new player will obviously be the new quarterback. As we’ve said before, it will likely be C.J. Stroud, but we don’t know that for sure. Whoever it is will have their work cut out for them.

Since they will have a new quarterback, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Buckeyes struggle in the first half against the Golden Gophers. It will take some time for the new guy to get used to live, Big Ten games. No one on the roster has thrown a pass in a collegiate game.

The defense could struggle a bit too. They don’t have much experience in the back seven. In fact, they don’t have a linebacker who has started a single game for the Buckeyes on this roster. It will be interesting to see how they react to an experienced quarterback like Tanner Morgan.

Do I think Ohio State is in danger of losing the game? Absolutely not. Whatever struggles they have in the first half should be easily fixed in the second half. As I said, they are still the superior talented team. It would be shocking to not see Ryan Day fix any issues that may arise.

First-half struggles could be a good thing for this team. If they can get those issues out of the way before facing Oregon, that would be great because Oregon is a much better football team than Minnesota.