Three best coaches Ohio State Football will face in 2021
By Ryan Stano
Ohio State will have to take on Oregon in the first home game of the season. These two teams were supposed to meet up in Eugene, but the game was canceled due to the pandemic and both teams ended up playing conference-only schedules.
As far as coaching pedigree goes, Cristobal is a coach on the rise. He took over an Oregon program that had fallen into irrelevance after Mark Helfrich and Willie Taggert made a mess of things. Since Oregon’s appearance in the 2014 National Championship, they hadn’t won the Pac-12 for five seasons.
They did finally win it again in 2019 in Cristobal’s second season. They came very close to qualifying for the CFP that season, just barely missing the cut. His team regressed a bit last year after having to break in a new quarterback, but they should be better this season.
The Buckeyes should be ready for the Ducks when they come into the Shoe on September 11th. This could be a top-10 matchup when these teams meet depending on what happens in Week 1. Ohio State is currently 4th in the polls while Oregon is at 11th.
Day should be able to navigate whatever Cristobal throws at him and his team. Breaking in a new quarterback against a team this good this early in the schedule isn’t ideal, but Ohio State should still win.
The next coach on this list has a Big Ten program that might be the biggest threat to knock off the Buckeyes this season.