Ohio State Football: 2021 season a failure regardless of Rose Bowl result
By Ryan Stano
The Ohio State football team has finished as 6th in the final College Football Playoff. They won’t be making the Playoff and they don’t have a conference title to hold onto either. They finished the 2021 season with nothing to show for their efforts, except for a loss to TTUN.
The Buckeyes will be playing in the Rose Bowl against Utah. No matter what the result is of that game, this season cannot be classified as anything other than a failure. They have nothing to really hang their hat on as far as team accomplishments this year.
C.J. Stroud will likely be a Heisman finalist. A few Buckeyes made some all-conference teams. But that means nothing after their disappointing finish to the season. They should have made the CFP. They were the second-ranked team in the country for goodness sake!
How Ryan Day responds to the events of the end of the season will define his tenure as coach of this program. To be honest, I’m not even that concerned about how they play in the bowl game. Sure, I’d like to see them play well and win, but the real challenge will be at the start of next season.
If Day loses to Notre Dame in the Shoe in the first game of the season, then he will start to have some heat on him. After a failure in 2021, opening up the 2022 season with a loss would be unacceptable. This team should be loaded again offensively and should be better defensively.
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I hope Day uses the 2021 season as a learning experience. I hope that he can fix the issues on the defensive staff. The players need to use this season as a learning experience too. They need to finish next season stronger than they finished this one.