Ohio State Football: Christmas is a time to be grateful

The Ohio State football team might not be playing in a College Football Playoff game this year. Even so, Christmas is a time to be grateful for the type of season and the type of program the Buckeyes have. They still did have a great season in 2021 by most other fanbases’ standards.

Having a team only lose two games on the season and finish in the top 6 in the country is still a heck of a season. Ohio State finished with the best offense in the country and had a player be a Heisman finalist. C.J. Stroud had himself a really great year.

Since it is Christmas, we are celebrating the good things that happened this football season. The Buckeyes found their defensive coordinator of the future in Jim Knowles. Even though something bad happened in order for that to happen, it still ended up being something good.

Ohio State’s defense struggled at times this season to play to their full capabilities. Even so, they improved later in the year and even produced a shutout of the number seven team in the country late in the season. The Buckeyes had some good moments even with their weakest unit.

The future also looks bright for this team. Now that Stroud has some experience as a starting quarterback, he should be even better next season. He shouldn’t have the early-season mistakes that he had this season, especially in the Oregon game.

The young defense should also be better in 2022. Young defensive linemen like J.T. Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, and Tyliek Williams should get more playing time and develop into absolute studs. All three of them showed flashes of being very good players in 2021.

We have a lot of things to be grateful for with this 2021 Ohio State football team this Christmas. Let’s not ruin it by being sad about not playing for a national title. The Rose Bowl is still a great bowl game.