There is no question that the Ohio State football team will have one of the most talented teams in college football this year. If you take a look at the roster, it’s full of four and five-star recruits. It’s filled with future NFL players and first-round picks. There’s a lot of talent to be found.
That talent is why the Buckeyes have been on top of the Big Ten for so long. They’ve consistently recruited better than any other program in the conference so that makes sense. But as we saw last year, that talent will only take you so far against good teams.
Other good teams also have a lot of talent. At that point, it comes down to the execution of the gameplan and mental will. TTUN did both of those better than the Buckeyes last year. So did Oregon. That’s why the Ohio State football team played in the Rose Bowl instead of a College Football Playoff game.
Ryan Day made changes to the coaching staff to combat this very issue. He knows that he has more talent than the rest of the conference and he should be winning it every year. He needs a staff that can get the most out of that talent and coach it up right.
The new staff is going to get a heck of a test in the opening game against Notre Dame. These are the best assistants Day could find, so they should be ready for the moment. Even still, it will be interesting to see how this new-look staff handles the preparation for that good team.
My expectation is that the staff will do a better job developing this talent than last year’s staff, superficially on defense and on the offensive line. That should translate into this team competing once again in the CFP.