Ohio State football: Defensive improvement better than expected

Coming into the 2022 season, the Ohio State football team needed defensive improvement. They’ve gotten it.

Ryan Day has never had an issue getting an elite offense for the Ohio State football team. Every offense he’s had since he’s come on board in Columbus has been elite. This year is no different, with his squad scoring more points than anyone in the country.

The defense has what held the Buckeyes back from winning national championships. Day recognized that and fired most of his defensive staff from a year ago and hired the best defensive coordinator in the country in Jim Knowles. He wanted the defense to improve quickly.

We thought this defense would improve this year, but the improvement has been much better than anyone could have expected. They are no longer soft in the trenches. Ohio State only allows 253.5 yards per game in total yardage, which is good enough for 7th-best in the country.

To go from having one of the worst defenses in the Big Ten to having a top-ten defense in the country in just one year is an astounding turnaround. We talked about the need for the defense to just be average for Ohio State to win it all. It turns out they might actually be pretty darn good.

The one caveat to this is that the Ohio State football team hasn’t faced a truly great offense yet. The best offense they’ve faced is Wisconsin, which is 66th in the country in terms of total offense. We don’t know if Ohio State’s defense is good or is just a product of facing bad offenses yet.

At the same time, Ohio State didn’t play great defense against bad offenses last year, so no matter what there’s been significant improvement. Pairing this with the elite offense they have could be the right combination to win a national title.