Ohio State Football: Jim Knowles failed the Buckeyes

The Ohio State football team had a chance to beat Georgia in the Peach Bowl. In fact, they should have. The Buckeyes had a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter. That should be more than enough for the team to get out with a lead. Instead, Jim Knowles failed the program.

Knowles was brought in to fix the defense and have the unit perform its best in the biggest games. For the second straight game, the defense broke down. Knowles was paid almost $2 million as an assistant to avoid situations like this. Games like the Peach Bowl is the whole reason Ryan Day brought him to Columbus.

The Ohio State football team allowed 533 yards of total offense and let Georgia score 42 points on them. The offense scored 41 points. That’s plenty of points to be able to win in modern college football. The blame for this loss rests solely on the defense.

Lathan Ransom had a massive screw-up for the second straight game. He fell and allowed a 76-yard touchdown pass on the first play of Georgia’s drive. He did the same thing against Michigan and that resulted in another long touchdown pass.  He had a nightmare finish to the season.

That happened with 8:41 left in the game. Ohio State still went down and scored more points. It didn’t matter because they allowed Georgia to score another touchdown in just five plays on their very next drive. That’s a choke job if I’ve ever seen one.

There is plenty of blame to go around for this loss. Ohio State should be on their way to LA to play for a national championship. Instead, they are heading home. It’s an absolutely heartbreaking way to start 2023. Changes need to be made, and they will be made after a failure like this.