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Ohio State Football: Buckeyes need an excellent offseason

By Ryan Stano

Dec 31, 2022; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes tight end Mitch Rossi (34) sits on the ground after Ohio State Buckeyes place kicker Noah Ruggles (95) missed the game winning field goal during the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl in the College Football Playoff semifinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.Osu22uga Kwr 39
Dec 31, 2022; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes tight end Mitch Rossi (34) sits on the ground after Ohio State Buckeyes place kicker Noah Ruggles (95) missed the game winning field goal during the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl in the College Football Playoff semifinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.Osu22uga Kwr 39 /
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The Ohio State football team finished off the season with two-straight losses. Had they beaten Georgia in the Peach Bowl, they surely would have beaten TCU in the National Championship Game. Instead, they left home a kick away from essentially winning it all.

Losing against a good team that ended up winning the national championship is nothing to be ashamed of. What is shaming is blowing a 14-point lead to said team and losing to your rival by 20+ points at home. Both of those things are not acceptable.

The Buckeyes can’t let that happen again. They need to have an excellent offseason to get the sting of losing out of their mouths. Not only that, but they need to examine what they are doing at every level of the defense to make changes that can improve that unit.

Next season, Jim Knowles will have no excuses with that unit. He will have a full offseason to fully implement his scheme. While the secondary won’t necessarily get better in terms of personnel, they will be better in terms of experience. Knowles should be able to improve the defense enough to not blow games.

On offense, the running game has to be better. The Ohio State football program has a proud tradition of elite running backs. There was no elite back last year. After being named a Preseason All-American, TreVeyon Henderson got hurt and was a disappointment.

He needs to come back fully healthy and better than ever next year. The lack of a running game hurt this team against TTUN. C.J. Stroud almost singlehandedly willed this team to victory over Georgia because they couldn’t run the ball. Ryan Day wants balance.

dark. Next. How high will C.J. Stroud go in the Draft?

All of the work to make the team better starts now in the offseason. Players and coaches need to get to work to make sure they don’t have a repeat of this in 2023.

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