Ohio State Football: Three defenders who have the most to prove

The Ohio State football team always has talent. With the way that they recruit year in and year out, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be a top-five program every year. They have been and that’s a testament to the job that Ryan Day and his staff have done.

And yet, they still haven’t been able to get over the hump. They have had one National Championship Game appearance since Day took over in 2020. Every year that they didn’t make it under him, they were more talented than the team that they lost to that took them out of that running.

So why did they lose to TTUN in 2021 and 2022? Or to Georgia in 2022? The defense. The defense has been a problem all the way back to the 2020 season. That’s the unit that made them lose to Alabama in that National Championship Game, specifically the secondary.

The defense will once again be a point of emphasis this season. There are three defenders from last year’s squad that come back this year with a lot to prove. The first of these players reside in the secondary and actually had the best overall year of these guys until the very end.

1. Lathan Ransom

No one remembers how good of an overall year Lathan Ransom had. There were times when he was the best defensive back on the field for the Buckeyes. But no one remembers that. They only remember his performances against TTUN and Georgia in the final two games.

Ransom slipped on two huge plays in both of those games that resulted in long touchdowns. Both of those touchdowns ended up being the difference in the game. In The Game, that touchdown broke things open for TTUN. Against Georgia, it gave the Bulldogs life in the fourth quarter.

Ransom now has to prove to everyone that he’s more than those two slips. He has to show that he can perform well in big spots in big games. If he doesn’t, there are some highly-rated guys that are sitting behind him on the depth chart ready for their shot at the big time.

The next player on this list also is in the secondary.