Indiana Hoosiers defensive coordinator Bryant Haines shared a late-night tweet on Saturday night that's since been deleted. He revealed plenty about his thoughts on the Ohio State Buckeyes' offense in 2025 during the Big Ten Championship Game -- after Brian Hartline announced his imminent departure to be the USF Bulls' head coach and Ryan Day took over primary play-calling duties -- and how OSU stacked up to other teams Indiana played en route to a 16-0 national championship season.
Per Haines, at around midnight on Saturday, the Miami Hurricanes' offense was the toughest his Hoosiers' defense faced. The U put up 342 total yards in the 27-21 loss. Next was the Oregon Ducks, but the regular-season version that had a fully focused Will Stein. Not the CFP semifinal rematch that took place after Stein took the Kentucky Wildcats' head coaching job. Next was Ohio State, with no Hartline caveat. Then, it was the Penn State Nittany Lions, which had already lost Drew Allar and had Ethan Grunkemeyer under center. At No. 5, he wrote "Paul Finebaum just being weird," and at No. 6, he had the Peach Bowl version of Oregon.
The Finebaum comment is why this never saw the light of day. One of the response tweets Haines shared with a fan gave context to the Ducks' ranking: "Oregon 2 had an OC that was torn away by a new job. Coach Stein is elite, but he was not at full game-plan… and their RB room was decimated."
Ohio State's offense must be remembered for falling apart at the wrong time
Never let anyone tell you Hartline's departure didn't shape the Buckeyes' Big Ten title game disappointment and the follow-up ball-dropping against Miami in the Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year's Eve.
Was Day unprepared for the moment during the postseason? Absolutely. But it's not for no reason that Ohio State suddenly couldn't score 20 points in a game. The Buckeyes deserve an asterisk here, even if it's just weekend ramblings from a defensive coordinator on a budding rival.
A brilliant 2025 Ohio State squad, which was more so because of the defense than the offense, admittedly, deserves to be remembered correctly.
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