The Ohio State football team won the 2024 national championship, thanks to some mental fortitude. That team showed some serious mental toughness in that CFP run. It was an incredible run that will never be forgotten in Ohio State football history. The Buckeyes have now turned their attention to 2025.
This 2025 team is going to be a lot different. The Ohio State Buckeyes will have a lot of new starters on both sides of the ball. With that in mind, it's time to make some way-too-early predictions for this team ahead of the 2025 season and the start of Spring ball starting.
1. Julian Sayin will win the starting QB job, but in a close battle
The Buckeyes will have a new starting quarterback for the third straight year. Julian Sayin is the favorite to win that job because of his immense talent. He was a five-star recruit in the 2024 class, and this is his time to shine. He'll have to earn it, though.
Sayin will face some competition from two good players. Lincoln Kienholz has been in the program for a while now, coming in during the 2023 class. He's a better athlete than Sayin, and he thinks he should be the starter. But he won't push Sayin the most.
That push will come from true freshman Tavien St. Clair. St. Clair is a five-star quarterback out of Bellefontaine, Ohio, who has been getting a lot of hype. He will make a hard push for the starting job, but will likely end up as the backup for his freshman season.
2. Brandon Inniss will be a breakout player
With how good Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka were, it was hard for Brandon Inniss to get much playing time. Carnell Tate is ahead of him on the depth chart, too. Now, Egbuka is headed to the NFL. That opens up a spot on the depth chart for Inniss.
Inniss is likely going to be the third receiver behind Smith and Tate next season. He was one of the best receivers in his recruiting class coming out of Florida. He is going to break ou this season and be another big weapon for the Buckeyes on offense.
3. Ohio State will finally end their Michigan losing streak
The last four years have been painful when it comes to taking on Michigan. None of the losses have felt good, but that's especially true of the 2024 loss. That was the worst Michigan team the Buckeyes have faced in quite a while, and they still lost.
Next season, that losing streak will stop. Even though Ohio State has to travel to Ann Arbor, they will be able to get a win. Ohio State is going to be the more talented team again, but Ryan Day learned a valuable lesson. He is not going to let the offense be stopped by bad play-calling again.
He is going to instruct Brian Hartline to call plays much more aggressively than they were called in 2024 against TTUN. Day will finally get the monkey off his back after winning in 2019 with Urban Meyer's players.