While losing is never an acceptable way for Ohio State to end the season, it becomes even more of an unacceptable outcome when the loss feels like the two losses the Buckeyes suffered to end last season. Those two losses featured the Buckeyes losing in ways that shouldn’t sit right with any major college football program, let alone one with the pedigree of Ohio State’s.
The Buckeyes lost to both Indiana and Miami because they lost the battle across both lines of scrimmage in ways that many fans hoped would leave a bad taste in Ryan Day’s mouth and call for an immediate shift in recruiting focus and philosophy, and lucky for them, it did.
This shift in focus and allocation of resources has been made very apparent when you look at their 2027 high school recruiting class. Out of their 19 current commits, 11 of whom are either offensive or defensive linemen, with all but one being a blue-chip recruit according to 247 Sports’ recruiting database.
This is exactly what Ohio State needs, as it is what all the other top programs in the country do: the best of the best invest heavily in their line of scrimmage. This is exactly how Mario Cristobal and Miami bullied Ohio State en route to a national championship appearance as a lower seed. They did so by being able to run the ball constantly and cause havoc all across their defensive front due to their talent level across both lines of scrimmage being so high.
Now, five of those blue chips are offensive linemen, which I love because last season OSU’s biggest weakness was clearly its offensive line. This weakness was hidden for the majority of the season because their schedule wasn’t the most difficult, but Indiana and Miami brought it to light in front of the entire nation. In both of those games, they gave up 10 sacks and rushed for only 2 yards per carry.
These are egregious stats, and even more so when you realize that in both of those games their defense held the opponent to under 20 points (one of Miami’s touchdowns was a pick-six, which took them over 20), so if they were just a little bit better, they might be the National Champions.
The offensive line needs to get better and never stoop to these levels again, and a great way to ensure this never happens again is to bring in talent like Kellen Wymer, Caden Moss, Jimmy Kalis, Davis Seaman, and Mason Wilt. Players who are all extremely talented four-stars, three of which top 15 offensive linemen in this class (Kellen Wymer, Caden Moss, and Mason Wilt, according to 247 Sports) and will help build depth in the short term while potentially being viable long-term answers when their time comes.
Defensively, last year the Buckeyes' defense was one of the best I have ever seen, and they did so without the defensive line being their particular strength and without a dominant edge. Ohio State's strength was their ability to constantly be in nickel and dime, playing with light boxes no matter the situation.
That's thanks to having a great nose like Kayden McDonald and versatile playmakers on their defense like Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles, and Caleb Downs, all being dominant players in their own unique way. This formula is hard to replicate, but it can be if you have talented defensive linemen, and Ohio State has seemingly made it their mission to find those types of players by getting commitments from players like DJ Jacobs and Marcus Fakatou, two consensus top five defensive linemen in this class.
DJ Jacobs, who, depending on the recruiting platform you use, is seen by many a good portion of people as maybe the best player in this class and has all the tools similar to the top edges you see playing on Sundays.
Then you have Marcus Fakatou, a freak of nature who projects as a monster against the run, who can play on both the inside and outside. These two players alone would be a stellar class, so it makes it even better that they are also bringing in Wyatt Smith, Karlos May, and Prince Goldsby, all top 100 blue-chip recruits in their own right.
Whenever Ohio State football has been at its best, it has been led by dominating up front on both sides of the ball, no matter the level of competition. That is the Ohio State I am accustomed to, and it is the standard. Sadly, though, last year only one side of the ball was able to hold up their end of the bargain.
Offensively, this line has to get better, and defensively, this front has always got to be one of the, if not the best in the nation, and their recruiting efforts show that Ryan Day and his staff agree with this sentiment and never want what happened last season to be the reason the Ohio State Buckeyes are not competing for a national championship.
This new recruiting focus reinforces the belief that talent will never be the reason why the Buckeyes fail to be dominant along the lines of scrimmage.
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