The Ohio State Buckeyes finished a dominant season in 2024 with a national title. Ryan Day had plenty of NFL talent leading the way as Ohio State cruised. However, Julian Sayin is leading a new roster, and the team has a lot to prove. Former Buckeyes star and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit has the LSU Tigers as the No. 1 team in the college football world.
Ohio State started its season off with a big-time win against the Texas Longhorns. Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia made life difficult for Arch Manning and Steve Sarkisian, limiting Texas' offense in a 14-7 win. Sayin then exploded in the next two weeks, defeating Grambling and Ohio by a combined 98 points. Despite those wins, Herbstreit needs to see more.
The Buckeyes own the top spot in the AP poll, but the LSU Tigers and Penn State Nittany Lions are lurking. Day is under a lot of pressure to keep producing a winning product for a program with high expectations. Herbstreit, for one, has questions about his roster. The analyst needs to see more from Day's offense this year. For now, he has Ohio State behind both LSU and Penn State.
He spoke about Ohio State's lack of a star running back on the Nonstop podcast. That loss made him hesitant to put them at No. 1.
“It will be fun to see them when they really get into a game. I don’t feel like they have a back at this point that has shown to be a JK Dobbins, a TreVeyon Henderson, a Quinshon Judkins. A guy that if you pay too much attention to Jeremiah Smith, they’re going to make you pay for it with eight yards, seven yards, but like 80 yards. They’ve had that in the backfield for the last, whatever it’s been. Five, Six, Seven years,” Herbstreit said. “I’m not saying they don’t have it, we just haven’t seen it yet from their backs.”
The Buckeyes' run game faces its first conference opponent of the season when they visit the Washington Huskies. If Ohio State's run game is lacking, it will be apparent.
