As the 2024 Big Ten football season comes closer, it’s worth noting that while Ohio State is a highly formidable team, the Buckeyes are strong in ways they haven’t been in recent years. They are also strong in a way the 2022 USC football team never was.
Recent Ohio State teams were great on offense and weak — or at least imperfect — on defense. Buckeye teams quarterbacked by J.T. Barrett, Justin Fields, and C.J. Stroud could light up the scoreboard but sometimes got roped into no-defense shootouts which put them on the edge of disaster. Those Buckeye teams made the College Football Playoff but were still undone by their defenses to varying degrees.
This year’s Ohio State team will lean on its defense. Instead of trying to win games 49-42 the way past Buckeye teams — and 2022 USC football — tried to do, these Bucks will try to win games 20-10 and 23-16.
Mark Rogers and Trojans Wire’s Tim Prangley talk about the defense-first Buckeyes on the Big Ten Live Show at The Voice of College Football:
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