Ohio State came achingly close to traveling to New Orleans to play in the national title in 2019. As the No. 2 seed, it outplayed the Clemson Tigers but didn’t take advantage of opportunities in the red zone, and got a slew of breaks and calls go against it. So, the Buckeyes sat on the couch and watched LSU dismantle Dabo Swinney and his crew.
Now — as is the case with every college football season — there are defections and losses due to graduation, early NFL declarations, and transfer portal shenanigans to deal with. Ohio State must replace and reload the talent it lost at key positions.
But there’s a lot back to like as well. A healthy Justin Fields will be slinging the ball around the field to some highly touted wide-receivers, the offensive line has a ton of talent and experience back, and the front seven on defense is deep and talented again.
It’s enough to think Ohio State could make another run at this thing. And we’re not the only ones that think so. The wise-guys in Vegas also believe OSU is going to be one of those teams that have a great shot at making it to Miami next year to have a shot at winning one on South Beach.
According to BetOnline in fact, the Buckeyes have the third-best odds to win the national championship for the 2020 season. Ohio State (+450) is just behind Clemson (+225) and Alabama (+350), and ahead of LSU and Georgia. Sounds like some usual suspects in there again.
Congrats, LSU…
…Now who wins next year?
>>> https://t.co/iPzGpTNSb8 pic.twitter.com/cl1ueOXdDE
— BetOnline.ag (@betonline_ag) January 14, 2020
Now, before you celebrate or throw vitriol the way of BetOnline (depending on which way you think), we must remind you that LSU was an afterthought in these sorts of things around this time last year. The Tigers were barely inside the top ten, but that was before a kid from southeast Ohio became the gunslinger he is today.
Seven months and counting …