The Ohio State Buckeyes won the national title during the 2024 season, after finishing with a 10-2 record. Ohio State always loses talent to the NFL Draft every single season and they recruit so well that they are able to reload.
Head coach Ryan Day will face a different challenge during the 2025 season for the Buckeyes. For the first time, he will be coaching as the defending national champion instead of being the hunters. They will be the hunted. Even though they didn’t win the BIG10 Conference in 2024, they have high expectations as the 2025 college football season arrives.
Ohio State Buckeyes Ranked Third In College Football Rankings By College Football Analyst
Joel Klatt of FOX Sports ranked his Top 25 teams entering the 2025 college football season. To no surprise, he has Ohio State ranked third in his power rankings before the 2025 season begins. Despite being ranked high, Klatt acknowledges that they lost a lot of talent to the NFL. Klatt said,
” I would’ve put the defending champions higher, but they’re replacing so many stars. Fourteen players from last year’s team were picked in the 2025 NFL Draft. Both coordinators left, with Brian Hartline taking over for Chip Kelly at offensive coordinator and Matt Patricia replacing Jim Knowles as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator. I don’t have many questions about Hartline, but I wonder how long it might take Patricia to acclimate to the college game.
OSU made some nice pickups in the portal, though, adding tight end Max Klare (Purdue), running back CJ Donaldson (West Virginia) and two potential starting offensive tackles. At quarterback, we’ll see if Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz is the starter. I think it’s going to be Sayin, but I keep asking Ryan Day who it’s going to be, and he mentioned that Kienholz is still fighting for the job and doing great in practice. Whoever wins that job gets to throw to Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate. Can I win that job? My shoulder is toast and I can throw it to Smith. We know exactly what the standard is for Ohio State, even after winning a national championship.”
They still have talent at the wide receiver position no doubt. The biggest question for Ohio State this season could be the quarterback position. With Will Howard gone, Kienholz or Sayin starting in Week 1 against the Texas Longhorns could potentially be a drop-off for this football program.
Another issue for the Buckeyes is that they will have to replace the entire production on the defensive line from a season ago. The Week 1 matchup will be a good test for Ohio State against Texas. It will be interesting to see if the talent they lost to the NFL in 2024 will catch up to them at any point during the 2025 college football season.
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