Why Ohio State is Still the Best Team in the Big Ten!

Ohio state is the best team in the Big 10 let's talk about it there's been a lot of talk and a lot of chatter about who is the best team in the Big 10 there's even some Power Rankings out there that is ranking USC and Penn State the best teams in the Big 10 following week one I'll just say this I'm glad you played somebody difficult but just because you played a better team than somebody else played does not mean you are the best team in the Big 10 it is still the Ohio State Buckeyes let us not forget how much hype was on these Buckeyes going into this season Urban Meyer Jim Trestle among others called this possibly the best the best roster in all of college football history Jim Trestle and urban Meyers said it was the best roster they've seen at Ohio State so there is a ton of hype going on for this team not nearly as much hype for Penn State USC some of those other teams and so let's talk about why why is Ohio State the best team in the Big 10 still even after some other teams are getting some uh some talk about possibly being the best because they play difficult opponen is number one dominant week one performance Ohio State convincingly beat akan 52-6 showcasing dominance on both sides of the ball while other big 10 teams struggled against weaker competition that's the first point why it's definitely not Michigan it's definitely not Oregon you can't call yourself the best team in the Big 10 and only beat a FCS opponent by 10 points you just can't do it I know that defense was pretty good they only really gave up points on trick plays I know Dylan Gabriel wasn't bad wasn't awful I know he threw for you know nearly 400 yards had a good completion percentage all that stuff but still he didn't throw the ball downfield enough things were not working well enough on offense for them to score more than 24 points on Idaho and quite frankly their offensive line was getting pushed around by Idaho's defensive line it was not a good look for them and Ohio State they were just dominant in every facet of the game the only area you could say that Ohio state was not dominant in was the scrambling by acan their akan backup quarterback he came in for the first drive uh when Finley TJ Finley Ben Finley whatever his name is when he was not feeling so hot and he had to come out and the backup quarterback had some scrambles that move the ball down the field a little bit of an issue there with a scrambling quarterback that's going to happen it is what it is and then Ohio State took over from there dominated some things some early Jitters from Ohio State with some drops and things like that to begin the game but it was clear when you watch the tape when you watch the footage of the game Ohio state was dominating in many facets of the game just some unlucky plays here and there still can't have that still got to clean it up still got to look better but still Ohio state did not look bad Ohio State's offensive line was not as bad as some people are given the credit for now were the tight ends great in blocking sometimes but they also were not great all the time so sometimes that credit I guess not even credit some of that you know criticism can go against the tight ends and not just the offenseive line and keep in mind All-American left guard Donovan Jackson was not playing in this game linebacker con sumon was not playing in this game so those guys come back Ohio state is going to be even stronger and even better Ohio state has a balanced team this another reason Ohio state has a Balan the team the Buckeyes have a strong well-rounded roster will Howard a transfer QB settled in during the second half and true freshman Jeremiah Smith is already showing that he has Elite potential not just potential but he is an elite player right now there really isn't a position group on this team that you can say is weak and you can go after sure maybe the offensive line is a little weak but still it's not it's it's not a weakness compared to many other teams out there this is still what I believe is a top 10 offensive line in college football this year especially with Donovan Jackson coming back and what he is going to do like I mentioned before for this team the running backs are going to make the offensive lineman right more often than not and if the tight ends can clean up their blocking and look much better then you are going to see a team with really no weaknesses tight ends possibly your only weakness which they do need to help out a little bit more uh a lot more in the in the running game and some of the receiving ability but still it's early will hack's first game in the the shoe you know first game playing really big time football he'll get better he'll improve and uh this this Ohio State team really has no weaknesses when you come down to it Elite Defense number three Elite defense Ohio State's defense was suffocating with 10 tackles for loss five sacks three takeaways in two defensive touchdowns they are poised to pitch a shut out here soon could be this week against Western Michigan could be against Marshall heck could be against Iowa maybe that offense was Fool's Gold a little bit who knows but Ohio state is does have a does have an elite defense and it's going to look awesome this year the more we get to see them Cody Simon comes back it's going to look even better how they're rotating the linebackers how they're rotating the defensive line as well if you did not notice in that game I noticed it on my second rewatch just how much they were rotating those defensive linemen you saw kinata Jackson in there a lot you saw Kon curry in there a lot you saw a good amount of Katen McDonald as well and they brought back the rushman the rushman package was fantastic to see they lined up Jack Sawyer as a bit of an interior defensive tackle type guy he was still split out much wider but they lined him up as one of the Interior guys it was fantastic to see they were able to rush after the quarterback you can tell Jim nolles is allowing these guys to really get after the quarterback and he's allowing for his Defenders his guys in the second to jump on balls more because he trusts the guys behind him it's going to be fantastic for this defense this defense is Elite Superior Talent on paper Ohio State could be the most talented team in the country with a deep roster and a high ESPN fpi ranking not only that but Ohio state has the third highest composite Talent ranking in all of college football only behind Georgia and Alabama when you look at composite talent and how Ohio state has recruited over the past few years really nobody in the Big 10 can match them Oregon has recruited well Penn State is recruited well nowhere near the level that Ohio state is recruited and so just by natural athletes and recruiting rankings Ohio State far far ahead of everybody else and like I said ESPN fpi has Ohio State ahead of many other big 10 teams as well the only closest team would be Penn State but Penn State is also just getting a lot of love because Drew Aller is a quarterback coming back and FBI loves it when you have a quarterback who is returning next one high grading metric Ohio state was the only big 10 team to earn a PFF grade above 90 without facing an FCS team sign signaling their overall strength they were the only big 10 team that did not face an FCS opponent you want to know where Penn State is at 85th they got a grade of 73.2 Ohio State got a grade of 91.4 so did Penn State really look that all that good or did they just just take advantage of certain opportunities I don't know I feel like they probably just took advantage of some better opportunities than other people did now do they still deserve the win of course but if we're going to evaluate this team and look what Ohio state did and look at what Penn State did it's obvious Ohio State looked more impressive on the field sure worst opponent but they looked more impressive on the field than Penn State did and so overall when you look at that game Ohio State where you look at those two games and compare them Ohio State the more impressive team next the rushing attack the Buckeyes running game led by trevan Henderson and quinon Judkins add adds versatility even though the offensive line needs more time to jail look we're talking about how the offensive line wasn't great trevan Henderson averaged 8.1 yards per carry not 8.1 yards per touch 8.1 yards per carry that is fantastic and you look his long I believe was somewhere in the 20s like 21 in the low 20s so he didn't get all of those yards just off one run he had very few runs and he capitalized with them he was able to squirt through holes get to guys get to the next level he had one where he was getting ready to make the guy Miss he just slipped on the turf and unfortunately uh because of the way he runs and the way he kind of shifts his weight it looks like that's possibly why he fell maybe wasn't the turf because he was the only one that fell that time but we'll see as they continue to play in there but trevan Henderson quinan Judkins are two of the best if not the two best running backs in the nation and this is a potent offense Ive running attack that they are going to be able to utilize all year long and outrush just about every single team that they play other big 10 team struggle like teams like Michigan Oregon Wisconsin all had less convincing week one performances while Ohio State showed complete dominance now the nice thing is Ohio state gets to play Michigan they get to play Oregon they get to play Penn State they get to play these teams and they get to show that they are the better team now in addition to that they get to play Western Michigan this weekend who they do have tape on they changed up some of their defense so that was a little difficult for Wisconsin we can't just all pin it all on Wisconsin wasn't prepared they did change up a little bit of their defense but still it's a Mac fo it's somebody you should be able to beat by much more next national championship contenders despite Penn State and usd's strong showing Ohio State's Talent depth and early season performance position them as one of the two likeliest teams to win the national championship pen State and USC do not have those odds they do not have that that depth that you need this is a 1617 game long season depending on what happens for you this season and so when you're playing that many games you're going to have to have depth Ohio state has that depth they showcased that depth against akan this weekend they had arel ree playing they had Sunny Styles playing they had CJ Hicks playing linebacker Cody Simon is going to come back they had Kenyata Jackson Kaden Curry Ty Hamilton Ty Le Williams all kinds of defensive players playing and even rotated some on the offensive line as well you saw Tegra in there Right Guard to start Carson Hinman came in Austin cyel came in at left guard to play for Donovan Jackson with him hurt he's still coming back this is a deep team with much more depth than some of these other teams have and that's what you're going to need to win the Big 10 and win the national championship this year you are going to need depth especially in a much more vaunted conference especially with the schedule that USC is seeing now Penn State does see the benefit of a very easy schedule the benefit they do not get is dodging Ohio State Ohio State will play Penn State this year and they will be forced to not be able to drop any more games than the most likely game against Ohio State Ohio State still does have to go to Ohio State they still do do need to prove things but if everything that I've been saying Rings true they should be able to take care of Penn State in that game it will most likely not be the white out this will most likely be a big kick getting rid of that advantage of the white out and what they normally have stinks for Penn State I get it but it's TV it's the way things are going nowadays other than that room to improve for Ohio State they are going to improve they still have time to fine-tune their offensive uh their their offense before facing teer competition with an easier schedule in the coming weeks I think this is huge the offensive line is going to have time to gel and work together Donovan Jackson Cody Simon have time to be able to come back slowly in such a way that they don't re-aggravate those injuries and what we're talking about the offense was the team or was the was the group that struggled the most on this team or the offensive line they still still scored 38 points which show many other other teams out there that scored 38 points this this uh week one there were not many teams that were able to score 38 points on just offense alone it's something that's harder to do with the running clock we're going to have to get used to lower scoring games the two touchdowns certainly helped get to 52 points and so the Big 10 overall is still run by Ohio State right now the Penn State and USC wins do not change those things great wins for the Big 10 great wins for those two schools however it does not change my opinion that Ohio state is still the favorite to win the Big 10 this year and those are the reasons why let me know what you think I'd love to hear your thoughts as well catch me on the Big 10 huddle where we talk all things Big 10 you can also catch me on the Ohio podcast on Sunday nights as we break down the games with our Round Table discussion live at 8:00 the Big 10 huddle Sunday nights Tuesday nights Wednesday nights and Thursday nights live at 9 o'clock come check me out over there thank you everybody for listening have a good one