What should we be watching for from Saturday’s Ohio State spring game festivities?
The 2015 season was not considered a successful one for the Ohio State Buckeyes, if you can believe that. Despite going 12-1 and blowing out Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, it was a national championship-or-bust type of season. Having won the first ever College Football Playoff after the 2014 regular season, expectations were sky-high for Ohio State in 2015.
Heck, the Buckeyes became the first unanimous No. 1 in preseason college football rankings and it was almost assumed that they’d just walk through the regular season with an unbeaten record and cruise right to the playoff. Well, they did walk through the regular season.
At times, it almost seemed like Ohio State was expecting to win all of their games, taking opponents lightly week in and week out. The Buckeyes played close early contests with Northern Illinois, Indiana and even Maryland before putting up a 10-0 record heading into the biggest game of the season at home against Michigan State.
A year earlier, the Buckeyes went into East Lansing and defeated the favored Spartans on their own turf. In 2015, it was the other way around as Michigan State took down the heavy favorites without starting quarterback Connor Cook. The loss stung for Ohio State fans, players and coaches — and probably still does to this very day.
Had it not been for that field goal by Michael Geiger with no time left, the Buckeyes may have gone to the playoff and even gave Alabama a tough game for the second year in a row.
That’s all in the past now and this year’s team still has some lofty expectations despite losing a ton of talent from 2015. What five things do we need to see at the Ohio State spring game Saturday in Columbus?
Next: 5. A strong, revamped secondary