Ohio State football schedule 2019: Game-by-game predictions

As Ohio State football sees Ryan Day take over at head coach and Justin Fields step in at quarterback, how will the 2019 season play out?

A shocking upset at the hands of Purdue was the only black mark for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2018 college football season as they went 12-1, ending the season with Rose Bowl win over Washington. With Urban Meyer leaving and Dwayne Haskins departing for the NFL Draft, though, Ohio State football will be under new management at head coach and quarterback for the 2019 season.

Taking over for Meyer is Ryan Day, who served as the offensive coordinator and interim coach for Meyer in the first three games of last season. Though Day has no head coaching experience beyond that trio of contests, his time under Meyer and his proven offensive ability on the sidelines are reason for plenty of optimism about the job he’ll do with Ohio State.

As for Haskins’ replacement, that onus falls on Georgia transfer Justin Fields, a top-five overall recruit for 2018 that couldn’t get time behind Jake Fromm in Athens. His dual-threat ability should allow Day plenty of creativity in how to use him. Furthermore, the offense has a plethora of weapons around Fields with the likes of J.K. Dobbins and K.J. Hill complementing the signal-caller.

On defense, Nick Bosa might be gone, but the Buckeyes should be just fine. Chase Young steps in as the next star defensive end in Columbus and could be in store for a monster season. Flanked by high-upside linebackers and talented secondary, this unit should be quite good in the 2019 season.

This is Ohio State football, after all. Even with big changes, they are still expected to compete to win the Big Ten and, put simply, be great. Will that be the case, though? Let’s take a look at the Buckeyes’ 2019 schedule and go game-by-game making predictions for how things will play out.