With several starters returning and a number of high-profile transfers and freshman adding to the mix, Ohio State is expected to have one of the most talented rosters in all of college football this year, likely putting them right in the mix for a national championship at the end of the season.
Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer took it one step further on Tuesday, proclaiming on his new “The Triple Option” podcast with fellow Fox analysts Mark Ingram II and Rob Stone that this year’s Buckeye roster may be one of the better he’s seen in quite some time.
“I’ve read about them, I’ve watched them. This might be the best roster in college football in the last decade,” Meyer said. “As far as NFL talent, as far as depth. You’ve got the second-string running back, whoever it is is probably going to be a first-round draft pick. I mean, they are loaded.”
This is not the first time the former Ohio State head coach has extended praise to Ryan Day’s team this offseason. Meyer told 10TV in Columbus at a charity golf outing earlier this summer that he had “never seen anything like” this year’s Buckeyes’ roster, even saying that this could be the best roster “maybe ever.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by Meyer’s predecessor in Columbus, Jim Tressel, who said at the same outing that he doesn’t think he has “ever seen that many great players in that building at once.”
“Every position, every place you’ve turned,” Tressel said. “Ryan (Day’s) done a great job, Ohio State has done a great job.”
Despite the high praise from Meyer, the current FOX Sports college football analyst did have some concerns about the team heading into the season, with quarterback play being at the top.
Meyer indicated that he is unsure how new starting quarterback Will Howard — who Day tabbed as the starter last Thursday — will transition from Kansas State to Ohio State and what his ceiling could be, but he did express confidence that his speed along with offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s guidance could get the offense where they want to be this season.
“They’ve got Will Howard, who’s going to be a big question mark,” Meyer said. “But I feel the combination of him and Chip Kelly, the new offensive coordinator, they’re married for each other. He’s an athletic quarterback. He’s surprisingly fast. I was told he ran 22 mph at practice –. That’s fast fast. And he’s a big dude.”
Meyer also pointed to Ohio State having to keep its top players focused and content during what should be an easy early portion of the schedule as another key concern for the Buckeyes. He believes that the team’s stars are going to play around 30-40 snaps a game throughout the first month of the season — which includes home games in the nonconference against Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall along with a road contest against Michigan State — something could prevent them from staying as engaged as they need to.
“How do you keep all (players) happy? Their schedule is kind of a joke early on…That means, statistically, they’re not gonna have many catches, the running backs are not gonna have many carries. You’re not going to play those guys in the second half of those games and someone gets hurt. So how do you keep the personalities, the NIL, the agents I guess – that’s a world I don’t know – how do you keep them all happy?”
Regardless of those potential issues, Ohio State’s “cupcake” portion of the schedule could give its younger players a chance to show their worth and get on the field, which could ultimately help the team’s depth moving forward into the fall.
