Following a National Championship victory in 2024, Ohio State could be rolling with a depleted roster in 2025. Are the Buckeyes doomed to have a season similar the one Michigan endured in 2024? Let’s look into it and find out:
As Michigan learned during its 2024 football season, being the “reigning champs” only gets you so far. In the wake of winning the National Championship in 2023, the Wolverines failed to generate anything close to similar success in 2024.
The struggles were a byproduct of going all in for a title the year prior. Before the 2023 season, Michigan used its NIL resources to bring back several veteran players like Blake Corum, Zak Zinter, Kris Jenkins and others. It all worked out with a national title, but being much younger and inexperienced in 2024 was the price paid.
To further complicate things, head coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter — among other coaches — departed for the NFL, while 37-year old Sherrone Moore was named head coach for the first time in his career.
With so much turnover, Michigan understandably took a step back, winning just eight games in 2024. The future looks brighter for the Wolverines as we sit here in Feb. 2025, but the program faced plenty of hardship during its title defense last year.
Now, with another Big Ten team winning it all, it’s fair to wonder if Ohio State ’s 2025 team is doomed to endure the same struggles Michigan did in 2024. This is an especially relevant question given how closely the program’s situations resemble each other heading into their title defense seasons.
For starters, Ohio State employed a similar strategy to Michigan. The Buckeyes went all in on their roster, using their NIL resources to bring back a plethora of starters on offense and defense. TreVeyon Henderson, Jack Sawyer, Emeka Egbuka, J.T. Tuimoloau, Denzel Burke and others had NFL plans put on hold for one more run at a title. Additionally, Ohio State welcomed in key transfers in Will Howard and Quinshon Judkins, but they were both one-and-done in Columbus.
Ryan Day’s roster construction for 2024 worked tremendously, but Ohio State will be relying on a host of young and inexperienced players on both sides of the ball in 2025. Of course, there are a handful of elite players that return — see: Caleb Downs, Jeremiah Smith — but as Michigan learned in 2024, a few elite players can only take you so far.
The Wolverines were banking on huge seasons from Colston Loveland, Will Johnson, Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham in 2024. While they were tremendous when they were on the field, all their combined talents weren’t enough to cover up other flaws on the roster, namely a defunct offensive line, passing game and secondary. Ohio State will need its new starters to take big steps forward to help fill those holes.
This will especially be important at quarterback. However, Ohio State’s presumed replacement is Julian Sayin, a former five-star recruit entering his sophomore year. Meanwhile, Michigan unsuccessfully relied on a quarterback carousel in 2024 that featured flawed passers Alex Orji and Jack Tuttle, as well as former walk-on Davis Warren. Advantage in this department is, undoubtedly, the Buckeyes.
Another similarity between Michigan and Ohio State lies in the coaching staffs. In the past week alone, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles departed for the same job at Penn State , and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly returned to the NFL for the same position with the Las Vegas Raiders. Michigan was much more affected in this area, though, as the Wolverines lost eight coaches, including the head coach and both coordinators.
Finally, much like Michigan in 2024, Ohio State won’t have a cakewalk of a schedule in 2025. The challenge starts right away, as the Buckeyes will host Texas in Week 1. Ohio State will also travel to Wisconsin , Washington , Illinois and Michigan, while facing a rejuvenated Penn State squad at home.
With all these factors in mind, it’s fair to think Ohio State will struggle — at least a little bit — in 2025. Will it be equally is bad as Michigan was in 2024? I’m not so sure. If seven regular season wins is the benchmark, I believe Ohio State will surpass that total.
While the Buckeyes went all in this past fall, they’ve always been pouring recruiting resources into their future, while Michigan didn’t approach that as aggressively. In the four seasons leading up to its title defense in 2024, Michigan finished with the No. 13, No. 9, No. 16, and No. 17 ranked recruiting classes nationally per 247Sports . For comparison, Ohio State finished with the No. 4, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 3 ranked classes leading up to 2025.
In other words, Ohio State has the luxury of filling vacancies with players that have high potential, while Michigan’s roster holes were to be filled with players that needed more developing. This development was further stunted by immense coaching staff turnover, as coaches like Ben Herbert, Mike Elston and Steve Clinkscale were integral to building the roster up to what it was in 2023.
While Ohio State underwent some coaching staff turnover with the departures of Knowles and Kelly, the remainder of its staff is in tact for now and shouldn’t affect the development of its players as much. A struggle on either side of the ball couldn’t be ruled out though with new leaders in charge, but Ohio State should still have talent in key areas where Michigan didn’t in 2024.
For example, Michigan had to rely on young, inexperienced, and not as naturally talented players on its offense at quarterback, wide receiver, and on the offensive line. Those factors combined with an inexperienced coordinator in Kirk Campbell led to an anemic product on offense, which largely sank Michigan’s season.
Michigan fans might expect Ohio State to take its medicine and suffer a “bad” season following its national title. It might happen, but certainly not to the degree Michigan struggled in 2024. Like it or not, Ohio State is a program built to withstand roster and coaching staff turnover and should still be able to manage somewhere in the ballpark of 9-11 wins in the regular season this fall.