The Ohio State Buckeyes are a powerhouse program in college football, and under Ryan Day, they already have a national championship on their resume, but the 2025 season was hard to define as anything other than a disappointment.
Going 12-2, they were knocked out in the Cotton Bowl. Unfortunately, a former Super Bowl champion believes the goings are about to get much tougher for the program this upcoming season, especially with an early date against Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns.
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Nine-time national champions and an absurd 39 Big Ten championships have placed Ohio State near the pinnacle of college football. The program has persevered through virtually every change, even finding its footing after moving on from the legendary Urban Meyer.
Under Day, the Buckeyes have already appeared in two National Championship Games, going 1-1. Last year, though, they fell short of their goal, even while fielding an excellent roster on both sides of the football.
That was evident in the 2026 NFL Draft as well, where four players from the school were selected in the first 11 picks. Unfortunately, that turnover has left the roster reeling to some extent. Even as they add more talent through the transfer portal and the recruiting process, Desmond Howard believes they have taken a step back.
Making an appearance on “Good Morning Football,” the former Super Bowl champion explained the impact that roster turnaround could potentially have on the team and their play on the field.
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“Obviously, you’re talking about a group that had, I believe, they had at least three of their defensive players drafted, like in the first 11 picks of the draft,” Howard said. “That means that they lost a lot on defense.”
However, he wasn’t willing to count them out just yet. Instead, the former Heisman Trophy winner was putting a lot of stock in the early-season clash between the Buckeyes and the Longhorns.
Howard added, “Obviously, we’ll learn a lot about Ohio State early in the season because they have to travel to Austin and take on Texas and Arch Manning, which is going to be a huge task for the Buckeyes. So I’m excited to see how they respond.”
Last year, the Longhorns went 10-3 in Manning’s first year as a full-time starter, despite an uneven start to his collegiate career. This season, the expectation is that the program will take a major step forward, especially under the stewardship of head coach Steve Sarkisian.
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As a result, Howard has the clash already penciled in before the new season has even gotten underway. “They got to go on the road and deal with Sark and Manning. So that’s going to be really intriguing.”
It remains to be seen how the Buckeyes respond to the roster turnover that they are facing. But given the track record Day has had so far with the program, the expectation has to be that he will keep them as a powerhouse in 2026 as well.
