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Ohio State Football: 2016 season preview and prediction

By Connor Muldowney

Sep 12, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett (16) looks to pass the ball during the game against the Hawaii Warriors at Ohio Stadium. The Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Hawaii Warriors by the score of 38-0. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 12, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett (16) looks to pass the ball during the game against the Hawaii Warriors at Ohio Stadium. The Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Hawaii Warriors by the score of 38-0. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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After missing out on the College Football Playoff in 2015, how will Urban Meyer and his Ohio State football team fare during the 2016 campaign?

If you ask anyone who follows Ohio State Football, they’ll tell you that the 2015 season was a major disappointment. How could finishing 12-1 with an Orange Bowl victory over Notre Dame be a lackluster season? It’s not that the record and run over the Fighting Irish weren’t impressive, it’s that the expectations were so much higher.

Beginning the 2015 season as the unanimous No. 1 team in the AP poll — the only team ever to do so — the Buckeyes had a huge target on their back. Fighting for the entire season up until the final weeks to stay undefeated, Ohio State thought it would just roll over Michigan State in Columbus, especially without starting quarterback Connor Cook.

Well, that didn’t go as planned. The Buckeyes’ offense laid an egg while the Spartans’ defense was stringy at the same time.

That loss basically knocked Ohio State out of College Football Playoff contention even though they won the first national title with that new system in place in 2014. Finishing outside of the top four in the playoff poll to end the season was heartbreaking for guys like Cardale Jones, Braxton Miller and Ezekiel Elliott who had led Ohio State to the title the year before.

Urban Meyer is still dominating the Big Ten, losing just two conference games ever — one to Michigan State in 2015 and the other to the Spartans in the Big Ten title game in 2013.

With a boatload of talent gone, including Elliot, Jones, Miller, Joey Bosa, Darron Lee, Eli Apple and many others, the Buckeyes will have their work cut out for them in 2016 while not necessarily the overwhelming favorite to win the conference for once.

Can J.T. Barrett and the Buckeyes get back to the promised land and win their second national title in three years?

Next: Offensive Preview

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