Way-too-early Top 25 projections for 2021 college football season

Ohio State was able to handle all challengers except for Alabama in 2020, as the Buckeyes fell in a College Football Playoff championship game collapse against the Crimson Tide. Until that point, though, Ryan Day’s team was a 7-0 Big Ten champion coming off a comprehensive takedown of Clemson in the semifinals. With as much talent as they have returning to Columbus in 2021 thanks to shrewd coast-to-coast recruiting, look for Ohio State to open top five once again in the preseason AP Top 25 rankings.

Justin Fields is gone at quarterback. Trey Sermon is likely gone as well after suffering an injury in the title game. There will definitely be a fair amount of retooling on offense, with incoming freshman Kyle McCord competing with sophomores C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller to take over as starting quarterback. One of the nation’s best defenses agains the run proved susceptible to getting burned by the pass, something that Day and his staff will look to shore up in the offseason.

Few teams recruit as well as the Buckeyes, and they’ll have a better schedule to evaluate them in 2021 against the rest of the country. Both Pac-12 champion and American Athletic Conference finalist Tulsa come to the Horseshoe for September showdowns out of conference. Ohio State also has tough conference road games at Nebraska, Indiana, and Michigan but avoid both Wisconsin and Northwestern from the Big Ten West in the regular season.