Ohio State Football: Way too early 2021 game predictions

In their home finale, Ohio State will be playing the Michigan State Spartans and second-year head coach Mel Tucker. The Spartans will be looking to improve upon last season, which had its fair share of high and lows. The offense still lacked consistency, especially in the passing game and Michigan State is still looking to find a difference-maker at quarterback. Michigan State remained tough on defense last season and should be one of the Big Tens best on that side of the ball still.

Tucker has a ways to go in his rebuild in East Lansing and 2021 will be about showing offensive improvement while maintaining a tough identity on defense. The Spartans won’t have enough offense to hang around long in this one.

Final Score: Ohio State 49, Michigan State 20 (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten)

In one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports, Michigan will hope to keep this game close this time around after getting blown out in recent games against the Buckeyes. Ohio State has dominated the rivalry ever since Jim Harbaugh became the coach and that has made fans of the Wolverines anxious and doubtful that he can be the coach that can lead Michigan to a Big Ten championship and eventually to the College football playoff.

The Wolverines are hoping that a remake of the defensive staff will be able to slow opponents down better than last season. Michigan is also hoping that the quarterback position finally has a dependable starter, whether that is Cade McNamara or Texas Tech transfer Alan Bowman.

Michigan just pulled in a top-10 recruiting class and is hoping all of these things can close the gap between them and Ohio State. I don’t think it will be this year that Michigan ends the losing streak to Ohio State.

Final Score: Ohio State 45, Michigan 24 (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten)