Ohio State Football: Ranking 2021 opponents by toughness

Ohio State football rode all the stops and bumps in the 2020 season to a fourth straight Big Ten championship and a playoff victory over Clemson. The season ended with a loss to Alabama in the national title game. Despite the loss, it was a very successful season and the Buckeyes have most of the pieces in place to make another run.

The Buckeyes will not have Justin Fields back at quarterback, who is now a Chicago Bear. He will be replaced by a quarterback who has never thrown a collegiate pass. Coach Ryan Day does not know who it will be yet. The candidates are all highly talented freshmen. The redshirts are CJ Stroud and Jack Miller and they will be joined by true freshman Kyle McCord.

No matter who is at quarterback, they will be surrounded with weapons. All-Big Ten wide receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson are back. Running back Trey Sermon is gone but Master Teague returns with his career 1,400 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground.

The defense will switch to a 4-2-5 formation in hopes to fix their 122nd ranked pass defense from a year ago. The good news is the defensive line is stacked. Should be enough to control most opponents and dictate the pace.

The Buckeyes’ schedule starts the season with a couple of tough games and gets much easier before having two more tough games.

Let’s analyze which team’s on the Buckeyes will be cupcakes and which will be formidable.