Ohio State finally broke through last season, showing off all that talent everyone had been raving about by making a run through the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff and winning the national championship.
But here’s the thing — that was last year’s team. And if you think the 2025-26 Buckeyes are just going to reload and run it back without missing a beat, you might be setting yourself up for some disappointment.
Let’s start with the biggest, most glaring reason: 14 NFL Draft picks. That’s how many players from Ohio State’s roster heard their names called in the 2025 NFL Draft, one shy of the all-time record. You can sugarcoat it however you want with “they don’t rebuild, they reload” talk, but losing that much talent — especially along the defensive front, offensive line, and backfield — is a massive hit. That’s not just “some” production. That’s the core of the team that won a national title.
Yeah, there’s still a lot of talent hanging around. Jeremiah Smith looks like he’s about to take over college football at wide receiver. Caleb Downs is one of the best safeties in America, and that secondary will still cause plenty of problems for opposing quarterbacks. There’s real reason to believe that Julian Sayin, the former five-star quarterback, will step into the starting role and be a star sooner rather than later. On paper, the Buckeyes will still be better than about 95% of the teams they face.
The hurdle will be too much to overcome for Ohio State in 2025
When you lose both of your star running backs — Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson — and you lose key trench players like Donovan Jackson, Tyleik Williams, and JT Tuimoloau, the odds of staying at the same level go down dramatically. It’s one thing to have future stars in the pipeline. It’s another thing entirely to have proven veterans who have been through the fire of a playoff run. That experience matters, especially when you’re going up against the best teams in the country in December and January.
And let’s be honest: the Big Ten isn’t going to be any easier. Michigan, even with all the drama surrounding their program, is still recruiting and developing at a high level. Penn State will be hungry with a very experienced team this season after falling short last year. Oregon and Illinois are also set up to be contenders in the conference.
Winning two or three straight playoff games against very good teams will be a much tougher ask of this team.
Another thing to keep in mind: chemistry. Every great championship team talks about how much the locker room mattered and how great the leadership was. When you lose 14 draft picks, you're losing way more than just talent. You're losing leaders, you're losing locker room voices, and you're losing guys who know what it takes to get through those rough patches in a season. Talent will always get you far — but leadership gets you titles.
Julian Sayin might end up being better than Will Howard ever was. Jeremiah Smith already looks like the best wide receiver in the country. Caleb Downs might have a Thorpe Award-worthy season. And none of it might matter if the offensive line struggles to keep Sayin upright or if the defensive line can’t pressure the quarterback when it matters most.
It’s not that Ohio State is going to fall off a cliff. That’s not what anyone’s saying. The Buckeyes should absolutely be in the Big Ten title conversation. They should absolutely be one of the top 6-8 teams in the country for most of the season. They should absolutely make the playoff again.
But going from “playoff team” to “national champion” is the hardest jump to make — and in a year where you’re replacing this much production, it’s almost impossible to expect it to happen again.