This Week in Ohio State Football: Wisconsin

Vo. 1, No. 8

This is one of the odder game weeks I can remember covering Ohio State football.

Ghosts seem to be the main concern when Ohio State goes up to Madison, Wisc., this time around. Camp Randall Stadium has gained a mystique as a tough place to play, though the Buckeyes are still 28-11-2 there all time and have won their last three.

The debacle in 2010 when they were ranked No. 1 and got ambushed by J.J. Watt and David Gilreath still is seared into the minds of people like me, but of course the current players have little or no memory of that.

They do have memories of playing at Wisconsin, though.

The Buckeyes won 24-10 there two years ago in a game that felt like a one-point win, in part because that is sort of the general idea of playing at Camp Randall (especially at night, which won’t be the case this time), but that’s not the only reason.

Any struggle at all against an inferior opponent — and that’s pretty much all one them these days, right? — felt like an existential crisis for Ohio State the past three seasons.

Michigan shattered their sense of invincibility in the Big Ten at the end of the 2021 season, and they spent every game between then and last January trying to prove they were still THE Ohio State not just another Buckeye team with good players who don’t win much of consequence.

The most interesting thing I heard at Ohio State on Tuesday

In that sense, winning the College Football Playoff meant more than just getting another banner to hang. It also seems to have had some residual effect allowing some time to breath and build this year’s team trusting there is a higher likelihood they’ll be ready when they need to be at their best at the end.

Beyond that, thinking about that last trip to Wisconsin is interesting because Ohio State was in a similar and yet seemingly almost completely different place than now.

Yes, the Buckeyes are undefeated and have their eye on Big Ten and national championships as usual, but in an ironic twist they seem to be both better than they were in 2023 and still farther from a finished product.

I know there is a section of the fan base starting to worry about the offense, and some of those concerns have merit.

The defense seems like a sure-thing, but secondary coach Tim Walton says success is never bought but only rented week to week. He’s right about that. Defense especially has to prove it every week and nearly every drive. The points don’t come off the board once they are scored, so it’s all an uphill climb for those guys no matter how well they did the last time out.

Some folks want them to be more aggressive, but that’s not really it to me.

Trying to force the ball downfield against defenses determined not to let you is inviting disaster, especially with a young quarterback, but there is more meat on the bone for the passing game.

We saw some of that against Washington when they were able to manufacture opportunities for Jeremiah Smith without taking the top off the defense.

A few Ohio State-Washington postgame thoughts

Smith and Carnell Tate both got to show what they can do when they get out and run against Minnesota, but I don’t see many more teams defending the Buckeyes that way.

The most interesting things I heard after Ohio State thrashed Minnesota

The pass plays will be there, but the running game is a legitimate problem.

How far it is from being solved is somewhat of an open question.

Ryan Day acknowledged Wednesday night breaking off a few long runs would sure make things look a lot better on the stat sheet and in their minds’ eye, and there is some truth to that.

It’s not just one thing with the rushing attack, which is both good and bad. Just generally getting better could make the running game formidable, but are there too many issues to fix?

Do they have the physical tools to fix them?

Both of those are legitimate questions, though the likelihood of the answer being yes is fairly high.

They’ve tried a lot of different stuff schematically, which is good. The zone runs have been more effective to this point, but they need to have the gap plays (counters and “Power” with down blocks and pulling linemen) in the arsenal any given week they face a defense geared to stop the inside run that was the bread and butter of the Urban Meyer teams.

USC removed any doubt about that last weekend. The Trojans ran roughshod over Michigan, and they did it mostly with the gap plays that are a signature of the Lincoln Riley offense. Michigan had a hard time fitting up the runs, leading to big plays on the edge from which they could not recover.

Executing such runs takes more precision (as does stopping them), and Ohio State has struggled to get them going. Both backside pursuit and frontside missed assignments have been issues, and sometimes it just looks like an issue of timing with the back getting there too soon or too late for the hole to pop open.

Reps should help here, so that’s something that bears watching not only this weekend but the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs.

The Buckeyes leaned more into the gap plays in the playoffs last season, and that paid off, but each year is different so they are still learning what they do best even six games into the season.

That’s a luxury to be able to do, but Day is smart to embrace such an opportunity.

Speaking of teams that are in completely different places than two years ago, have you seen these Badgers?

Luke Fickell apparently spent the past 12 months gearing up his team to have a good showing against rival Iowa and they lost 37-0 to the Hawkeyes last week.

Where does that leave them heading into this game?

Maybe the Badgers will relax, let it flow and put their best foot forward, although that might not be very good anyway.

Their traditional statistical rankings are pretty bad with the exception of third down defense (24th in the nation) and run defense (19th).

Wisconsin has the worst points total in the Big Ten (15.5 per game) and worst total offense (292.5 yards per game).

They can’t run the ball or throw it, but they are also minus-6 in turnovers on the season so there’s that.

Checking advanced stats from CollegeFootballData.com, Wisconsin’s offense is neither efficient nor explosive, though the Badgers are 40th nationally in offensive line yards and 22nd in stuff rate, so they haven’t been completely dominated up front when they have the ball.

On defense, the picture is somewhat familiar to past Ohio State foes: The Badgers are decent at preventing big plays (50th in explosiveness allowed) but getting worked on a play-by-play basis (111th in success rate, which measures what percentage of yards a team gets toward a first down on each play).

That probably means this will be another game that a team keeps its safeties deep and forces Ohio State to work the running game and short passes. To that end, the Badgers are 96th in defensive line yards and 100th in rushing success rate so there should be opportunities to lean on them.

Per Pro Football Focus, all of Wisconsin’s best-rated players are on defense (no surprise).

Mason Reiger has a grade of 84 overall with 19 quarterback pressures while fellow DE Darryl Peterson also has a solid grade, though he only has played about half the snaps.

The same is true of safety Preston Zachman while cornerback Omillio Agard has a solid coverage grade.

Leading tackler Christian Alliegro has an overall defensive grade of just 62.8, probably because he has been charged with 10 missed tackles.

On offense, the only standout players per PFF are center Jake Renfro, who returned from injury last week, receiver Vinny Anthony II and tithe end Lance Mason.

This was a big week in recruiting for the Buckeyes.

They picked up two new members of the 2026 class in Kmari Bing of Baltimore, Md., and Landry Brede of Mentor, Ohio.

Per Buckeye Sports Bulletin, Bing is considered a cornerback on 247Sports, but has been recruited by Buckeyes’ safeties coach Matt Guerrieri to be a free safety.

Brede is a 6-5, 280-pound offensive lineman who hasn’t impressed the recruiting services (No. 48 in Ohio in 247Sports Composite rankings) ) but has more than 20 FBS offers.

Bing is considered the No. 918 player in the country, the No. 78 cornerback and the No. 21 player in the state of Maryland.

Ohio State then added its second member of the 2028 class yesterday with the pledge of Trotwood-Madison defensive lineman Jameer Whyce, one of more than a dozen Division I prospects playing for Jeff Graham’s Rams.

Whyce is now on pace to be the first Ohio State signee from Trotwood since DB Cam Burrows in 2013.

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