Notre Dame Opponent Preview | Ohio State
Ohio State always goes into a season with national championship expectations and this year is no different.
It would be devastating for most programs to lose a first round quarterback, left tackle, and receiver. At Ohio State, it’s business as usual.
The roster is loaded. The staff is pretty much intact with the only big change being Brian Hartline’s promotion to offensive coordinator. We’ll see if that has a significant impact on what they do on offense, but with head coach Ryan Day overseeing the whole operation, the odds are good that they’ll continue to be one of the best offenses in the country.
Jim Knowles is back for his second season at defensive coordinator and his group should be even better (15th in DF+, combined FEI and SP+, last season) with a ton of experience and production returning.
This should be the best team Notre Dame faces this fall. If not the best, it’s certainly the most talented. They might have as many as five first round picks in next spring’s NFL Draft and the Irish will have to bring their A game in order to defeat the Buckeyes.
Post-Spring SP+ Ranking
They are second in Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings. They are second on offense and 13th on defense.
Key losses
The big ones are on offense where they lose CJ Stroud, the second pick in the NFL Draft. He was a difference-maker on some key 3rd down conversions versus the Irish last season.
The other, literal, big ones are at offensive tackle where they have to replace Paris Johnson and Dawand Jones. That was their version of Joe Alt and Blake Fisher. They are the primary reasons why Isaiah Foskey was pretty much a non-factor in last year’s match up.
They also lost starting center Luke Wypler up front. If the offense takes a step back in 2024, it might have as much to do with the offensive line as it does with the quarterback.
The defense is mostly intact from 2022, but edge Zach Harrison is off to the NFL and losing second team All-America safety Ronnie Hickman isn’t nothing. The depth is unproven for them on the defensive line and safety and nickel are going to be positions to watch.
The only players they lost in the portal were considered depth pieces and with how they’ve recruited, they aren’t likely to miss any of those players too much.
Key additions
CB Davis Igbinosun started 10 games as a true freshman at Ole Miss and probably priced himself out to stay there. He pops right onto Ohio State’s roster and should start for the Buckeyes.
After some lukewarm reviews on the offensive tackle replacements in the spring, they dipped into the portal and added Josh Simmons from San Diego State. He started for them at right tackle, but had some penalty issues and was pretty average, but he was the rare 4-star recruit to sign with SDSU and is projected to start for OSU.
S Ja’Had Carter was a multi-year starter for Syracuse at safety and was on campus for spring ball. He is competing at safety and at nickel for them.
Former Notre Dame receiver Lorenzo Styles and former Ole Miss DT Tywone Malone are two intriguing pick ups, but should be more depth than anything else for OSU this fall. Styles is making the move to defensive back and Malone will be stuck behind some good players and will have to fight to earn a role.
WRs Brandon Inniss and Carnell Tate were in the 2023 ISD Fab 50 and might be too talented to keep off the field in some capacity despite how deep they are at the position. They signed the fourth ranked class in the country and there are multiple candidates who could emerge as true freshmen by the time they travel to South Bend.
Top returners and returning production
They are 48th overall in returning production. They are 97th on offense and 20th on defense.
Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka are the best receiving tandem in the country. They are going to be a problem and put up 2,414 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2022. The receiving group as a whole is second to none. Add in tight end Cade Stover is a threat as well because he can’t be ignored.
The duo in the backfield is great too. TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams are going to be tough to tackle. Williams averaged 4.36 yards per carry…after contact. Injuries slowed down Henderson and he only played in eight games, but if he’s healthy, he’s one of the top backs Notre Dame will face.
Guard Donovan Jackson is one of the best in the country at his position and Matthew Jones is a 6th year player who was second team All-Big Ten at the other guard.
They are have several studs on defense returning as well.
Denzel Burke is an All-American candidate at corner, Tommy Eichenberg should be a Butkus Award contender at linebacker, and the defensive line is going to be a problem. They could have multiple first round picks starting for them.
Defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. was incredibly disruptive against Notre Dame last season and Tyleik Williams (6’3” 318) is a monster. J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer were two of the top-10 prospects in the entire 2021 recruiting class and Tuimoloau had 18 Havoc plays (tackles for loss, pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles) in 2022.
Ohio State usually doesn’t have this much talent and production returning, but they are set up to be a top-10 defense this fall.
Two big questions
Can they get quarterback play that is comparable to what they got from Stroud?
Former 5-star recruit Kyle McCord is the probable starter and no one can deny that he will be set up to succeed with the ridiculous amount of skill talent to spread the ball around to, but Stroud was sensational, especially against Georgia, last season.
Day has a tremendous track record of developing quarterbacks and it’s been an assembly line of first round draft picks since he’s been in Columbus. The odds are that McCord will end up as the next Stroud, Justin Fields, or Dwayne Haskins.
Stroud’s ability to escape the rush in games Notre Dame and Georgia was huge and McCord fits more in the Haskins mold of a pure pocket passer. It also took Stroud a bit of time before he hit his stride as a first-year starter and it will be interesting to see what happens with McCord in that respect.
The only Power 5 program they play before Ohio State’s travels to Notre Dame is Indiana in the opener and they have a defense that is ranked 92nd in SP+.
The other question is, how much will new starters at tackle have an impact on the offense?
Johnson and Jones gave up a combined two sacks last season. Jones only gave up five total pressures. They were instrumental in powering the run game that sealed Ohio State’s win last September too. The Irish had them pinned on their own five-yard line with a chance to get a stop and then drive for the lead. OSU ran it 10 times on a 14 play drive for 64-yards and essentially ended the game.
We don’t know if they can lean on the offensive line the same way they did last year.
How they’ve recruited
Pretty freaking well!
From 2020-2023, they signed 16 players I had ranked in the ISD Fab 50. They’ve lost a few of them to the NFL or to the transfer portal, but they still have 13 of them on the roster and their blue-chip ratio is 85%.
They have 67 former blue-chip recruits/transfers on the roster, which is one less than Georgia (Alabama is first with 78). In terms of raw talent, this is the best roster Notre Dame will face in the regular season and it’s not particularly close with anyone else.
Notre Dame is going to have win any mismatches they can find because there won’t be many of them.
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