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INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day nimbly skirted the elephant in the room for most of his opening statement at Big Ten Media Days inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Tuesday. He heaped praise on commissioner Tony Petitti for shepherding the league through the sport’s ever-changing landscape. He offered a formal welcome to the Buckeyes’ new athletic director, Ross Bjork. He expressed excitement for his son’s sophomore season at St. Francis DeSales High School. He quipped about just how stressed his wife, Nina, will feel on football weekends this fall with two members of their family competing.
But as the pleasantries gave way to more earnest remarks about the impending Ohio State football season — a season around which there is arguably greater excitement than at any point during Day’s tenure — he could subvert the obvious no longer. The Buckeyes are considered bonafide national championship contenders following an offseason of acquisition and retention unlike anything modern college football has ever seen. And everyone from donors to oddsmakers to Day and his players know it.
“We all know there’s a lot of noise and a lot of hype around this team,” Day said. “What we can’t do is let those distractions grab our focus from what we need to do day in and day out. We know it’s going to be a long season, but we have to have a great preseason. We have to have a physical preseason. We have to lay that foundation for what’s going to come as we head throughout the season.
“We’re very, very excited about our guys. We have great experience in that locker room and some great talent. It’s going to take more than talent. It’s going to take all the no-talent issues to get to where we want to be and reach our goals.”
As kickoff approaches, Ohio State and Georgia sit atop most lists of national championship favorites from media members and prognosticators alike. And while there is nothing unusual about the Buckeyes occupying that kind of preseason rarified air, the nature of these expectations feels somewhat strained when juxtaposed with the unsatisfying backdrop of the last three years, a stretch devoid of national titles, Big Ten titles and wins over archrival Michigan.
The result is an unusual dichotomy in which a ballyhooed senior class — three of whom represented Ohio State in Indianapolis this week: wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, defensive end Jack Sawyer and cornerback Denzel Burke — that hasn’t won anything of substance since arriving in Columbus is now being picked by many to win everything in 2024. Burke went so far as labeling the season “natty or bust” when he spoke to the media earlier this year.
“I think about it every day,” Sawyer said. “I haven’t won a championship, I haven’t beat The Team Up North. You walk around the Woody [Hayes Athletic Center on campus] and all you see is championships and championship posters and banners. And having been here for three years and not helped our team and this organization win any of those, it’s something that wears on me, and it’s something that motivates me every day.”
For Ohio State to elevate from the barren trophy cabinet Sawyer described to its current position as runaway favorites in the 14th annual Cleveland.com Preseason Big Ten Poll, which was released ahead of Big Ten Media Days earlier this week, Day and general manager Mark Pantoni oversaw what amounted to the perfect modern offseason: a stunning coalescence of talent retention, talent procurement and the kind of deep financial backing from boosters that has been legalized in the NIL era.
The retention efforts revolved around a loaded 2021 recruiting class that ranked second in the nation coming out of high school and could have sent half a dozen, or more, early entrants to the NFL Draft after falling to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl last December. Day told reporters on Tuesday that Sawyer, a former five-star prospect from Pickerington, Ohio, was one of the first draft-eligible players to announce his return for a senior season. And then Sawyer began re-recruiting his classmates for “one last ride” that could cement their legacies at Ohio State by accomplishing the goals every Buckeye chases: to beat Michigan, to win a Big Ten title, to win a national championship.
Egbuka and Burke listened. So, too, did tailback TreVeyon Henderson, defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, defensive end JT Tuimoloau, offensive lineman Donovan Jackson and cornerback Jordan Hancock. When all was said and done, the Buckeyes brought back 14 starters from last year’s team.
“My conversations with them were, ‘If we all come back for our senior year, imagine the things that we can achieve. There’s nothing we couldn’t achieve,'” Sawyer said. “So I think that was my sales pitch.”
From there, Day and Pantoni fleshed out their roster with one of the most celebrated transfer classes in the relatively brief history of the portal. They seized an opportunity created by the surprise retirement of Nick Saban to pluck three blue-chip transfers from Alabama in safety Caleb Downs (No. 1 transfer), quarterback Julian Sayin (No. 6 transfer) and offensive lineman Seth McLaughlin (No. 111 transfer). They pulled one of the most accomplished rushers in the country from Ole Miss in tailback Quinshon Judkins (No. 9 transfer) to pair with Henderson. And they found an experienced quarterback in ex-Kansas State signal-caller Will Howard (No. 41 transfer) to compete with Devin Brown for the starting job.
No other school came close to matching Ohio State’s average player rating of 92.86 in the 247Sports Team Transfer Rankings. Add in the nation’s fifth-best high school recruiting class for 2024 — a group headlined by five-star wideout Jeremiah Smith, the No. 1 overall player regardless of position — and the stunning coup by Day to convince sitting UCLA head coach Chip Kelly to become the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator, and it’s hard to imagine what more the program could have done to end its three-year malaise.
“I think we’re all excited about the opportunity,” Day said, “and we all see what could be. But we also know that, you know, that’s kind of wasted energy at this point. We’ve got to maximize the preseason. But at the same time, you do, you get excited about this team. You know what’s possible. And there’s a reason why these guys decided to come back and forgo their opportunity in the NFL, and that’s to go do exactly that.”
All of which left the Buckeyes’ contingent here in Indianapolis threading the narrowest of needles in response to question after question about just how good this team can be. Because staying in the moment isn’t easy when the future seems so bright.
“I feel like we have all the chips in [the middle],” Burke said. “It’s a new day and age now with NIL, so it’s our job to fit the standard and do what we’ve gotta do so we can stay above that. I’m really just excited for this year. We’ve got a lot of talent, but talent doesn’t mean anything. You’ve still got to line up, put the football down and compete.”
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.
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