Three things Buckeyes must do to get back to Big Ten title game

COLUMBUS — Ohio State coach Ryan Day knows how to win Big Ten titles.

After the Buckeyes failed to make the title game in 2016, then-coach Urban Meyer brought Day in to fix the Buckeyes’ offense and get them back to winning Big Ten titles. They did just that. During the next four years, Ohio State lost a total of two conference games. Both losses came when Meyer was still the coach.

Day orchestrated an offense that won four straight Big Ten titles, two with Day as the offensive coordinator and two with him leading the program as the head coach. He knows how to get to Big Ten title games and win them.

Now he has to get back to winning them. In each of the last three seasons, Ohio State has lost the East Division title game and, because of that, failed to make it to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship Game. It kept them from the College Football Playoff in 2021 and nearly did last year. It’s expected to again this time around unless chaos happens.

The best way to avoid needing chaos for your national title hopes? Win the Big Ten. Day and his staff need to figure it out and begin stacking conference titles again. Of course, it all changes next year when the divisions are scrapped and the league pits the two best teams against each other. If this was next year, Ohio State would be playing in its seventh straight Big Ten title game. So next year, the Buckeyes just need to be one of the two best teams in the conference to get there and play for a trophy.

They certainly don’t want to be second-best.

Lettermen Row is breaking down the three things Ohio State needs to do in order to get back to winning Big Ten titles. Let’s dive in.

Buckeyes must be more aggressive in biggest games

The Washington win over Oregon on Friday night should simply serve as further proof that Ohio State needs to be more aggressive in the biggest games of the season — on both sides of the ball. No, there’s no reason for the Buckeyes to completely abandon the calculated-risk strategy and go for it on every fourth-down call. But both Washington and Oregon weren’t afraid to ‘let it rip.’ That’s what got them to Saturday, and it got Washington to the College Football Playoff. Ohio State had opportunities to be aggressive in its play-calling at Michigan last week in a game that decided who would go to the Big Ten title game. Instead, the Buckeyes punted on fourth-and-short calls and weren’t aggressive enough in trying to get Michigan off the field late in the game. The Buckeyes could learn a thing or two about the aggression showed Friday night by Oregon’s Dan Lanning, a defensive-minded coach, and Washington’s Kalen DeBoer, an offensive guru.

Ohio State needs to win line of scrimmage

Ohio State has missed the last three Big Ten title games. There are plenty of reasons why, of course. But one of the biggest factors is the line of scrimmage. In each of the last three Big Ten East championship games to decide who goes to Indianapolis, the Buckeyes have been badly out-gained by Michigan in rushing yards. Two years ago, Michigan pushed Ohio State around for the entire game. Last year, it was for the entire second half. And this season, the Buckeyes finally competed well in the trenches only to have their game-winning drive ended by an interception, which Kyle McCord threw as he was being drilled due to poor pass protection. Ohio State hasn’t won the rushing battle or tallied the most sacks of the teams against the Wolverines since 2019. And that’s keeping the Buckeyes from getting back over the Michigan hump — and back into the Big Ten title game.

The Buckeyes have a chance to begin doing so again next year. Four of the five starting offensive linemen are expected to return. Oh, and while Conference Championship weekend is ongoing, Ohio State is hosting a five-star offensive tackle who could help shift the tide of the rivalry back in the Buckeyes favor — if he commits.

Coaching staff must trust players to make plays

Washington coach Kalen DeBoer said it best after the Huskies’ win over Oregon on Friday night:

“I want to give these guys a chance to go win a football game,” DeBoer told reporters. “Not play scared. Not play to just try to be close. … Play to win.”

DeBoer and Lanning, who will enter the Big Ten next season as the coaches of Washington and Oregon, respectively, are both very trusting of their players. Sometimes it’s even to a fault. But they have good players and they trust them to make plays.

Ohio State has a major opportunity to learn from the last three years of missing out on the Big Ten title game despite having the clear-cut most talented roster in the league. And the Buckeyes will still have the talent advantage moving forward, even after USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington enter the conference. Moving forward, the Buckeyes need to lean into that talent advantage and trust that their best players can win them the biggest games.

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