Colt McCoy identifies strengths, weaknesses of Ohio State this season

Ohio State took their first loss of the season last weekend when Oregon pulled out a close 32-31 win over the Buckeyes in Autzen Stadium. Ohio State went into its bye week with plenty of time to reflect and grow before taking the field again next weekend.

But college football analyst Colt McCoy does not think that the Buckeyes have to change things up too much ahead of the back half of the season. The former Texas quarterback provided his thoughts on Ohio State with Greg McElroy when he appeared on Wednesday’s Always College Football.

“Ohio State, this loss hurts, but I don’t think this loss kills them,” McElroy said. “They’re a good football team, they’re well coached across the board, and they have really, really good talent basically at every position.”

McCoy raved about Ohio State’s offense, calling true freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith potentially the best receiver he’s ever seen with his own eyes and their running back duo of Quinson Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson the best one-two punch at the position in college football.

“Chip Kelly can run any run scheme there is. When I was watching their tape we got inside zone, outside zone, gap schemes, there’s a trap, there’s a toss crack, there’s a sweep to the field, there’s a reverse,” McCoy listed. “You gotta prepare for it all with Ohio State and I think Will Howard does a nice job. He played good against Oregon on the road.”

McCoy has confidence in Ohio State’s offense. But surprisingly, his area of concern lies with the Buckeyes’ defense following their most recent performance against Oregon.

“This is where my issue is with Ohio State, it’s their defense. Because they have a lot of studs, but it’s a lot of guys who who have played a lot of football, who are all came back, and they talk about we want to win the Big Ten, we want to go the national championship. Like they’re not afraid to say this is natty or bust, like all these things. But even when I watch the Michigan State game … They just did things that that young, inexperienced teams do,” McCoy said.

Ohio State’s 32 points allowed to Oregon was the most they’ve given up since 2022. Still one of the most talented units from the defensive line through the secondary that’s top five in the nation in points and yards allowed per game. But McElroy’s concerns stem from the Buckeyes taking on the nation’s top offenses with simple defensive schemes.

“What I’m saying is not truly resonating, but if you just go back and watch like, down to down in their games, people move the football on all the time. And so I look at a team like Texas, or Georgia, or Alabama, like these teams that can score. That’s what they got to sure up,” McElroy said.

“They’re pretty simple on defense,” he added. “I know they can blitz, but they want to play a 4-3 cover four. That’s what they want to play. And that’s fine, they’re better than most teams, they could probably play that and beat most teams they go against.”

Ohio State has three ranked opponents remaining on their regular season schedule, and it will be fascinating to see how both sides of the ball play for them in those matchups and the postseason as competition continues to heat up.