Kirk Herbstreit has his eye on Ohio State as the season hits midway point

After a sluggish start to the season, Ohio State is beginning to roll yet again. The Buckeyes began the season winning a close 45-31 game over Minnesota before falling to Oregon in Week 2. Then, Ohio State came out sluggish against Tulsa before pulling out that win in Week 3. ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit is interested to see how Ohio State fares in its brutal schedule in the second half of the season.

“I’m going to touch on the Buckeyes because we haven’t talked about them a lot. The main reason in recent weeks is they just haven’t played anybody. They are off this week but things are about to get really interesting,” Herbstreit said of Ohio State. “We keep thinking, ‘has Ohio State improved as much as they look?’ Or is it maybe just their opponent. They lost to Oregon, didn’t look that much better considering it was Tulsa defensively, gave up a ton of yards. And then they made some switches and we’ve seen them look it.”

After a slow start despite a 2-1 record over the first three weeks, Ohio State has seemingly turned it around. The Buckeyes have won four in a row with lopsided victories over Akron, Rutgers, and Maryland in recent weeks. Herbstreit wonders how much of Ohio State’s improvement is a reflection of them compared to how much it reflects the weaker schedule it has faced.

“At this point I don’t even care who they’re playing,” Herbstreit said. “They’ve played Akron, at Rutgers and Maryland, and Maryland has had some injuries. But they’ve played a lot better. Their offense, let’s just make one thing perfectly clear, (quarterback) CJ Stroud is your guy. And he’s got the best trio of receivers on one team in the country. He’s got a freshman running back who’s probably the top freshman back in the country, the top freshman in general. They’ve got an offensive line and an NFL tight end. They’re going to score 45 points a game.”

Herbstreit: Ohio State’s schedule is about to get tough

While it maybe seemed unlikely in the first few weeks, Ohio State has played itself right back into College Football Playoff contention. If the Buckeyes can continue winning in its tough second half, they control their own destiny for the rest of the year. Herbstreit thinks that we will soon know what to really make of Ohio State.

“It gets tough. At Indiana, Penn State, at Nebraska, Purdue at home, Michigan State, at Michigan. So they get a bye week, and then they roll up their sleeves for the second half. And then we find out how good they really are,” said Herbstreit. “They’re going to get a chance to show it. They will not need to have help, it’s all right in front of them. Right now, they are trending in a very good direction off of that loss to Oregon. But we don’t know yet if that’s a reflection of they’ve improved, or if that’s because of who they’ve played. The next two to three weeks we’ll get answers on Ohio State.”