Previewing Ohio State make or break season

No college football team is feeling the pressure quite like Ohio State. The Buckeyes are ranked No.2 in both preseason polls, have four Associated Press preseason All-America first-team selections , eight home games, and are playing in the inaugural season of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff .

We recently caught up with NBC4 Columbus’ Whitney Harding to understand more. She has covered Ohio State since joining the station in January 2020. Harding spoke to us about this talented squad and how it will look to deliver on high expectations.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Awful Announcing: What is the No.1 reason Ohio State could win the national championship?

Whitney Harding: “I say defense because that is what makes this team more special than recent teams. The one thing that everything’s going to hinge on is the offensive line. If the offensive line can win at the line of scrimmage, play physical for an entire game, and not lose gas in the fourth quarter, this team is scary good. That is something that they want to do. They want to punish teams in those fourth quarters. They want to get the ball to TreVeyon (Henderson) or Quinshon Judkins and wear teams out. When you have those running backs, that helps a lot.”

What’s the No.1 reason the Buckeyes won’t win it all?

“Offensive line, that is everything. Special teams have been such a weak point in the last few years. They don’t have a specific special teams coach anymore. They got rid of that position to open up a linebackers (coaching) position for (James) Laurinaitis, which I think is a good trade. It’ll be interesting to see because there are new faces. New punter, new kicker. Those are the forgotten items when things can come down to three points or a point. Kick coverage has just been horrendous the last few years as well.”

How much pressure is on Ryan Day?

“All of it, especially with the way the last few years have gone. The vibe around here is national championship or bust. It’s always like that at Ohio State, but you have a ridiculous number of guys coming back. I did a story the other night about the defensive line and those linemen from the 2021 recruiting class. Three out of four are still at Ohio State as seniors. They were the No. 1, No. 4, and No. 18 D-linemen in that 2021 national class. That’s bananas. Those guys don’t stay for four years. They leave. Because of that and because of what’s happened vs. Michigan, all the pressure is on Ryan to get this thing done.”

What will be different about the offense under Chip Kelly?

“When you think of Chip Kelly, there are creative ways to run the football. There has even been a conversation about safety Caleb Downs playing on offense because he’s just so athletic with the ball in his hands. To me, that’s going to be what to look for in these first few games: What does the running game look like? We know the passing game. We’ve seen the passing game. Ryan Day has that passing game rolling. But I think Chip brings in a little bit of old-school run/creativity within it because we’ve seen him do it for so many years.”

Which transfer will make a bigger impact: quarterback Will Howard or running back Quinshon Judkins?

“I say Will Howard from a leadership standpoint because at running back, there’s so much talk about Quinshon, but TreVeyon Henderson is an absolute stud. If he makes one guy miss, he’s gone. But I think Will Howard is going to be the difference maker. What Will brings, from what we’ve heard and what we’ve seen at practice, is confidence in the huddle. That’s something you’re probably going to see a little bit more from Ohio State this year than we have in a while: more huddles, which is interesting. Will brings calmness and confidence. You can tell how much they’ve all embraced him being on this team and being a leader.”

How good will Emeka Egbuka be with Marvin Harrison Jr. now in the NFL?

“The sky’s the limit for that kid. He is another incredible leader on this team as well. With Marvin being gone, he steps into that role. Every guy who has stepped into that role when the guy before has left has done an amazing job. It’s just that there’s only one football. And you look at the weapons on that offense, and you wonder how are they going to share it. Carnell Tate is an amazing wide receiver. You’ve got the freshman, Jeremiah Smith, who I can tell you does not look like a freshman. Emeka does all of these little things. The way he runs routes, you can move him anywhere. He can still play slot. He can play out wide. He blocks. He can be a security blanket for Will Howard.”

Could Ohio State also have the best secondary in the country?

“Absolutely. The only thing that could hurt them is injuries. Jim Knowles has said it this fall camp. His only concern is the depth at safety and that’s because they play so many safeties. The pass coverage is going to be crazy because the cornerbacks are so locked down. A name that everybody needs to look for is Davison Igbinosun. This is a guy who appears to have such quiet confidence. But if you talk to anyone on this team, they will say he is the trash talker on this team. One of the best descriptions someone had the other day was: ‘You don’t just hear Davison, you feel him.’ I thought that was very telling.”

What will Ohio State fans look for when the Connor Stalions documentary comes out Tuesday?

“Everything! I bet that they not only watch it one time. They may watch it again and try to pick out every possible thing. When we saw that they were doing that, even in our newsroom people went, ‘Oh, okay.’ Yeah, it’s definitely something that people are interested in around here. There’s keen interest.”

Do you have an example of how crazy Ohio State fans are?

“At the Ohio State vet school, there’s a fire hydrant in Michigan colors . That is where they let the dogs go outside and do their business. I think that’s a really fun one. The fire hydrant thing cracks me up whenever I see it.”

Has your station had to adjust its coverage with the expanded Big Ten and expanded playoffs?

“Just for this year, it hasn’t changed a whole lot because we were already planning on going out to Oregon because that was a home-and-away game that was scheduled already. Now it’s a conference game. In future years, as the California teams’ games start kind of filtering in, that’s something we’ll have to prepare for, like extra travel because we go to every game. It is nice that this year it’s a favorable schedule for us, for Ohio State. We can kind of ease into it a little bit more. The main thing is we were just talking about holidays and days off. Now, we don’t have that December window buffer time.

“We have to plan as if they’re playing the whole way through. Normally, there’s a bit of a break after the Big Ten championship game, which they haven’t been playing in the last couple of years. But the length of the season is the bigger thing for us.”

Any predictions on how the Buckeyes will do?

“I want to be optimistic. I want to say they will run the table and win the whole thing. It’s so hard to gauge with this new playoff system because it’s going to be kind of like basketball. It’s going to come down to matchups, right? You never know what kind of a matchup you’re going to get.

“I can say confidently they’ll win the Big Ten. They will beat Michigan and play in the Big Ten Championship and win it. Michigan is still a phenomenal team. I just think that Ohio State brings back so much, and they bring back so much anger about it. Like really angry.”

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