The Buckeyes open up the new campaign with a bang.
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about this season’s marquee matchups. Whether they feature the Buckeyes, other Big Ten schools, or major teams across the country. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”Game of the Year” articles here.
Ohio State must beat Texas in its season opener on Aug. 30.
Okay, correction; It’s not a must-win game, largely due to the safety net that is a 12-team College Football Playoff. However, it is a game Ohio State really needs to win.
The Buckeyes went into Texas’s backyard in the CFP Semifinals at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic this past January and beat the Longhorns 28-14. Jack Sawyer’s scoop-and-score was the most memorable play of the game, and it’s a play that will long live in Ohio State lore.
Ryan Day has earned back a lot of equity, vindication and faith from the fanbase for what the Buckeyes did over the one-month duration of the College Football Playoff this past Winter. Even though he’s only 1-4 against Michigan, he now has a national championship. At the end of the day, that’s the ultimate end-goal for the Buckeyes going into every season.
Day guided the Buckeyes through the shock of losing at home to Michigan and parlayed it into four postseason victories that were all by double-digits. Not to mention, the Buckeyes were the lower seed in the latter three of those games.
However, losing at home to Texas could open up the door again for more criticism directed towards Day.
The Buckeyes losing their first game after winning a national championship would mark their first season-opening loss since 1999. If you think losing four-straight to Michigan isn’t normal these days, losing a season opener is practically not even in the realm of possibilities.
The last time a non-current Big Ten team beat Ohio State in Columbus was Oklahoma in 2017. If the Longhorns win the season opener, that could be viewed, potentially, as a more impressive win than Ohio State winning a neutral site game at Texas.
I disagree with that potential viewpoint because it was a CFP win with a national championship berth at stake for the Buckeyes this past January. Still, you can’t let the team you beat in that Semifinal come into your stadium and beat you in the first game of a season where you are defending a national championship.
Beating Texas is not a “must” for Ohio State. However, it is a game that could form a lot of early opinions, and will put additional pressure on the Buckeyes who already have a massive target on their backs. Ohio State needs to feed off the energy over 100,000 fans will have in The Shoe on Aug. 30 and block out the rest of the noise.
Ohio State vs. Texas. One team will be 1-0, and the other will be 0-1. There is a big difference between the two recrods, even in the 12-team College Football Playoff era. The Buckeyes need to be on the right side of that difference.