What could appear to be a setback in the regular season could actually be one giant leap toward a back-to-back national championship.
From now until preseason camp starts on July 31, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about the players that will shine this season. Whether they are superstars, diamonds in the rough, or journeymen, these are the Buckeyes who will define the 2025-26 season. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our “On The Record” articles here.
Though Ohio State looked solid nearly every step of the way during the 2024 regular season, most fans can pinpoint the exact moment the team went from “very good” to “unstoppable”: Their stunning 13-10 home loss to Michigan to end the regular season.
Great men (or in this case, teams) are forged in the fire, as the saying goes. It makes sense, then, that the road to the national championship was paved with some adversity.
The loss to That Team Up North, while shocking in the moment, was arguably the best thing that could have happened to the Buckeyes. Failing to defend their home turf against their rivals (and the resulting flag fiasco) ultimately stoked the flame that earned them the CFP National Championship trophy.
Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images
Despite being a dominant program for decades, Ohio State thrives on an underdog mentality. They need to believe it’s “Ohio Against the World.” But that underdog mentality is hard to tap into when you’re consistently the top dog. You need some setbacks to strike the match.
To that end, I want to go on the record to state that while an undefeated regular season is certainly more fun for fans, it might actually be better for the Buckeyes’ national championship hopes if they lose a marquee game in the regular season.
I want to be very clear: I am not personally hoping for the Buckeyes to lose any of their games, and I do not have a specific game in mind. In fact, I just wrote about how Ryan Day should be fired if OSU doesn’t win in Ann Arbor this year.
Of course, the best-case scenario is one in which they don’t need to drop a game to channel that “Ohio Against the World” mindset. An undefeated season and back-to-back national titles are the dream.
But repeating the national championship is rare and extremely difficult. Doing so undefeated is almost unheard of. The pundits are already placing their bets on other teams. Perhaps that kind of doubt from the media will be all it takes for the Buckeyes to find their inner fire. I doubt it, though.
Especially if they win that first game against Texas, the Buckeyes will announce to the world that they’re ready to pick up where they left off. This immediately sets them up as frontrunners rather than underdogs, and this could be where a mid-season loss might work in their favor.
The biggest, most uncontainable fires have to come from within, from unfinished business that looms so large, it is the only thing you can think about until you get the job done. Like the Michigan game last season (help us all, if we lose to them again though).
But should the Buckeyes instead drop a game to the Illini or Penn State, for example, they’ll have enough time in the season to analyze what went wrong, learn from it, and course correct.
Both of those games are early enough in the season that they also won’t carry the recency bias of losing your rivalry game, which could set them up better for the playoffs. Plus, given the new 12-team College Football Playoff, one loss no longer carries the same weight in the rankings it once did.
And most importantly, a mid-season loss is an opportunity for the team to reflect and get their minds right. It won’t eliminate them from playoff contention, but it could be a net positive for the team’s psyche. Look, too, at how things played out against Oregon last season. After losing a heartbreaking nail-biter on the road by just one point, OSU managed to stomp them in the Rose Bowl—because they had found their fire.
So, when we look at OSU’s schedule this season, take Penn State for example: The Buckeyes could theoretically meet them a second time in the Big Ten Championship or CFP game. I don’t ever want to lose to Penn State, but if we did, I’d rather it be in the regular season, with the opportunity to finish the business when it really counts.
If the Buckeyes do lose a game, don’t lose heart—it might not be the end of the world. Instead, it could be the beginning of a mindset shift that takes them all the way to the finish line again.