Three Reasons Why Ohio State Can Win The 2018 National Championship
Posted by Eric Williams on Monday,April 24, 2017 3:45, EDT in
After narrowly coming up just short in their quest to win last season’s national championship, the Ohio State Buckeyes are expecting to contend again this coming season.
If you want to know just what to expect out of Urban Meyer’s squad as they get set for the quickly approaching 2017 regular season, then you’re going to have a great idea, thanks to the three reasons that you’re about to get on why Ohio State could very well win the 2018 national championship. Now, let’s get started with the latest college football betting picks here.
Three Reasons Why Ohio State Can Win The 2018 National Championship
J.T. Barrett is Elite!
As I wrote last season, there are dual-threat quarterbacks that can run and throw and then there are dual-threat quarterbacks that can dominate the opposition by taking games over.
Along with Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett is arguably college football’s most unstoppable dual-threat quarterback. More importantly, Barrett almost single-handedly helped Ohio State win it all this past season, although many (like me) believe the Buckeyes should have never gotten into the four-team playoff after failing to win the Big Ten.
Nevertheless, Barrett completed a solid 61.5 percent of his passes in 2016 while throwing for 2,555 yards with 24 TD passes and just seven interceptions. The fleet-footed signal-caller rushed for an additional 845 yards and nine scores and likely would have been even better if they had the luxury of having a decent rushing attack, which the Buckeyes didn’t after losing Ezekiel Elliott following the 2015 season.
If Ohio State can improve their rushing attack with Mike Weber (1,096 rushing yards) to take some of the pressure to do it all off of Barrett, Ohio State’s dual-threat superstar could not only get the Buckeyes back into the four-team playoffs, but win it all in 2018.
The bad news for Barrett and the Buckeyes is that they’re going to have an entirely new group of starting wide receivers after losing their top three wideouts from last season.
D-Fence, D-Fence
Despite not having an elite defender like they did in 2016 when Joey Bosa or a bunch of other All-Americans were on the defensive side of the ball, Ohio State was very good defensively last season even if that fact didn’t get mentioned a whole lot.
The Buckeyes finished the 2016 season ranked a stellar sixth nationally in total defense (300.2 ypg), 20th against the run (127.9 ypg), sixth against the pass (172.2 ypg) and a phenomenal third in points allowed (15.5 ppg). Ohio State gave up three point or le in four games a year ago while limiting the opposition to 16 points or less on three other occasions.
The Buckeyes lost a trio of talented defensive backs (Gareon Conley, Marshon Lattimore and Malik Hooker) who are all expected to be high picks in the quickly-approaching NFL Draft, but Urban Meyer has another highly rated class of defensive backs coming in and has elite talent at just about every position on the defensive side of the ball.
Urban Meyer is Elite
And speaking of Urban Meyer…while you may not like his often arrogant ways, the polarizing Ohio State head coach is undoubtedly one of the best coaches in all of college football. Meyer has compiled a fantastic 61-6 record in five seasons at Ohio State while going a perfect 12-0 in his first season and never losing more than two games in any season. Meyer led the Buckeyes to the national championship in 2014 and last season’s playoff appearance while also going 65-15 with two national championships at the University of Florida from 2005 through 2010. The bottom line for the Buckeyes is that Meyer is not getting out-coached by anyone, including Alabama’s Nick Saban.
