The first eight weeks of the 2024 college football season will be on the easier side but things quickly change in the final five weeks of the season. The final stretch of four games will really test where the Nebraska Cornhuskers stand at the point of the season and potentially where they are heading in the upcoming couple of seasons. It all starts out on the road in the “Horseshoe” in Columbus, Ohio to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Buckeyes have had quite the offseason ranging from the Transfer Portal to coaching staff changes. Now, they are projected to win the Big Ten conference once again. Here’s a look at Ohio State in 2024.
Know the Huskers foes 2024: Ohio State Buckeyes
High expectations as usual but fell short in 2023
When you are talking about expectations in college football, there are always a couple of teams that have the highest expectations year in and year out. The Ohio State Buckeyes always have high expectations going into any given season, due to their elaborate program history. As of late, expectations have risen much higher especially when Urban Meyer took over in 2012 and the success came with him. It didn’t take long for the Buckeyes to win a national championship, with them winning it all in 2014 in the first-ever College Football Playoff. However, Ohio State hasn’t had the national crown since. They’ve been close as of recently, like in the shortened 2020 season when the Buckeyes lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the championship game. Now looking back to last season, Ohio State had to replace top-tier quarterback production once again and the guy that was set to do it was junior quarterback Kyle McCord. It was going to be a bumpy road but McCord had top-tier weapons at his disposal and the Buckeyes won the games that they were supposed to.
Ohio State had a slow start to the season but really got things going after a close victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in week four. As usual, the Buckeyes ran through conference play pretty easily. They did have a close call against the Penn State Nittany Lions, but the real test was during the final week of the regular season. It was time for “The Game”, the annual matchup between the Michigan Wolverines and Buckeyes. Going into the matchup, the Wolverines had taken the last two matchups and were looking for a third and a berth into the Big Ten Championship game. Ohio State was down 14-3 early in the second quarter but managed to fight its way back into the game, tying the game up 17-17 with just over five minutes to go in the third quarter. However, the Buckeyes couldn’t manage to take the lead at all, eventually losing their third straight to Michigan. Ohio State went on to lose in the Cotton Bowl to the No. 9 Missouri Tigers 14-3.
Reloading up for the new B1G
After a very disappointing end to the season, it seems like the Buckeyes are looking to seek revenge in 2024, especially against the “team up north”. It was a very busy offseason for Ohio State. They brought in Chip Kelly to become the team’s newest offensive coordinator to replace Bill O’Brien, who took the Boston College head coach opening. Not only that, the Buckeyes had a huge presence in transfer portal recruiting. With many players entering the transfer portal from Alabama after Nick Saban announced his retirement, Ohio State took advantage of that. Head coach Ryan Day and his staff landed three of the biggest players from the Crimson Tide, which were safety Caleb Downs, interior offensive lineman Seth McLaughlin and quarterback Julian Sayin. However, those three might not be the most impactful transfers. Potentially the most impactful transfer was star Ole Miss Rebels running back Quinshon Judkins. As a freshman in 2022, Judkins rushed for over 1,500 yards and 16 touchdowns and rushed for nearly 1,200 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2023. He joins Ohio State’s other star running back TreVeyon Henderson, who is going into his final season in Columbus.
The Buckeyes will have a new quarterback under center in 2024. McCord transferred to the Syracuse Orange and was replaced by former Kansas State Wildcat Will Howard. Howard had a decent season for the Wildcats last season, throwing for over 2,500 yards and 24 touchdowns. With the potential weapons that are at his disposal, Howard has a shot being to most impactful transfer for Ohio State. Not only Emeka Egbuka returns, but the Buckeyes brought in the No. 1 wide receiver in the 2024 class, Jeremiah Smith. Despite being an incoming freshman, it might be hard to keep Smith off the field with the amount of talent he has. Outside of that, it could be a mix of a couple of different receivers.
The strength of the team will be on the defensive side of the ball, with most of the production from 2023 being back for another season. With the addition of Downs, defensive tackle J.T. Tuimoloau, cornerback Denzel Burke, defensive end Jack Sawyer and defensive tackle Tyleik Williams are all back. It will be interesting to see how the new additions and current returnees play together, but this defense will be hard to score against in 2024.
2024 schedule
Aug. 31: Akron Zips
Sept. 7: Western Michigan Broncos
Sept. 14: BYE
Sept. 21: Marshall Thundering Herd
Sept. 28: @ Michigan State Spartans
Oct. 5: Iowa Hawkeyes
Oct. 12: @ Oregon Ducks
Oct. 19: BYE
Oct. 26: Nebraska Cornhuskers
Nov. 2: @ Penn State Nittany Lions
Nov. 9: Purdue Boilermakers
Nov. 16: @ Northwestern Wildcats (Wrigley Field)
Nov. 23: Indiana Hoosiers
Nov. 30: Michigan Wolverines
Ohio State has a generally easy schedule outside of a couple of games. They will avoid playing either LA teams or Wisconsin but do have to go on the road to Oregon and Penn State. They will also have to overcome the demons of losing three straight to Michigan during the final week of the regular season. Unless something goes terribly wrong, you can almost chalk up the Buckeyes to land a 12 team playoff berth this season. The question is will they get a first round bye. That will be determined by the results against the Ducks, Nittany Lions and Wolverines. Get through those tough games, there is no doubt that this team will be competing for a national championship at the end of the season.
Matchup for Nebraska
The week nine matchup is the beginning of the toughest stretch of games for the Huskers since probably 2016. It would be a different story if this game was played in Lincoln but Nebraska will have to travel to Columbus. History is not in the favor of the Huskers as well. Ohio State has dominated the series 9-1, with the Huskers’ only win coming in 2011. The Buckeyes and Huskers faced off every season from 2016 to 2021 with the Buckeyes taking every game by multiple scores in four out of the six matchups (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020). Unless things go very wrong for Ohio State, you should expect the Buckeyes to win this game by at least 10-14 points. Crazier things have happened but it just seems that the Huskers won’t be fit for the upset in 2024. We will see what happens on Saturday, October 26 at a time to be announced at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.
Main Image: © Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
