The time has come. Your annual opportunity to join me in clowning on my bold Ohio State football season takes that pan out about as well as New Coke.
This of course comes with a reminder that when I say "bold" I do in fact mean it which certainly puts pressure on my accuracy rate.
But hey, I'd rather try to hit on a couple longer shots than pretend vanilla prognostications that materialize are worth writing about. That's like celebrating Ohio's legalized sports gambling by betting nothing but 10-point teasers and -500 moneylines.
Anyway, enough with the veiled reasons why you shouldn't go too hard on me. The fact is though, I think most of us had much higher hopes for the 2022 Ohio State football season than the team ultimately realized. A host of injuries to big time players also submarined most of my predictions but whatever, let's get on with it.
Oh and don't forget to claim your own big wins and fails in the comments relative to your own expectations for what became an 11-2 season void of a win over a Michigan, a Big Ten title or a College Football Playoff victory.
TOMMY EICHENBERG LEADS THE TEAM IN TACKLES AND BECOMES FIRST LB SINCE 2016 TO POST 100 IN A SINGLE SEASON
Boom goes the dynamite. My one nailed prediction came via Eichenberg's magnificent breakout season. After he posted an insane 17 tackles in the Rose Bowl to cap the 2021 season, which accounted for nearly 27% of his season total of 64 stops, it was clear he would be the starting middle linebacker heading into last season.
Still, reaching 100 tackles in a single-season is no small feat these days considering Raekwon McMillan had been the last Buckeye to reach the mark, registering 102 during his 2016 campaign.
Eichenberg not only hit the 100-tackle mark, he well exceeded it, posting 120 stops on the season putting him 43 tackles clear of second-place Steele Chambers.
The remarkable individual season earned Eichenberg first team All-B1G honors from coaches and media and he was chosen as a second-team All-American by The Walter Camp Foundation, CBS Sports, Football Writers Association of America, Associated Press and The Sporting News.
Okay, now this is where things go off the rails.
JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA BECOMES FIRST BUCKEYE WITH BACK-TO-BACK 1,000-YARD RECEIVING SEASONS AND BREAKS SCHOOL RECORD FOR CAREER RECEIVING YARDS
Injuries are a part of the game and of course JSN's hamstring injury suffered in the season-opener versus Notre Dame crushed any chance of this prediction panning out.
Smith-Njigba played in parts of just three games in 2022, finishing with five catches for 43 yards, after a stellar 2021 campaign saw him rewrite Ohio State's record book with 95 catches for 1,606 yards.
Barring injury, I know JSN reaching 1,000 yards wasn't too bold of a prediction but I also had him reaching at least 1,244 yards to become the school's career receiving yardage leader. That yardage would've been the fourth-best single-season by a Buckeye and JSN would've had to do it while guys like Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka received their share of touches as well.
Bottom line, this prediction was doomed before the first quarter of the Notre Dame was over.
OHIO STATE ONCE AGAIN BECOMES A TOP-10 SCORING DEFENSE
I think this was a pretty bold prediction to begin with considering new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles had to install his defense from scratch, with not every player recruited to play their respective positions the way it might be required in Knowles' scheme.
That said, the 2021 defense, as bad as it was at hemorraghing yards, ranked No. 38 in scoring defense giving up 22.8 points per contest. To be a top-10 scoring defense by 2021 metrics, the 2022 defense needed to give up no more than about 18.3 points per game, so I was banking on what was roughly a required 4.5-point per game improvement.
As it turns out, that logic was fairly sound from a goal-setting perspective in that Penn State and Alabama finished tied for No. 9 in the land allowing 18.2 points per game last season. North Carolina State, Louisville and Kentucky all tied for No. 11 allowing 19.2 per contest.
Knowles' 2022 Buckeye defense finished the season allowing 21.0 points per game, good for 24th-place nationally. While that was a 14-spot and 1.8 points per game improvement over 2021, it obviously fell short of my bold prediction.
TREVEYON HENDERSON BECOMES FOURTH BUCKEYE SINCE 1970 TO AVERAGE AT LEAST 7.0 YARDS PER CARRY IN A SINGLE-SEASON WITH AT LEAST 100 CARRIES
As Agent 86 would say, "missed it by that much." Like the JSN prediction, this one never had a chance due to injury.
Henderson missed five games five games entirely while playing hurt and/or forced to leave early in two other contests, resulting in the gamebreaker playing 226 fewer snaps than he logged as a true freshman when he ran for 1,248 yards on 6.8 per carry.
He was rarely himself as he averaged over 6.0 yards per carry just three times in eight games.
Forced to shut it down after leaving the Maryland game early in the second half, Henderson would miss the Michigan game and undergo surgery in December, ending his season.
Injuries limited Henderson to 107 rushing attempts for an average of 5.3 per try - well below my 7.0 prediction.
OHIO STATE GOES 15-0 TO WIN THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF CHAMPIONSHIP
Just one more stank-burger to go. I truly thought last year was The Year for Ohio State to run the table and win it all.
Before the bye-week, despite some of the injuries, it looked like a very real possibility. But things weren't quite the same in the second half of the season and it eventually caught up to the Buckeyes by way of a second consecutive loss to Michigan and a last-second defeat at the hands of Georgia in a CFP semifinal.
I had Ohio State beating Michigan and eventually Alabama in the title game but alas the Buckeyes finished 11-2 to round out another year of bold predictions gone wrong.
Maybe next year.
