Amid the Chaos of College Football, Ohio State Will Need to Focus on Keeping Itself Afloat

I like the word "flux." It's short, which means that it's easy to spell, Doc Brown makes liberal usage of it in Back to the Future (often in combination with another fun word, "capacitor"), and it has an "x" in it, which means it's super cool.

I also find that "flux" is an apt descriptor for the general chaos that college football teams have to navigate if they want to accomplish anything during their seasons. Some kind of fresh hell is always being raised by someone in this sport, and if you're an anxious sort like I am, you might be forgiven for taking a peek over the hedge at everything not-Ohio State and wondering when the fire is going to spread to your lawn.

The Buckeyes had enough to worry about in 2023 already, with the departure of one of the best passers in program history and no one with extensive experience to replace him, a still-shaky defense that managed to squander almost 90 points in its last two games (both losses on a national stage to marquee opponents), and any third thing of your choice that is also concerning.

Now you get to add on the pressures of NIL and conferences exploding and imploding all over the place, and suddenly everything feels a little too off-kilter for a point in August when we should be devoting time to learning the middle names of backup offensive linemen, not wondering about the sociopolitical implications of being an accessory to conference murder.

It's a lot, is what I'm saying!

Always look to the positive and never drop your head
For the water will engulf us if we do not dare to tread
So let's tread water

In 2018 Ohio State had a similarly chaotic offseason, this time of its own making. The drama around Urban Meyer's handling of the Zach Smith fiasco led to a lot of hand-wringing during the month of August and a three-game suspension for the head coach, thrusting Ryan Day into the limelight as the Buckeyes faced a top-15 opponent on the road (yes, technically it was a "neutral site" game, but henceforth I declare that any out of conference game played within spitting distance of campus of one of the teams involved constitutes a road game for one and a home game for the other).

Having successfully navigated that with only the loss of their best defensive player to worry about, the Buckeyes watched their running game evaporate just as Urban Meyer returned to the helm (makes you think), skirting a few tough Big Ten opponents thanks to the largesse of Dwayne Haskins' arm, and then getting Boilermaker'd in West Lafayette by four touchdowns.

Things looked better for the next few weeks, until Ohio State escaped by the skin of their teeth against Maryland in overtime, and found themselves 4.5-point underdogs at home against a top five-ranked Michigan team.

See I look past all my worries, which is something you must do
Though you're fed up, throw your head up
With this advice from me to you
And that's to tread water

But things weirdly worked out anyway. The Buckeyes won that game by a gajillion points, and then won the Big Ten Championship against Northwestern (!?!!) and then subsequently Rose Bowl against Washington to, somehow, finish 13-1.

The 2018 Ohio State Buckeyes weren't a great team. They relied way too much on the passing game to generate any kind of offense, the defense was barely mediocre, giving up 370 yards and almost 32 points a game in the last month of the regular season, and they were one injury away from Tate Martell literally being the starting quarterback. Losing to Purdue the way they did was one of the most embarrassing losses in Ohio State history, and they nearly did the same thing against the Terrapins later in the year.

But they still went 13-1 and won a damn conference championship and a Rose Bowl, and that's the thing, man: tread freaking water.

All the noise and doubt and uncertainty surrounding college football at large is conquerable, and just because Jim Knowles continues to tinker and Ryan Day isn't yet sure who the starting quarterback is going to be, that doesn't mean great things aren't still in the future. It's easy to be pessimistic about the state of college football, but this is going to be an exciting, talented Buckeye squad that, once on the field, will more than make up for the uncertainty leading up to that.

I'm excited for the 2023 football season because when you're as talented as Ohio State and Ryan Day are, the real goal here is to keep kicking those feet and pumping those legs. If they do, they should be able to generate some positivity for Buckeye fans through some confusing times for college football.