Ohio State’s football players know the expectations that surround them entering the 2024 season, and the Buckeyes aren’t shying away from those expectations.
The Buckeyes clearly state their goals before every season – beat Michigan, win the Big Ten and win the national championship – but the importance of achieving those goals carries extra weight this year. Defeating the team up north feels as must-win as can be after three straight losses in The Game over the last three years, but anything less than winning it all could be seen as a disappointment with all the talent on this year’s Ohio State roster.
For seniors like Jack Sawyer, Emeka Egbuka and TreVeyon Henderson, among others who decided to stay at Ohio State for the 2024 season even though they were potential early-round NFL draft picks, the decision to stay in Columbus was driven by the desire to achieve all of those goals after failing to do so for the last three years. So they have no desire to lower the expectations that have been set for them, and they’re excited to be in a position where all of those goals are within reach.
“We know the expectations, we're the Buckeyes, and even more so this year with everyone who came back and the guys we got in the portal, and the guys we've added, freshmen that we've added,” Sawyer said Wednesday. “When you have expectations, that means people expect things from you. So we know it's a blessed position for us to be in. Anybody in the country would wanna be in our position. So we're taking it day by day, and we're really excited for the season.”
Ohio State can’t realize any of those goals for three more months. But if the Buckeyes want all of those goals to still be on the table when they play Michigan on Nov. 30, they need to take care of business in their first 11 regular-season games – or at least the vast majority of them – to make the Big Ten Championship Game and College Football Playoff.
After coming up painfully short of achieving any of those goals last season when a 30-24 loss to Michigan eliminated Ohio State from the Big Ten title game and the CFP, Ryan Day doesn’t want his team to leave anything to chance this year. The mantra that he and the Buckeyes have adopted for the 2024 season is “leave no doubt.”
“Leave no doubt is something that when you look back at kind of where we've been and coming up a drive short, a play short, you can't leave it to one drive. You can't leave it to one play. You just can't. You have to leave no doubt,” Day said Tuesday. “It's like whether it's a prize fighter going down to either knock him out or leave it to the judges. You can't do that. And so, I mean, that's been something that we've talked a lot about. (Director of sports performance Mickey Marotti) has hammered it in the offseason. And we still break down some of our meetings that way. We have to do that.”
Egbuka took that a step further when asked Wednesday about the Buckeyes’ mindset entering their first game against Akron, making it clear they aren’t approaching the game casually even though they’re 48.5-point betting favorites.
“By no means are you underestimating any opponent. We go out there on the field every Saturday expecting to blow out whoever lines up across from us,” Egbuka said. “That's just our mentality. So we're going to hold true to that.”
On paper, the Buckeyes shouldn’t be tested until at least their fourth game of the season as they play three non-conference opponents that should be overmatched in Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall. But the Buckeyes say they aren’t taking any game for granted.
“It's a long season, and so I think the biggest thing that we're trying to do as a team this year is not look too far ahead, and just take it one game at a time,” Henderson said. “I think that's the biggest thing right there, man. Let's just focus on Akron and Marshall, then the next game, then the next game, and then eventually, we'll get there, man. We'll get there. But just every day, just trying to focus on one day at a time, putting in the work, and preparing for the opponent we have each week.”
The Buckeyes’ seniors especially don’t want to take any home game for granted, knowing they have only eight more opportunities to play in Ohio Stadium.
“We only get eight shots left in the Shoe, and we gotta make every one of them count,” Sawyer said. “And Coach Day always says, it's never about our opponent, it's always about us. If we're executing at a high level and playing fast and physical, then things will take care of itself. So we got a good opponent in Akron, and we're excited to play them this Saturday.”
“We know it's a blessed position for us to be in. Anybody in the country would wanna be in our position.”– Jack Sawyer on the expectations surrounding Ohio State
Day said the Buckeyes “have to respect everybody we play against,” and he’s confident his team understands that message.
“For all the work that goes in, to think that a game would be undervalued, I mean, that's not even on anybody's radar right now,” Day said. “We have a certain standard that we have to play with. We want to come into this game and set the tone for the season.”
As mentioned above, the expectations surrounding the Buckeyes this season are nothing new, even if they feel heightened this year because of the roster they’ve assembled. That said, Day believes the team has done a great job this offseason of understanding the work it needs to put in to realize those expectations.
“This team has done an unbelievable job of just putting one day in front of the other and going to work. And that's about to start here. So I think our guys have had a good preseason. I think they're focused. I think they know what's important right now,” Day said. “And that's what we're going to do. We're just going to focus on trying to play the best game we can on Saturday and build from there. And that's all we can do.”
Sawyer believes the Buckeyes are handling the expectations “really well,” giving him confidence this can be the year he and his teammates get over the hump and meet those expectations.
“I think we're in a really good spot, and we're all just chomping at the bit to get on the field this Saturday. And we can't wait to put our product on the field,” Sawyer said. “It feels like a long time coming, when we all decided to come back, and then we got the big pieces we added, and the offseason we've had, it feels like a long time coming, building to this point. So we just can't wait to put it on the field Saturday.”
