Death, taxes and Desmond Howard showing plenty of bias while hating on Ohio State.
Ahead of the Buckeyes' Big Ten opener against Michigan State in East Lansing, Howard criticized Ohio State's strength of schedule in its non-conference slate, or lack thereof, during an appearance on ESPN’s College Football Live on Friday.
Desmond Howard says the Buckeyes took the whole month off given their easy non-conference schedule: But Ohio State, finally, welcome to the 2024 college football season up in East Lansing against Sparty. pic.twitter.com/Y66VXaAwVF
— Josh Poloha (@JorshP) September 27, 2024
“During the week, I was doing my prep, and I said, ‘Hey, Marissa, I need you to look something up,'” Howard said. “‘I’m looking at the top 25 ranked teams in college football, and I’m looking at Ohio State. Are they the only team that in four weeks, has not played a Power Four team?’ And she said, ‘Yes, Desmond, you’re right.’ So pretty much, Ohio State took the whole month off – the whole first month off – and now they play Michigan State.
"Finally, they’re playing a Power Four team," he continued. "Going on the road, playing against a Michigan State team that defensively, they lead the conference in sacks and tackles for loss. The trenches, watch that battle in the trenches. I’m not sure – I’m gonna have to ask Pete [Thamel] later on because Michigan State has lost at least three wide receivers early in the season. I don’t know who’s coming back. … But Ohio State, finally, welcome to the 2024 college football season up in East Lansing against Sparty.
“I’m just saying, they haven’t played anybody. Week 5, and they have not played a Power Four team. That’s crazy.”
The Buckeyes' non-conference schedule was quite easy, no one is arguing that. According to ESPN, OSU's schedule through Week 4 – Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall – ranks 131st out of 134 FBS teams.
Ohio State was originally scheduled to play Washington in this year’s non-conference slate as part of a home-and-home for this season and 2025, but the Buckeyes canceled that series and replaced it on this year’s schedule with a home game against Marshall, leaving them with no Power 4 non-conference opponents.
That said, while Michigan played (and lost to) Texas in Ann Arbor in Week 2, a matchup that headlined its non-conference slate, the Wolverines' out-of-conference schedules in 2022 and 2023 were quite comparable to Ohio State’s non-conference schedule this year. All six of Howard’s alma mater’s non-conference opponents the last two seasons – Colorado State, Hawai'i, UConn, East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green – were Group of 5 teams.
Pete Thamel brought that exact point up following Howard's comments, in which the former Michigan standout responded with “Are you a Buckeye defender? ... We're talking 2024, Pete.”
Kudos to you, Pete Thamel.
Howard has done his fair share of antagonizing Ohio State fans for quite some time, especially over the past year, labeling Ryan Day "thin-skinned," claiming the Buckeyes had "no excuses" heading into the Michigan game last year in the wake of Connor Stalions' dismissal and blasting the Big Ten's handling of the scandals surrounding the Wolverines football team.
Alas, Ohio State took care of business in non-conference play and now has its eyes set on bigger tests going forward, starting Saturday night in East Lansing, with kickoff between the Buckeyes and Spartans scheduled for 7:30 on Peacock.
The Buckeyes are slated to play much better non-conference opponents in the years ahead with games scheduled against Texas in 2025 (home) and 2026 (away), Alabama in 2027 (home) and 2028 (away) and Georgia in 2030 (away) and 2031 (home).
