A look at the Buckeyes.
It’s officially game week. Tennessee is hard at work preparing for Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff. The Volunteers will be on the road in Columbus, taking on a Buckeye team loaded with talent across the board.
Ohio State missed out on a chance at a bye after losing in the last week of the season to Michigan. The shocking result sent Ohio State down the board, just narrowly keeping them above the line to host a first round game. On the flip side, Tennessee just missed out on hosting a first round game. This 8/9 matchup is easily the game of the weekend, with the winner advancing to Pasadena to face No. 1 Oregon.
On Tuesday, the Tennessee coordinators took to the podium to preview the matchup with the Buckeyes.
“I think it’s the skill,” Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks said of Ohio State offensively. “They have really good skill. Traditionally, they have always had really good wideouts. Schematically, they put you in a lot of situations to try to put stress on the defense. So, they have good coaches and good players. They are an Ohio State team. Some of these teams I have seen in the past, they’re very similar to that.”
Ohio State will never be short on weapons, and this year’s team might just be one of their deepest in that category. Ryan Day has a trio of elite wide receivers, led by true freshman Jeremiah Smith. The former five-star prospect has nearly 1,000 receiving yards on the season to go along with ten touchdowns. Senior Emeka Egbuka and sophomore Carnell Tate round out the options for Will Howard.
At running back, Ohio State poached Quinshon Judkins from Ole Miss last offseason in the transfer portal. He forms quite the duo with TreVeyon Henderson, with both backs combining for over 1,500 yards on the ground so far this season.
“I think it will be a great challenge for our guys,” Banks continued. “The way they run the ball to set up the play action pass and things of that nature — we’re going to have to do a really good job of helping our guys on the back end. Our DNA is, we want to be able to stop the run. It’s going to be a great challenge. Our guys are eager for that challenge. They’ve worked this whole season to be in these type of venues and have these type of opportunities. They’ll be very excited for it.”
Defensively, Ohio State ranks first in several major categories. Talent is up and down the depth chart, presenting a big challenge for Nico Iamaleava and the offense.
“For starters, they have really good players across the board,” Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said. “They roll out there, they play an extremely aggressive brand of defense. They pressure a bunch. They’ll come, they’ll press their corners, they’ll press their safeties (and) their nickel. They let their defensive linemen change up their rush techniques. Everything they do is designed to try and create negatives and to try and take the will of an offense. They present a very unique challenge. They’re a really good defense.
“That’s why, as you said, their numbers are at the top if not the top of every defensive category. It’s a unique challenge. We feel like our guys are ready for it, and they’re looking forward to what that challenge is going to be Saturday night.”
Ohio State ranks first in total defense, second in passing yards allowed and seventh in rushing defense. The Buckeyes have the top redzone defense in the country by a large margin, giving up just 16 scores inside the 20 all season long.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles has an embarrassment of riches to work with on all three levels. It starts up front with a defensive line that gets pressure 43 percent of the time and is anchored by a veteran, NFL-prospect heavy secondary.
“It’s picking your times to push it down the field without being reckless about it,” Halzle continued. “They try to talk you out of pushing the ball down the field. They try to talk you out of playing aggressively. We have to not allow that to be something that we say we are going to play in a box.
“Like I said, they have really good players, and they let them turn loose and go play. That’s the challenge with these guys. Our tackles know. Our quarterbacks know. Our whole offense knows what this is going to be on Saturday night. It’s going to be a fight for 60 minutes.”
Ohio State ranks first overall in ESPN’s S&P+ rankings — first in defense and ninth in offense. Tennessee ranks eighth overall in S&P+ — 18th in offense and third in defense.
The Buckeyes remain 7.5 point favorites. Kickoff is set for Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.