Ohio State is a fringe contender for the College Football Playoff at this point in the season, but school legend and Heisman winner Eddie George isn’t the happiest with the way things are going for the Buckeyes. Not just on the field this season, but for the program as a whole. Ohio State might be a powerhouse on the field, but events before this season have shown that they aren’t the most stable blue blood program in the country.
That may be where some of George’s criticisms of the school come from. “There’s something going on there that we the public don’t know. I feel like, my personal opinion, there’s a level of dysfunction there within the walls of Ohio State. Whether it’s with the coach, the administration, the coaching staff… Something is not right.”
It seems to be an allusion to the preseason troubles that Ohio State and head coach Urban Meyer dealt with earlier this year, which is the type of thing that usually rarely happens at a program like Ohio State.
While Meyer retained his job and nothing came of it in the long run, the team hasn’t been playing the best since his return and their scares caught up with them when they finally lost to Purdue, dropping them down in the division and making it much harder for them to gain easy entry into the playoffs.
“Something isn’t quite right there, especially when you’re jumping into November football. “This is when you make your claim, you know, ‘hey, we’re going to be one of the four teams in the Playoff.’ I definitely think Ohio State has regressed a lot since the beginning of the year,” George said about the team’s current play.
It’s fairly accurate. Ohio State struggled heavily against Penn State and needed a defensive collapse from their opponents to win, they lost to Purdue in a game that wasn’t very close and allowed 49 points, and they struggled and won by less than a touchdown against a Nebraska team that only had two wins going into the game.
The Buckeyes take on Michigan State tomorrow, but there’s no guarantee that they win. Considering the early phase of the season and how Michigan State struggled and Ohio State dominating, that’s not something most thought would be true at this point, in November.
But there’s only three games left for the entire season, and if Ohio State can defeat old rivals Michigan, there’s no telling whether or not they can recover to make it into the playoff at the end of the year.