Could the 2026 Ohio State Offense Be Better Than the 2024 Offense?
Could the 2026 Ohio State offense actually be better than the 2024 national championship offense?
Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr compare the Buckeyes’ 2026 offense to the 2024 title team position by position, including Julian Sayin vs. Will Howard, the current running back room vs. TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, Jeremiah Smith’s growth, the wide receiver and tight end groups, and whether the 2026 offensive line could eventually match or exceed the 2024 version.
They also discuss how much championship bias impacts the comparison, how roster-building has changed in the NIL and transfer portal era, and why the 2026 Buckeyes may not need to be better than 2024 at every spot to still compete for a national title.
00:00 — Intro
00:11 — Tom courts disaster with coffee and a white shirt
00:42 — Comparing the 2026 offense to the 2024 national champions
02:12 — How NIL and the portal have changed roster depth
04:26 — Ohio State’s recent recruiting success in Alabama
06:11 — Quarterback comparison: Julian Sayin vs. Will Howard
07:26 — What Sayin needs to do better than Howard
09:49 — Running back comparison: 2026 depth vs. 2024 star power
10:55 — Why Henderson and Judkins set such a high bar
13:02 — Receiver and tight end comparison
14:27 — Offensive line comparison and injury questions
15:51 — Could the 2026 offensive line be better for most of the season?
17:56 — Final thoughts and listener questions
19:44 — BuckeyeInsiders.com update and wrap-up
Could the 2026 Ohio State offense be better than the 2024 national championship offense? Drop your position-by-position picks in the comments.
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Speaker 1: H Hello everybody, Welcome to the Buck, our weekly podcast.
I'm Tony Gerdaman here as always.
Speaker 2: What's on?
Speaker 1: More time?
Speaker 2: How's it going, Tony? Right before we came down to
uh set up for our recording, I put on my
nice new bright white Buckeye Insider shirt and I grabbed
a nice, big, steaming hot cup of coffee, and then
I thought, well, I think I'm courting disaster here, So
I don't know, I may not even touch the coffee.
It may just sort of sit over there, safely away
from the splash zone. Bo, we'll see you. You have
dressed much more intelligently for this game, for this show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't see the chili stain on the back drop,
the whole bucket of chili on my back, but that's
another show. Yes, the digs dig them, so yeah, Tom.
The topic of today's show is something that I was thinking.
I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and
I wanted to do a tale of the tape between frankly,
all the last three Ohio state teams being twenty four,
twenty five, and twenty six, but I wanted to start
with twenty twenty six versus twenty twenty four. And as
I started doing this, you know, quarterback compared against quarterback,
like Will Howardgainst Julian stand and comparing the running backs
versus the running backs, and so on and so on.
I kept going down the list, and I don't know
that there's a single position group where I would readily
take the twenty twenty six buck guys over the twenty
twenty four team. And we can go through this and
discuss it, But overall I came out of that thinking
is this bad news? And we know the twenty twenty
four team won a national championship. I think the twenty
twenty five team could have won a national championship. I
think the twenty twenty six team probably could as well.
But if we go through this and every single position
points to the twenty twenty four team over the twenty
twenty six team, except for maybe special teams, is this
a Is this a major concern?
Speaker 2: So I think there's a couple different things. And I
think there are certainly position groups where I would at
least consider, if not lean towards giving twenty twenty six
the edge. But I think that may also be a
little bit reflective of the reality that you just can't
stockpile talent the way you used to. I think you
look at the twenty twenty four Black Eyes and you
compare them to you know, some of the Urban Meyer,
Florida teams, for example, or some of the Nick Saban
Alabama teams and the high end. You know that twenty
twenty four Ohio State team was one of the most
talented in program history, but it was already because of
the transfer portal, because of nil it was already getting
a little more challenging to stockpile talent. And now I
think that's even gotten more true in the last couple
of years, where you know, recently Colorado beat Ohio State
for a recruit. Why did Colorado beat Ohio State for
recruit and in state recruit from a pipeline school like Glenville. Well,
Colorado doesn't have as much money to offer recruits as
Ohio State does. But if that is a if that
player is a much higher priority recruit for Colorado, they
can throw more money at him than Ohio State can.
If it's if this is someone who's going to be
the third best recruit in Colorado's class and the eighteenth
best or twenty third best or whatever, it is in
Ohio State's class. Colorado can just spend more money on him,
and that's going to move the needle with a bunch
of people. And so that's something you're sort of seeing
all around college football. This is not a uniquely Ohio
State program problem. This is something where Alabama hasn't been
able to stockpile talent nearly the way it did before.
Georgia hasn't been able to stockpile talent nearly the way
it did before. Georgia lost a really good corner to
Ohio State because which would have normally been a guy that,
of course he was going to be a rotational player
for Georgia this year and then would have you know,
maybe he could win a starting job. No, he's off
to Ohio State. And Ohio State has lost guys to
other programs as well, So I think, yeah, you'd obviously
prefer to have lots of advantages over a team that
already won a national championship. But I think this might
be a little bit of a sign of the times.
Speaker 1: Alabama has trouble stockpiling Alabama talent, but you know which
team doesn't?
Speaker 2: True true fact. Yes, I am putting together a series
that I've done every you know, four or five years
or so the most recent Buckeyes from each state and Alabama.
The last time I did this list in twenty twenty
one or so, there was one guy from nineteen eighty
one who had been from Alabama who players on that
team were like, who is that? And it was like, well,
he was in the media guide. I don't know, he
never really showed up, I guess on campus, but he
was in the media guide, so I am counting him.
But it was like, there was this one guy. This year,
I think they've got five players from Alabama, maybe five
or six from the state of Alabama, Like they went
to high school in the state of Alabama. And Ohio
State is obviously rated the Alabama roster for some for
some top prospects. So you know, while you're looking at
why did you know how is Ohio State losing players
like Aaron Scott or Bryce West to Oregon and Wisconsin
people in Alabama are looking going, well, how is Alabama
getting treated like a Triple A team for Ohio State? Sorry?
Speaker 1: Remember when when you put that list out and one
of the old Buck guys on on Twitter is like.
Speaker 2: I was on that team.
Speaker 1: I don't know who this is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was he was. I looked him up. I
think he ended up at Louisville and he was from Louisville,
so I think he might have maybe not, you know,
he signed with Ohio State but didn't actually show up.
His name was Dante Wheat. It's one of those names
that is stuck in my mind. I tried to find
him to do a follow up story. He didn't find
you know, his current whereabouts, but he had I think
played for Louisville at some point. So anyway, that's enough
about the nineteen eighty one Buck guys. Let's talk more
about the twenty twenty four and twenty twenty six Buck guys.
Speaker 1: Tony, So let's start with quarterback, and we don't have
to spend a ton of time because that one of
the issues that I'm going to run into doing this
is when you win a championship game, every single position
gets the benefit of the doubt. You know, if it's
if it's a tie, of like when we get to
the offensive lines, like if it's a tie, Well, I
know the twenty twenty six team has not won a
national championship, and I know the twenty twenty four team
was good enough that line. So that's one of the
issues with doing that is just the championship bias. That
is a considerable way the thumb is on the scale.
But a twenty twenty six Julian sayan versus a twenty
twenty four Will Howard. If Julian Saying can run a
little bit like Will Howard did, and Will Howard could
run a lot, but he only ran a bit for
Ohio State, the accuracy in terms of the numbers are
going to be similar. I think you'll see more touchdown
passes for Julian Saying, more touchdown rush is for Will Howard.
But I guess this one I could see an area
where or an opportunity for Julian Saying to be better
than Will Howard. I don't I don't think he needs
I don't know does he need to be better than
Will Howard for Ohio State to win a national championship
or does he just need to be better? Does he
need to be better than he was last year?
Speaker 2: Well, I think he needs to be better than Will
Howard throwing the ball, because as you said, he's not
going to be able to do everything Will Howard could
with his legs. But I think this is one that
jumps out to me. As you know, I think there
will be people who say, well, look at the last
two games last year, and you know, how could you
say that this you would give Julian say In the advantage.
I'm expecting substantial progress from Julian Saying, and Julian Sayin's
numbers last year were pretty darn good for the season
on the whole. Will Howard also, you know, you're you're
coming off of Will Howard completing sixteen consecutive passes to
start the National Championship game or whatever the number was.
If you're doing this exercise after the Michigan game that year,
I think that, you know, you look at Julian Saying
last year, and I think people will go, yep, give
me that guy. So it just there's a little bit,
as you said, of recency bias. You know, the most
recent impression you had of Will Howard was, boy, this
guy is just lighting teams on fire in the college
football playoff. And I think this is one where it's
reasonable to disagree about this, I think at the moment.
But it would be pretty surprising to me if Julian
Saying was not the choice here by the time the
season was over this year.
Speaker 1: You know, and in those two games, the averagebout two
hundred and seventy yards passing, completed about two thirds of
his passes. It's just there are three interceptions in those games.
I also don't think you can when you're comparing Julian
saying to Will Howard, be like, well, look at Julian
saying last year. Because when we're comparing Julian saying this
year to Julian saying last year, and you say, well,
look at Julian say in last year, are you saying
that this year he's going to be the exact same.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying you can't do that. I'm just saying,
when you when you want to compare these these people,
you have to assume I assume that Julian saying is
going to be better. So when we would do a
tale of the Tape of twenty twenty five versus twenty
twenty six, can't just be like, well it's the same,
it's a wash because I don't think it will be good.
Speaker 2: No, No, I'm with you there. This also is, as
you know, in addition to have seen this team win
a national championship. You have gotten the end of season
version of all of these guys from twenty twenty four,
and this is just sort of pure projection on twenty
twenty six right now, and we're expecting growth and we're
going to that's going to be true of the guys
in the next position group as well. We haven't seen
it yet, so that kind of gets baked into this
conversation too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we are a couple of weeks or so,
a week past you saying this might be the deepest
running back room in Ohio state history of all time.
I said maybe since ninety two. You're like, no, no, no, no,
all time. So the running backs, like, it's really difficult
to say that they are going to be better than Quinnjown,
Judkins and Trevon Henderson. And if you want to throw
James Peeples and Sam Dixon in there, go ahead. But
really it's the top two arguably, maybe not arguably, the
best duo in Ohio state history. And to think that
there's going to be two guys on this team or
three guys that top those two, I think that's a
very high bar to get over. But also I don't
think you need to go over that bar to have
running backs that are good enough to win a national championship.
I think the backs they had last year, were they
good enough?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Will they? Are they going to be better this year?
I would presume them. I assume they will be. And
is that going to be good enough? I think so.
I think they will be. I don't think they're going
to be better than twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Though, No, I'm with you that the twenty twenty four
duo was one of the most talented, one of the best.
It deployed where they were out there and they were healthy,
and they were not just healthy but also not completely
gassed at the end of the season, and that was
a really really unique thing. Normally, you've got the one
running back and he's been you know, he's JK. Dobbins,
and he's kind of been running to the ground a
little bit by the end of the twenty nineteen season,
and he sprains his ankle and then that's kind of it,
and that really kills you at the end of the season.
Twenty twenty four was two guys who are incredibly talented,
very healthy, still very much at the peak of their
games at the end of that season, and then boom.
You get Travan Henderson going off tackle for a long
touchdown against against Oregon, and Travan Henderson taking that screen
against Texas, and Quinn Shawn Judkins have been scoring I
think three touchdowns in that National Championship game. That was
about the pinnacle of what that Ohio State running back
room can look like this year. These are guys who
last year, I think the youth in the running back room,
the inexperience in the running back room, and some of
the health issues in the running back room probably left
them a little short of where they needed to be.
This year, you got back the guys you really were
leaning on last year. I mean CJ. Donaldson's gone, but
I think Jacoby Jackson at least fills that CJ. Donaldson role,
if not giving you maybe a little bit more, a
little bit more of a diverse skill set there. Bo
Jackson's going to be better, he's older, more experienced. Isaiah
Wes is going to be better. He's going to be older,
more experienced, and you mix in like a Legend Bay there,
which they did. They did not have a real comparable
player to Legend Bay last year. What does he give you?
I don't know, but he's going to give you more
than you got out of that position last year because
you really didn't have that spot filled last year. So
you know this, this o Higo State running back room
is going to be better than twenty five. But you know,
twenty four still is kind of the benchmark to me,
and can they get there? Could, but they're definitely not
that not there yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think when you look at I guess
maybe the twenty twenty five offense compared to the twenty
twenty six, you're going to check most of the boxes
for twenty twenty six save for twenty twenty, save for
the receivers and the tight ends. And when you compare
the twenty twenty six Ohio State Buckeyes at receiver and
tight end to the twenty twenty four not much of
a comparison either. The Jeremiah spent that a mecca a
book at Carnel Tate as you're starting receivers Gee Scott
Wilks America as your tight ends compared to what they
will put out there this year with Jeremia Smith and
Brandon Ennis and Devin mcew and Kyle Parker, maybe Chris
Henry Jr. Rock Boyd, your Quad, and Guilford, maybe Philip
Bell does he Jones. They've got a bunch of tight
ends that they like. But I can list all of
those names, all ten of them or whatever, and they
don't match up and equate to the five that I
mentioned from twenty twenty four. I don't think this one
needs a bunch of discussion, Tom, but if you have
to talk, feel free.
Speaker 2: No, Jeremiah Smith is an upgrade from twenty twenty four.
Jeremiah Smith. He's gotten better each year. But you know,
there is not anyone on this team that you would
look at and go, yeah, that's sort of comparable to
a Mecca Abuka or Carnel Tait at this point. Again,
could Chris Henry turn into a player of something like
that caliber, Sure he could, but not yet. I'm not
ready to have that kind of conversation just yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I've said it before. They'll have to.
I think I'll have to bring in a transfer after
this season if they want to continue their first round
draft picks selections at receiver, because I just don't see
one on there right now that will be eligible in
twenty twenty eight for the NFL Draft. So then offensive line,
And this one is really really difficult for me because
that twenty twenty four offensive line and everything they went
through and everything they accomplished, that's hard to beat. Now,
if this offensive line can match that, I expect this
offensive line to be very, very good. But when I'm
comparing the two, I have to look at like, Okay, well,
what do they do if Carson Hinsman goes down like
at game ten, and can somebody step in and do
as well as Carson Hinsman did when he stepped in
for Seth MacLachlan, Or what if whoever is playing left
tackle goes down? Can they set you know, if Ian
moorees goes down, can Austin Seervelt step in? Well we
know the answer to that. So there is some flexibility
that I think makes this twenty twenty six room really
really good and can contend. I think maybe one of
the points that I could throw to to make maybe
the argument for the twenty twenty six is if they
did lose their left tackle, the guy that they're going
to put in there is going to be better than
Zen Mahalsky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's and that's absolutely true. I think that
that that's one spot where you could certainly find an advantage.
Is there a you know, Carson Hinzman is potentially a
Remington Award caliber center this year, and you had a
Rimington Award caliber center on the team in twenty twenty four.
But you know, they lost their left tackle, they're starting
left tackle, they lost their starting who ended up being
a first round NFL pick. You lost a center, and
then you were National Championship caliber. Now for long stretches
that year, there were a lot of questions as to
what they were going to be and were they were
they good enough? And they're rotating guys and I still
remember doing the show going into the Tennessee game where
Ryan Day is talking about, yeah, maybe we're going to
just sort of, you know, we'll just kind of roll
with three different guys at guard and just sort of
figure it out. And it was like, pardon what you know, sir?
You know this is a college football playoff game, don't
you And he turned out to know that, which was,
you know, which was fortunate for him and for the program.
But yeah, that was it. That's a team that you
look back on, and the offensive line was not you know,
the finished product at the end of the year was
really really good and did everything they needed it to do.
I think this year's team could absolutely get there. I
think for long stretches of this year, you could have
a better twenty twenty six offensive line than you did
twenty twenty four. Like I would challenge you to go
back and rewatch that twenty twenty four Nebraska game, the
one with Zen Mahalsky in as your starter and not
great Bob would be how I would describe that one.
But if you take you know, you take this arting
center off this year's team, you take the starting left
tackle off this year's team, and you got to shuffle guys,
and you know, at that point, you know, if this
team has to go through all of the stuff that
the twenty twenty four team did, I think that would
be challenging. They could do it, but it would be challenging.
But right now, at least at the start of the season,
at the you know, mid October point of the season,
I think there's an argument that you could go for
the twenty twenty six offensive line over twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: They're equipped to handle those issues this year. Nobody thought
they were at the time In twenty twenty four, We
talked several times who can a most afford not to lose?
Speaker 2: Number one was.
Speaker 1: Josh Josh Simmons, and then number two once that happens, like, well,
now what you can't afford to lose? Seth McLaughlan. And
then I remember getting those early initial reports that something happened,
and it's just like there's the season, that the season
it's over and it wasn't. And so that's a credit
to everybody on that offensive line, certainly credit to Carson Hintsman,
who now leads this unit as the center. So we'll
go ahead and stop there. We'll talk about defense on
the next show. I'll be interested in getting your thoughts
out there. You know, as you're watching this, are we
wrong on these? Go ahead and give us your tail
of the tape at each position, what you think is
going to happen in terms of, you know, will twenty
twenty six be better than twenty twenty four? Could Bo Jackson,
Isaiah West, Legend, Baye Jacobe Jackson outperform Travian Henderson and
Queen John Jenkins, who I believe scored twenty seven touchdowns
combined rushing and receiving. They both had big touchdown catches
in twenty twenty four as well. So they made plays
and that's the thing. They may get out rushed this year,
but the number of plays that they made when they
had to be made, and the consistency and just the
keeping Ohio State on target and on pace and the
efficiency and all of that just really really solid and
keeping that offense going and keeping the opponent on their heels.
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for tun again and we will talk to you all lat.
Speaker 2: Me this time. What about you lest it through away
the no one tell me I wish you never meant
nothing to me?
Speaker 1: Where where my fall?
Speaker 2: If you can tell me that's the morn's all right.
We can steal current leads now