Ohio State Defense Should Feast On Young, Inexperienced Hoosiers

Thursday morning's Buckeye Breakdown podcast gives an in-depth look at the Indiana offense and shares why Ohio State should dominate on Saturday.

The opening game of the season always has a chance to be a little clunky.

The last two years against Notre Dame and Minnesota, the Ohio State Buckeyes have had a number of semi-frustrating moments. C.J. Stroud's opening 30 minutes of his college career were "fine", but didn't scream Heisman Trophy candidate. But in each of those games, Ohio State figured it out enough at halftime to put the game away by the fourth quarter.

It would surprise me if Saturday's contest in Bloomington, Indiana is any different.

Purely from a talent perspective, Ohio State has a far superior roster to the Indiana Hoosiers. But both teams have new quarterbacks and IU has more than a dozen transfers to the program that will see the field this weekend, so it's hard to know exactly what to expect. But after two solid seasons in 2019 and 2020, Indiana has won just two conference games combined over the last two seasons.

Meanwhile, Ohio State's defense took a major step forward in 2022 under Jim Knowles. The expectation is that the second year with his system should be even better, as the Buckeyes try to eliminate the big plays that ultimately ended their national championship hopes last year. Indiana's offense needs some work and this should be a good opener for the Silver Bullets.

Kyle McCord is ready to be the Buckeyes' starting quarterback on Saturday

Brendan Gulick and Anthony Moeglin break down the Hoosiers by position and detail what schemes they'd most like to run given their personnel, as well as how the Bucks can stop them. 

It's all on the latest episode of Buckeye Breakdown, streaming LIVE at 7 a.m. Eastern Time or ON-DEMAND wherever you like to get your favorite podcasts.