Ohio State has their confidence on top, coming off a dominant win against Northwestern. The Buckeyes posted one of their best seasons in history so far, and they will look to make that discussion alive by racking up another win against the Hoosiers. Curt Cignetti, on the other hand, is too smart to leave an inch to Ryan Day. They stand as the only team undefeated after Oregon and the Army after all! The game will be action-packed, but how do they stand in the national championship picture? Well, former Georgia QB Aaron Murray picked up on a looming risk in the Buckeyes’ latest tragic episode.

It’s pretty visible that Ryan Day set the Buckeyes in a pretty formidable stand so far. Although, like most other teams, they too, have no merging to error, they have enough gas in their tank to promise a solid beat down. But there are still loopholes that can weigh them down. In the Next Round podcast, Murray was asked, “If not Georgia then who’s next for you Aaron, somebody you have confidence in that can win a National Championship?” Murray picked his teams, and from his choices, it was evident that the SEC teams would have an upper hand in that race, leaving OSU in a tough spot for Seth McLaughlin’s injury.

Murray talked about it, referring to ‘The Players Lounge’ podcast he just had with Knowshon Moreno, Ben Jones, and Tavarres King where they discussed “who does Georgia not want to face in the playoffs scenario.” “The two teams I think we all we both agreed on uh were Ole Miss and Alabama. I think Ole Miss and Alabama right now playing really good football,” Murray said.

“I’ve seen a lot of Ole Miss and that’s a great defense, that’s a great defensive line, that’s an offense that is now all of a sudden Jaxson Dart with weapons other than Tre Harris are putting up monster numbers, then all a sudden you throw Tre into the equation, how do you stop them?” Murray said. We can not deny. Remember what Kirby Smart had said?

“They’re probably, when you look at offense and defense, both sides of the ball, they’re probably the best combination of those two things in our conference. They are really good at both and are playing really good football right now.” Numbers speak in favor of that.

Through nine games, Ole Miss leads the SEC in total offense (555.44 yards per game), points per game (42.11), and yards per play (7.71). Defensively, the Rebels remain one of the top units in red zone scoring (66.67 percent) and rushing yards allowed.

Murray next turned his eyes to Alabama. “You look at Alabama when Jalen’s on, he is the most difficult player to control in all of college football. The defense has stepped their game up the past month, so that’s another team that’s playing well on defense, they’re maturing on the back end, very young, but they’re maturing and all of a sudden on offense you’re seeing, a quarterback that is playing at a really really high level”, Murray said while also indicating, “Obviously Georgia just doesn’t win against Alabama!”

Milroe, who has 380 yards rushing and 12 rushing touchdowns, has exceeded 100 yards once in 2024: a 117-yard and two-touchdown performance in Alabama’s 41-34 win against Georgia on September 28. “I would say those two to me are are playing as good as anyone in the country,” Murray said. For his third choice, he hesitantly named OSU, and the reason is clear. “I will worry about the offensive line. I believe they just lost their center for the Achilles’ tear. What happens with that group up front?” Murray said.

The legit point to take extra care of! Ohio State might have had a sublime win over Northwestern, but they just lost one of the key logs of their offensive line afterward. Columbus Dispatch reported on Wednesday that during Tuesday’s practice, star Center Seth McLaughlin tore his Achilles Tendon and, unfortunately, went down for the rest of the season.

The Alabama transfer has been a pillar in the middle of Ohio State’s offensive line this season. Day let him start for all 10 games, and he didn’t have to regret it a bit. Losing your starting center is horrible at any time of the season. It’s specifically worse when you lose him during the week of the game as you attempt to finalize your game plan.

The center position is vastly different from other positions. You have to snap the ball, help in pass protection, and even block guys to get the run game going. The relationship with the quarterback gets built as you get more snaps together. That relationship will not be there with the backup center. Although Carson Hinzman, McLaughlin’s replacement, has experience playing the position. That’s where the game may be decided as a new-look O-line for the Buckeyes goes against the No. 1 rush defense of the Hoosiers.

Ryan Day takes a no-nonsense approach to deal with Seth McLaughlin’s injury

Day has been quite aware of the brutalities of the CFB world. They will not see the injury and the other setback. All they care about is a win week in and week out.

Ryan Day, as a veteran head coach, has seen it all. He took a lot of bumps and flakes during his tenure with the Buckeyes, and he can pretty easily imagine what awaits him if Ohio Day derails from this point in the season. This is the shadow side that comes with a high-flying Ohio Day job. So, the coach doesn’t expect it. No more mulligans. It’s simple: win out or get out.

”Certainly, nobody cares. So, we’ll make adjustments. You wake up the next day, and you move on. But, yeah, it’s tough. But that’s why you recruit depth, and that’s why you work to get those guys in the game. That’s why you work in the offseason to build depth.’‘ said Day in a pre-game interview.

The coach didn’t get off-guard by the peak-season injury. “Well, when it happened before the Penn State game, we had to move Donovan (Jackson) to left tackle and that was a change in position,” Day told at ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Friday. While it certainly makes it more challenging for the Buckeyes to hit the playoff, he knew something like this might happen. At the end of the day, all that matters is how he survives the threat and comes out victorious. For now, Coach Day keeps his fingers crossed.