Ryan Day had a lot of issues to solve this offseason. The championship glory quickly shifted to a mass exodus gloom at Columbus, forcing Day to become hyperactive in the portal. The beleaguered head coach continued to surrender to that call, bolstering their 2025 class. Recently, they added five-star cornerbacks Davin Sanchez and Na’eem Offord to the chart. But would it suffice to stop an electrifying Texas defense during a tough early-season test in August? Well, take that chance with a pinch of salt for now. Because a new Texas defense is brewing red hot!

The Ohio State locker room exits have taken a serious toll on their post-championship era, no matter how hard Day tries to refill it. Firstly, the OSU defense faced a strong challenge when their championship-caliber defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles, moved on to Penn State. They have also lost eight of their senior starters, including Jack Swayer, JT Tuimoloau, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon. There has also been an impending change in the defensive scheme, replacing their four-front-down strategy with a new one devised by the new DC.

So, it’s clear that they are no longer the No. 1-ranked defense in the country. On the flip side, Steve Sarkisian comes with a rare top-15 run defense in the country. Don’t let yourself be fooled by Cam Skattebo’s Peach Bowl excellence! The Longhorns’ defenders were probably tired after spending an eternity on the field that day. Other than that, they look pretty well-equipped to wreak havoc on the current OSU offense.

“Texas is bringing back CJ Baxter, who is a five-star who I think is gonna be a beast, Ohio State obviously has the advantage at the receiver position, but like, I don’t I mean, I guess three and a half is basically a pick them on a road but like, Texas is a team that I think is going to win the national title next year,” ON3 journalist Andy Staples took it way too far to swallow for the Buckeyes.

Loosening their grasp over the title is the last thing any defending champion would want. Well, they are still a 10-win team with a great overall prospect among the competitors, but that is not really what Ryan Day is looking for.

“I don’t know if I look at this Ohio State roster and think the same way that I did about their playoff run a year ago. They’re gonna have to rebuild this thing a little, and that’s the word because when you lose that many players to the NFL draft.” 

The glaring absence of gems like Caleb Downs, Emeka Egbuka, Josh Simmons, and Quinshon Judkins will certainly fall heavily on both sides of the ball going forward. The list is too long to replace for the newcomers, while Ryan Day really didn’t leave a stone unturned in his recruiting spree. Oh! They also look unsettled in the QB room.

The projected gunslinger, Julian Sayin, looks average during the spring.

Julian Sayin question continues to sting Ryan Day’s offense 

Sayin, the highly hyped-up kid to be considered a projected starter at Columbus, started crumbling during the spring exposure last weekend (March 28-29). This was the first time Ohio State opted to host a scrimmage during spring practices. But this is where Sayin felt trapped. He looked a lot weaker than expected in the early splash. ESPN’s Greg McElroy didn’t mince his words while throwing caution to the wind.

“A lot of us coming into the spring season were under the assumption that it was going to be Julian Sayin. Well, by all accounts, that’s not really the way it’s working out right now,” McElroy said on the Always College Football podcast. “Julian Sayin, by all accounts, did not have a great scrimmage last week. It sounds like he kind of struggled on Saturday. The expectation level of Julian Sayin was nowhere near what we ended up getting, and that’s a little bit concerning.”

Sayin must stand out among the other competitors, Lincoln Kienholz and Tavien St. Clair. And as far as the Spring observation depicts, Kienholz looked a lot more poised and in better control last week than Sayin. But even if we ignore that and deem Sayin as a winner of the job, the future might not look like a guarantee.

On3’s JD PicKell puts Sayin in his place, saying he doesn’t just need to produce well on the starting gig. He rather needs to play the role of the elevator to the entire offense, just like his predecessor (Will Howard) used to do. We will see if Ryan Day will find the answers going forward and flip the script during the epic fight with the Longhorns.