Ohio State opens 2026 with a matchup that should tell us plenty about the Buckeyes, even if the opponent is one they’re expected to handle with ease.
Ball State comes to The Shoe on Saturday as a team picked to finish 11th out of 13 in the MAC, and it arrives with a roster that has been heavily turned over. The Cardinals lost 38 lettermen, have 43 four-year transfers on the roster, and added six junior college transfers. That kind of change leaves plenty of unknowns, but it also makes the task in Columbus a brutal one.
The biggest one sits at quarterback. Keldric Luster is in line to make his first college start in the fourth season of his college career.
He began at SMU before moving on to Texas State, and now he’ll have to sort things out in his first start against Ohio State’s defense in a massive road setting. Ball State head coach Mike Uremovich, whose background is on offense, will try to ease that transition.
That’s a tall order against a Buckeyes defense that looks different from last year’s group, but still has plenty of names worth watching. Ohio State returns just three starters on that side of the ball, unlike last season when Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, and Arvell Reese were among the holdovers.
This year, the returning starters are Jermaine Mathews Jr., Kenyatta Jackson Jr., and Jaylen McClain. Even with the turnover, there’s confidence around the Buckeyes that Matt Patricia’s unit can still be elite after what he did last year.
There’s just as much intrigue on offense, and maybe more. One of the main questions hanging over Ohio State this offseason has been whether it can run the football. Bo Jackson is coming off a strong freshman season, and he’ll have help from an offensive line that returns four starters after a year that fell short of the standard up front.
That matters because the Buckeyes also brought in Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator, and running the ball has long been part of his identity. His work in Tennessee with Derrick Henry stands out, including Henry’s 2,000-yard season in 2020. Against a Ball State defense that allowed 178.8 rushing yards per game last year, Ohio State should have a real chance to establish that part of the offense right away.
And then there’s the passing game, where Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith should waste no time making their presence felt. The question isn’t whether they’ll connect - it’s how long Ohio State keeps them on the field. If things go the way they’re supposed to, three quarters and a little bit of the fourth quarter should be plenty.
That’s really the bigger storyline here. Yes, Week 1 matters because every game matters.
But this is also Ball State, a Group of Six team coming off a season in which it averaged fewer than 300 yards on offense and allowed more than 400. Those numbers, paired with a roster that has changed so much, make this look like a game Ohio State should control from the start.
The Buckeyes enter the season No. 1 in the AP Preseason Top 25 for the first time since 2015, and with the star power they have, they should look every bit the part on Saturday. The real hope is that by the fourth quarter, Sayin, Smith, and the rest of the starters are already watching from the sideline.
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Ohio State Defense Faces An Early Test It Can't Dodge
Ohio States defense has no shortage of names to sort through after losing a wave of elite production from last season, and the first real chance to start answering those questions comes against Ball State. The Buckeyes are trying to replace proven playmakers at multiple spots, with the linebacker room drawing particular attention and several transfers expected to be part of the solution as the staff figures out what this group looks like in live action.
Jay Timmons is one of the more intriguing pieces in that mix, a freshman cornerback whose role could grow as the season settles in. For a defense that needs both confidence and chemistry, a game like this matters beyond the final score because it gives Ohio State a chance to see which combinations hold up, which ones need more time, and where the early uncertainty still lingers. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Is Giving Jim Tressel One Of Its Highest Honors
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Tressels place in Buckeyes history has long been secure, and this honor only reinforces how central his run from 2001 through 2010 remains to the programs identity. Already in the College Football Hall of Fame, he now gets another permanent reminder inside the stadium where his teams built so many of their biggest moments. [Read more 🡒]
Jaxon Smith-Njigba Just Reopened A Debate Ohio State Fans Never Settled
Jaxon Smith-Njigba revisited one of the most lingering Ohio State what-ifs during an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show, where he addressed the hamstring injury that kept him out of the College Football Playoff and his decision not to play. He said he wanted to be on the field to help Ohio State win a national championship, but the injury left him unable to go, putting a painful cap on a season that had already made him one of the Buckeyes most electric playmakers.
Since then, Smith-Njigba has only added to the intrigue around that missed opportunity. He has become one of the NFLs top receivers, leading the league in receiving yards and earning a contract extension, which only sharpens the old debate over how much Ohio State might have gained if he had been able to suit up. For Buckeyes fans, it is the kind of conversation that never really dies, especially when the player at the center of it has gone on to prove just how high his ceiling really was. [Read more 🡒]