Ohio State enters the 2026 season with the kind of target that comes with being No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll, and ESPN analyst EJ Manuel thinks the Buckeyes can carry that ranking all the way to the finish line.
That would put Ohio State in rare company. Since the Associated Press preseason poll began in 1950, only two teams have gone wire to wire as the No. 1 team in the country from the preseason and finished by winning the national championship. The Buckeyes are the latest team with a shot to do it after opening the year at the top.
Ohio State has already been there before, winning the national title in 2024, and the goal now is to climb back to the summit. Manuel believes Julian Sayin is the quarterback who can take them there.
“Well, my bold prediction is Julian Sayin, the Ohio State quarterback, will lead his team to a national title, wire-to-wire as the number one team in the country,” Manuel said on ESPN's Get Up. “When reading this poll, think about some of the games they have on the road at Texas, at Iowa, at Indiana, at USC. I think Ohio State can win them all."
That road gauntlet is no small thing. Ohio State opens with a trip to Texas in Week 2, and the Big Ten schedule is loaded with tests every week. Four of the Buckeyes’ five road games come against preseason top-25 opponents, which leaves very little margin for error if they want to stay unbeaten.
The offense is the part that has people dreaming big. Sayin and wide receiver Jeremiah Smith give Ohio State two Heisman Trophy contenders, and that kind of firepower is what Manuel is betting on.
But Jordan Rodgers pointed to the other side of the ball as the biggest question hanging over the Buckeyes.
“Here’s my concern, and I agree with everything that EJ said about Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith. The offense is dynamic,” Rodgers said.
“They lost their three best players on defense. All who got drafted really high: Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles, Caleb Downs.
Caleb Downs was the third of them. You don’t just plug and play and replace guys like that.
So I guess I think the offense can actually absolutely take them there. Can that defense reload the dynamic, all-world-type players they lost and get to the … national championship?”
Ohio State starts the season against Ball State on September 5, a game that also serves as Senior Day for the Buckeyes. From there, the question becomes whether Ryan Day can turn the lessons he learned a year ago and throughout his career into another championship run.
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Julian Sayin has already been part of the conversation around that shift, with the quarterback noting the offenses maturity as it takes shape. Kenyatta Jackson Jr. has seen the adjustments from the other side of the ball, and the early signs suggest Ohio State is trying to pair that stability with more efficiency. If the structure holds, Sayin may be asked to do less to make the offense dangerous, which is often when a quarterback becomes the toughest to stop. [Read more 🡒]