by ASA, Inc.
Friday, Aug 25, 2023OHIO STATE BUCKEYES – Under 10.5 Wins
Our projections have OSU with 10 wins this season so we’ll take a small bite on the Under. In our estimation they have 4 “losable” games this season with 3 coming on the road @ Notre Dame, @ Wisconsin, and @ Michigan and another one at home vs Penn State. If they even spilt those games, we win our wager. As of this writing in mid August, QB seems to be a potential issue for the Buckeyes. Head coach Ryan Day still hasn’t declared a starter for opening day (as of Aug 15) which is a concern considering junior McCord was supposed to step in as the starter and has yet to win the job. McCord is fairly inexperienced with just 600 career passing yards and he’s battling a redshirt freshman, Devin Brown, with even less experience. The WR’s are uber talented once again but QB will be the key to this offense. The Bucks have had a run of great starting QB’s which has been key to their success. From JT Barrett to Dwayne Haskins to Justin Fields to CJ Stroud, it’s been impressive and we don’t anticipate this year’s starter being at that level. They led the nation in YPP and points per play last season while finishing 2nd in scoring at 44 PPG. We look for a fairly decent drop off this season. Still a really good offense but most likely not elite. The defense was improved last year under first year coordinator Jim Knowles but still ranked outside the top 20 in scoring defense, YPP allowed, points per play allowed, rushing and passing defense. The two best teams they faced in Big 10 play, Penn State & Michigan, put up 31 and 45 points on OSU respectively. This team will still be very good, but 2 losses is not out of the question.
