Ohio State Buckeyes Were College Football's Best Team This Season

A common proclamation from college football analysts following the National Championship Game is that the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers proved that they were indeed the top two teams in the nation, thus making the College Football Playoff committee correct in their final rankings. They are not necessarily wrong, but upon looking at the big picture of the 2015-16 college football season, one program should have been the undisputed top team.

The Ohio State Buckeyes proved doubters wrong by winning it all last season, and they proved those who believed in them wrong this year by floundering in the biggest game of the season. Ohio State’s loss to the Michigan State Spartans, the Buckeyes’ lone loss on the year, was odd because it was obvious from start to finish of the matchup that the Buckeyes were the better team, but a strange game plan and a hint of nonchalance from the Ohio State players doomed them in the end.

The end was in the very beginning for this season’s Buckeyes. When quarterback Cardale Jones announced that he would be returning instead of declaring for the draft, immediate quarterback drama ensued. J.T. Barrett was the rightful starter, but because Jones had helped win the national championship for the Buckeyes, head coach Urban Meyer was forced to use a dual-quarterback system at the beginning of the season. This prevented the offense from developing an early-season rhythm and likely hindered the two young quarterbacks mentally.

Once Barrett was declared the full-time starter, the controversy of Jones being swept aside probably caused disarray in the locker room, only adding to the bevy of off-field issues that affected the team this year.

Before the regular season even began, a few Ohio State players, including star defensive end Joey Bosa, were suspended for marijuana use. Not long after Barrett was declared the full-time starter, he was arrested for DUI. Running back Ezekiel Elliott called out his coaches for their shoddy offensive game plan following the loss to Michigan State, which is something that professional players rarely even dare to do. Off-field distractions ran rampant through the Ohio State locker room this season, and they ultimately proved costly.

However, the primary distraction was the vision of walking onto the stage at the NFL Draft that surely danced in many Buckeyes’ heads for the entirety of 2015. Jones, Elliott and Bosa are all declaring for the NFL Draft, and it is probably largely in part because they heard the media discussing their NFL potential from the time Ohio State won the National Championship Game last January until they recently won the Fiesta Bowl. All of that draft chatter can really get to football players in their early 20s. It likely proved to be a major locker room distraction as well. The fact that nine Buckeyes have already declared for the upcoming draft proves that it dominated the thoughts of many of Meyer’s players throughout the season.

Heck, Elliott even had media members advising him to sit out a year, since he was not yet eligible for the draft, and go pro without having played three years of college football. That type of talk can really affect a young adult, and Elliott basically revealed via his comments after the Michigan State game that it had indeed affected him by causing him to develop a bloated ego.

Too many off-the-field distractions prevented Ohio State from ever truly peaking this season. Coach Meyer’s team was hands down the most talented team in 2015 and should have been even better than last year. However, too many poisoned young minds and off-field misdeeds prevented a repeat from occurring.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney claimed before the National Championship Game that if the Tigers won it all and finished 15-0, they would be the greatest college football team of all time. The common reaction to that bombastic statement was one of exasperation, but rest assured, if Ohio State had not fallen prey to so many distractions, they very well could have claimed that impressive title by the time this season was all said and done.