For the first time in a decade, the Ohio State football program will go into next season as the defending champs. They will be losing a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, so repeating as champs will be tough to do. Still, they will likely be ranked as one of the top five teams in the preseason polls.

This past season, the Buckeyes finished the regular season with ten wins, which was fewer than they were hoping to have. Still, they had a lot more wins than other teams in the Big Ten. That’s why they made the College Football Playoff and some other teams around the country didn’t.

Even though the 2024 season just ended a few weeks ago, people have already turned the page to 2025. Win totals for next season have already been released. The Buckeyes enter next season as one of the teams with the highest win total in the country for the regular season.

The Ohio State football team projected to have the highest win total in the country in 2025

According to FanDuel, the over/under for wins for the Buckeyes is set at 10.5. That is the highest of any team in the country. Three other teams also have their totals set there. They are Notre Dame, Penn State, and Oregon. All of those teams made the College Football Playoff this season.

Ohio State’s schedule next season is much tougher than it was this past season. They will start the year off with a rematch against Texas at the Shoe. They also have to play Penn State. On the road, they have to travel to Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. That’s not an easy schedule to win ten games with.

Despite this tough schedule, the Buckeyes have a lot of confidence that they can exceed that win total. Their offense will be explosive as long as they have Jeremiah Smith to throw the ball to. The offensive line will be more settled, as well.

The Ohio State football program is learning the cost of being great. They are national champions and are one of the favorites to win it again next year. When programs have success, other programs try to take assistant coaches away so that they have the same kind of success.

That’s something that the Buckeyes are dealing with right now. Ohio State is in the unique position of having to replace both of their coordinators this offseason. Jim Knowles is now with rival Penn State, and the Las Vegas Raiders just poached Chip Kelly. Offensive line coach Justin Frye also decided to take a job in the NFL.

Those three coaches were key to the run that the Ohio State Buckeyes made to the national championship. All three of them helped make the necessary adjustments in order to win the four CFP games. Ryan Day will not be rushed into replacing any of them.

Ryan Day will take his time replacing key Ohio State football coaches

While talking on The Joel Klatt Show, Day was asked about replacing Kelly and Knowles.

“I knew that right after the game this was going to happen like this, and so you have plans in place. But we’re going to make sure that we take our time and find the right guys, because it’s Ohio State.”

Ryan Day

Day will not be making a hire just to make a hire. He will only be bringing the right guy in. If it ends up being an internal hire for any of these positions, so be it. He’s not going to be rushed to make a hire because he knows that Ohio State is an extremely attractive place to coach.

Ohio State will be able to make sure that they have the best guys in place for their title defense next season. If it takes another two weeks to make the right hires, so be it. Day knows that rushing is the worst possible thing he can do in this situation. Remember, he didn’t hire Chip Kelly until the Spring.