Photo courtesy of Dwayne Haskins twitter
Standing 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighing in at 218 pounds, all the way from Highland Park, N.J., your starting quarterback, Dwayne Haskins Jr., *and the crowd goes wild*
The excitement is building, and as the season nears I'm starting to get very antsy. As always I have very high expectations for the Buckeyes, and for my first post I'm going to dive into those expectations for the 2018 season.
Back on Jan. 29, 2018 I tweeted out my predictions for each game. Almost six months later I still feel pretty good about the predictions. If these scores hold true, Ohio State will average 45.3 points per game. For reference, we have averaged more than 40 ppg three times since Coach Urban Meyer has been at Ohio State (2017: 41.1, 2014: 45.0, and 2013: 43.2). I don't see any reason to think that this cant be the best offense Urban has ever had at Ohio State.
Moving over to defense, if these scores hold true our defense will allow 17.3 points per game. Last year our defense allowed 19 points per game, and our last three year average comes out to 16.5 points per game. Knowing that, I think 17.3 is a good number, because outside of our D-line we do have a lot of questions on defense. We know we have the talent at DB and LB, but until they step onto the field it's hard to assume they will be first round draft picks. Overall, I think our defense will be very good this year, and they will alleviate a lot of concerns that people might have when we play TCU Sept. 15.
I want to throw out three very specific predictions that will hopefully come true, but I do realize they might be very bold....
1. Haskins will throw for more than 3,330 yards, breaking Joe Germaine's all-time single season passing record from 1998.
2. JK Dobbins and Mike Weber will both rush for more than 1,000 yards.
3. Our defensive line will be better in 2018 than it was in 2017.
Before you call me crazy, hear me out. Last year JT Barrett threw for 3,053 yards. JK, JT, and Weber combined for 2,800 rushing yards. That comes out to 5,853 yards between all of our starters. I think its safe to assume Haskins wont run as much as Barrett did last year, but he will throw more. Looking at those numbers tells me that its not unrealistic to think that we can reach 5,330 total yards between our starters. I will note that its harder to predict Haskins stats with Ryan Day calling the plays this year. I will dive into that further in another blog though, so stay tuned. As for prediction No. 3, I don't think our depth will be as good this year, but our starters will be better. Because of that, our starters will stay out there longer this year and end up being more productive, and cause more destruction. We have three guys who could all be potential first round draft picks (Dre'Mont Jones, Chase Young, Nick Bosa), and the guys on the bench are not a bunch of scrubs. Long story short, don't sleep on this defensive line, or the 2018 Buckeyes because these predictions might not be that bold after-all. These guys come to Ohio State to play for national championships, and we haven't been there since 2014. These guys are hungry.
In honor of the spirit of blog 'That's What She Said." I'll end with something my wife always says during the football season,"Go Bucks, Michigan Sucks."
Mr. Ohio
