Bruce Feldman breaks down how Ohio State can overcome Michigan

The Ohio State Buckeyes have had some remarkable success on the football field the past two seasons. Plenty of teams across the college football landscape would be begging to have the kind of success they’ve had the past few years under Ryan Day. Each season they’ve finished 11-2 overall. Heck, last year they nearly stunned the Georgia Bulldogs in the College Football Playoffs and there’s no telling what happens in that game if Marvin Harrison, Jr. wasn’t knocked out of it. There’s still one noticeable blemish on the Buckeyes’ resume the past two years. It’s that they’ve lost two straight to the Michigan Wolverines. Last year, the Buckeyes were handed a 45-23 beatdown in front of their home fans in Columbus. Coming into the 2023 campaign, Ohio State is still searching for ways to turn the tide in one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports. Earlier on Wednesday, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss how he thinks the Buckeyes can overcome the Wolverines.

Bruce Feldman joined Andy Staples to share his thoughts

Not surprisingly, Feldman said it all starts in the trenches for the Buckeyes if they want to beat Michigan. “They have to find a way to match Michigan’s physicality. And you know, look, they’re big and they should be able to do that. But for whatever reason, I feel like Michigan is built to beat Ohio State. And Ohio State is maybe built to try to beat Georgia,” Feldman began.

The Buckeyes have plenty of talent. There’s no question about that. Marvin Harrison, Jr. figures to be a top 5 overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. Emeka Egbuka hauled in over 1,000 receiving yards last season and figures to be one of the nation’s best yet again in 2023. There are plenty of others, plus an infusion of young, uber-talented wide receivers suiting up in the Scarlet and Gray this fall. Brian Hartline has built one of the nation’s preeminent wide receiver factories in Columbus.

“Yeah. And I just think with the receivers they have. They’re really dynamic. But they’re much better receivers than certainly Michigan has. But Michigan has a better offensive line and I think that’s the challenge for this team. But look, they [Ohio State] lost one first round tackle and another one who went really high in the draft. So, they’re breaking in two new tackles. And I think that’s gonna be interesting to see,” Feldman continued.

“Because they definitely have talent. We know we [Ohio State] have talent on defense. But they got drilled in the second half by Michigan last year. And it happened without Blake Corum, who was their best player. It happened actually with…Donovan Edwards was playing with a soft cast on his hand. He wasn’t 100 percent…”

The Michigan offensive line simply dominated Ohio State up front last year and wore them down completely in the second half. Donovan Edwards piled up a career-high 216 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. He’ll team up with Blake Corum to form what should be one of the nation’s top backfield tandems for the 2023 campaign.