Joel Klatt addresses Ohio State's ranking in Way-Too-Early Top-10

Despite losing much of their title-winning team, Joel Klatt still sees multiple reasons, namely two, that’ll keep Ohio State as a top-five team in 2025.

Klatt spoke about having the Buckeyes ranked at No. 3 in his Way-Too-Early Top-25 on his show following the end of the season. He knows they’ll be losing a lot from the team that just won the national championship but also knows that they’ll still have who he considers to be the two best players on each side in all of college football among their returning members.

“The national champs will look a lot different next year. There’s no doubt. But they’re still going to be an elite team and they’ve still got two players specifically that I think could be the two best players on each side of the ball in the sport,” said Klatt. “I think that they’ve got the best defender in the sport next year in Caleb Downs and I think they’ve got the best offensive player in the sport in Jeremiah Smith. Hard to take a huge step back when you’ve got the best player in the sport on each side of the ball.”

Klatt began his assessment with the defense led now by Downs. Again, many players from that unit will now be moving on after coming back for one more season where they were the top scoring defense in the country. It’s now a question of how they build it back up with some less-experienced names as well as a new defensive coordinator.

“The defense, however, around Downs is going to look dramatically different,” said Klatt.” Now, they were able to play a lot of depth so Downs will have guys that have seen the field – but certainly weren’t starters.”

“They have to rebuild up front on the defensive line, which was a huge strength for them this last season, and Downs is going to have to break in some new safeties around him,” Klatt explained. “Part of the reason that they were so good defensively is that they had so much experience around Downs with Ransom and Hancock out there at safeties that they were able to manipulate their structure at times to allow Downs to be the free player near the line of scrimmage. That was huge for their defensive structure and overall philosophy. Are they going to have that? Probably not, at least early in the year. So that’s something to at least pay attention to.”

Then, as for the offense led by Smith, Klatt simply said they just have to get him the ball. Regardless of the new quarterback or the other names around him, Smith being involved is necessary to keep them moving – especially now that they need a new offensive coordinator too.

“Listen. Every single game and every game plan every week next year has to go through Jeremiah Smith. Has to. They cannot go through periods of the game where he disappears. They cannot do that because they’re not going to be quite as dynamic around Smith as what they were this last year with experienced players like Henderson and Judkins and Emeka Egbuka,” Klatt said. “Now, they’re going to be very good players. I’m not saying that these are substantial steps down. But it has to go through Smith – not just for his production, which is going to have to be there, but also his impact on the defense. You’ve got to use Jeremiah Smith to impact the defense in order to open up other areas for all of those less experienced players on the outside.”

Still, while Downs and Smith are clearly the two best players on the team, Ohio State is at No. 3 for Klatt because that roster, with many noting the overall cost of it, didn’t lose every single player on it.

“I know a lot of guys are walking out the door but they’re walking out of a building that’s loaded with talent,” said Klatt. “It was the best roster in college football and not every one of those pieces is walking out the door.”

Ohio State will not be as great as they were last season if for no other reason than the attrition from a top roster that they built over years and which eventually won it all. That doesn’t mean they won’t be more than okay next season, though, with who all is still staying in Columbus.

“Like, they’re going to be fine, folks,” Klatt said.