During the 2025 season, Ohio State’s offense was led by a Heisman Trophy finalist at quarterback, a pair of All-Americans at receiver, and certainly had its moments in some games, but ultimately wasn’t good enough when it mattered.
After a solid regular season, in which it ranked in the top 25 nationally in both total offense and scoring offense, the Buckeyes stumbled in the postseason. Over its two postseason losses, Ohio State combined to score just 24 points.
Immediately following his team’s season-ending 24-14 loss to Miami, redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin admitted the offense was simply not good enough.
“Yeah, we just started executing better in the second half, but ultimately it wasn’t good enough,” Sayin said. “We didn’t put up enough points. It starts with me, and we’ve got to be better on offense from an execution standpoint… We’ve got to be better and put up more points than 14.”
Despite the poor finish to the season, Ohio State’s passing game was on point for pretty much the entire season. In his first season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback, Sayin threw for 3,610 yards, 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while completing 77 percent of his passes, the best mark in college football.
Sayin threw for at least 200 yards in 10 of Ohio State’s 14 games during the 2024-25 season, in large part because of the consistency of his wide receivers. The All-America duo of Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate combined for over 2,000 receiving yards and over 20 receiving touchdowns. The duo helped give the Buckeyes a chance in the postseason even when the offensive line was outmatched. In Ohio State’s 13-10 loss to Indiana in the Big Ten championship, Sayin threw a costly interception, but still finished the game with 258 passing yards, while completing 21 of 29 passes.
Despite coming off an injury late in the regular season, Smith had eight catches for 144 receiving yards in the loss to the Hoosiers. He followed that up with an even better performance against Miami. In the Buckeyes’ season-ending loss, Smith had seven receptions for 157 receiving yards and a touchdown.
The Buckeyes were truly let down in the postseason by their offensive line. A group that had only given up six sacks in the regular season was shockingly poor in pass protection during the postseason and gave up a combined 10 sacks in the losses to the Hoosiers and the Hurricanes.
Ohio State’s front was going against two of the better defensive lines in the country in the postseason, and after dealing with injuries to starters such as Austin Siereveld and Tegra Tshabola, was simply not up to the task.
Plagued by penalties and conceded sacks, Ohio State’s poor pass protection mainly negated any production it had through the air.
It didn’t help matters that the Buckeye running game was hardly reliable throughout the entirety of the season.
Despite the emergence of true freshman running back Bo Jackson, who became the fifth true freshman in program history to run for over 1,000 yards, Ohio State ranked just No. 53 in the country, averaging 171.5 rushing yards per game entering the postseason.
In midseason wins over Illinois and Wisconsin, the Buckeyes struggled on the ground. They went for 106 rushing yards against the Fighting Illini, before totalling just 98 rushing yards against the Badgers.
Those issues came up again in the Playoffs. Against both the Hoosiers and the Hurricanes, Ohio State running backs failed to rush for 100 yards and seldom made the explosive plays that former Buckeye running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins made during the 2024 team’s playoff run.
Ohio State’s tight ends may not have quite lived up to the lofty expectations many had for them entering the season, but they were still a solid part of the offense.
Klare, who earned first-team All-Big Ten honors, went for 448 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 43 catches.
As a receiver, former Ohio tight end Will Kacmarek wasn’t quite as productive as Klare, but he’s more well-known for his prowess as a blocker. Still, in his second year with the Buckeyes, Kacmarek went for 15 catches, 168 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns.
Final Grade: B-
