Welcome to your Daily Buckeye Blitz. I’m your host, Joe from the Buckeye Cast. Always here for you when you need something. Not for fans of other teams like Georgia who cannot get out of the comments section. You guys won, please go enjoy it. Move along, man. I’m done talking about Ohio State and Georgia. That was two weeks ago.
Today’s show is Friday, January 13th, 2023. The Christmas tree is still standing and hopefully, we’ll water it to check that after this. Anyway, today’s topic. I know that I just said we’re not going to talk about the Georgia game, and we’re not. We’re not, but we are going to discuss a quick rehash of 2022, what was good, what was bad, and where we need to focus in 2023. From there, we’ll kind of focus on these improvements and needs going forward in Daily Buckeye Blitz shows. So stick with us, please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you’re listening on podcasts. Please jump over to the YouTube channel and just search for the Buckeye Cast. Please subscribe. We greatly appreciate it. And if you’re listening on the YouTube channel, hey, jump over to the podcast platform, subscribe there, and leave a review. That’d be helpful. I’d like to know what you guys think. And you can always email me. Nobody ever emails me anymore. I used to get a lot of communication, like especially emails from you guys, but it’s kind of quiet lately. Maybe people are just tired of football. Understandable. I don’t ever get tired of it. That’s why I do this show every freaking day.
All right, today’s topic, one of the most important off-seasons is this off-season in my opinion. And you could probably say that every year, but some more than others. We all remember leading up to the season, we’re excited. We’re like this is the year, no this is our chance to win the title. You know, we got the best team. We’re gonna have probably coming back, CJ Stroud, wide receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba Marvin Harrison Jr, after blowing up in the Rose Bowl, Emeka was pitching in. We had the pillars on the outside at the tackle positions, Dawand and Paris Johnson, returning starters. And of course, we had the running backs Miyan and TreVeyon, who made an awesome one-two punch, even without Evan Pryor with the injury. But, yeah, we didn’t live up to any expectations that we had going into the season. So, highlights, let’s talk about the offense.
One of the most explosive in the country, maybe the most explosive, second in the country at points per game, 44, ninth in the country in yards per game at 490. CJ threw for 3,688 yards, 41 touchdowns, only six interceptions. The Buckeyes had two receivers go over a thousand yards and 10 touchdowns both. And the running game obviously was an issue with injuries throughout the year. But that amount of firepower in yardage and points per game is a solid foundation, you know.
And on the defense, now they actually were a highlight. I know that they didn’t look great in the last two games of the year, but they showed vast improvement. They’re not a top-five defense yet. I don’t think they may not even become a top-five defense this coming season. I want them to, they need to. I need to see some more steps in the right direction, but they improved in points per game. They went from 31st in 2021 to 17th in 2022, allowing 21 points per game. That’s a vast improvement. In yards per game, they finished 12th this year with 321 and 0.5 yards per game. That was a huge improvement from 51st in 2021.
So, let’s talk about some of the low-lights as we leave off the defense. Run game, obviously, like I touched on, injuries, injuries, injuries. TreVeyon and Miyan, both of them were in and out of the lineup. TreVeyon’s injury seemed to run the entire season, then Miyan’s crept up around that Penn State game when it really became an issue.
And then the defense, the other low-light, and the big plays just contributed immensely to multiple to the two losses, really. I mean those big plays set us up for failure honestly, especially in the Michigan game. There’s no two ways about it. So, now what, where can we improve in 2023?
Number one, running game, we have to find a way to get the running game back on track. We have tons of dudes with experience, but we also have a young old line. We’re losing both tackles, we lost our center. Now we do have both of our interior guys returning, Matt Jones and Donovan Jackson, so that’s good, but we still haven’t landed a starting tackle out of the portal, that’s an issue. Depth at the O line has been an issue for a few years now, recruiting misses and just poor recruiting overall. We’ve got a bunch of dudes that are just warm bodies that have never made a step. They’ve been in the program three years and have not shown that they can get on the field.
So, who’s going to take the lead at running back, TreVeyon, Miyan? Offensive line, you know, this is going to be a work in progress for sure, and dividing up carries and stuff is going to be a challenge. Number two area of improvement on defense, got to focus on the big plays again. That hurt those killed us in 2022. Maybe it’s just making adjustments to the scheme or just getting better play out of the players. It’s always coaching, scheme, or the player. I think all areas need to be improved, and that falls right squarely on the shoulders of Jim Knowles. He has to make adjustments.
What else, develop depth. Injuries are part of football. Buckeyes were crushed by them in various positions, Corner, Running back, across the old line, Receiver obviously, when JSN can’t play the entire year, that’s a big problem. Marvin Harrison gets knocked out with a cheap shot in the Peach Bowl. In turn, we had to rely on inexperienced players playing key roles. Chip Trayanum a guy that was a linebacker a month prior was suddenly thrust into that Michigan game, and Dallan Hayden, true freshman. I like Dallan, I think he showed flashes of special running ability, but I didn’t understand the apprehension to use him. Seems like the coaches were afraid to use him.
So, anyways, back to the point, developing depth across the board, quality depth, and o-line like I mentioned has been an issue for years to get a solid 2D that you feel good about. So, those are the big concerns, areas of improvement, and kind of a recap of the 2022 season. Where we need to improve in 2023, it’s going to be exciting. I’m pumped to see who makes that step because this is going to be that year where you’re going to see a lot of guys who have been very, you know, second, third teamers are going to be thrust into those starting roles or at least pushing to start pushing the guys ahead of them. And you know who those will be, so.
We’ll break those down day by day as we get through this after season. Don’t forget, it’s an after season, there is no off season in Buckeye football. So, we’ll work our way up to the preseason. All right, thank you for joining me. I appreciate everybody, please like, subscribe, and tune in tomorrow and we’ll hit you again with some more Buckeye football. Go Bucks!