Can Ohio State's defense be No. 1 again?

What history tells us about top defenses losing coordinators and NFL Draft talent

Matt Patricia takes over an Ohio State defense that ranked No. 1 last year.

COLUMBUS — Ohio State wants to be the first team in program history to win back-to-back national championships. It’s a lofty goal, but not pie-in-the-sky unattainable, as Georgia just showed us by winning titles in 2021 and 2022.

Among the questions that the Buckeyes must answer in pursuit of that goal is whether or not a defense that lost eight players to the NFL Draft and its coordinator can be championship-level again in 2025.

A reminder of how good Ohio State’s defense was last year: It finished No. 1 in SP+, FEI (drive efficiency), points per game allowed and yards per play allowed. It was the first defense to finish No. 1 in all four categories since Alabama in 2016.

In looking for trends common among national championship winners over the last 20 years, it was revealed that 17 of the last 20 finished top 10 in the country in defensive SP+, the efficiency metric developed by ESPN’s Bill Connelly. Twelve finished in the top five. Seven, including Ohio State last year, finished No. 1.

There is a slightly stronger correlation between great defense and winning a championship than there is between great offense and winning a championship. Seven teams have won national titles in the last 20 years with an offense that ranked outside the top 10 in SP+, as opposed to only three that ranked outside the top 10 on defense.

So what does history tell us about Ohio State’s ability to remain great on defense in light of personnel departures and a switch at coordinator from Jim Knowles to Matt Patricia?