The Ohio State lessons from Penn State, Texas and Clemson -- are there any?

Three of the preseason Top 4 teams already have two losses, and then there are the Buckeyes

Ohio State is one of 11 remaining undefeated major college football teams. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State)

COLUMBUS — The top six teams from the preseason AP college football poll have 10 losses. That’s three for Clemson, two each for Texas, Penn State and Notre Dame, and one for Georgia.

Ohio State has none, the Buckeyes one of the 11 remaining undefeated teams among the 68 power conference teams.

There’s a lesson in that Ohio State.

Hmm.

Yeah, definitely a lesson.

Wait. Is there?

Honestly, watching the preseason No. 1 Longhorns, No. 2 Nittany Lions and No. 4 Tigers self-immolate over the first six weeks of the season — with Texas and Penn State going up in flames Saturday while Clemson was already a pile of ash — feels like it has nothing to do with preseason No. 3 Ohio State.

It’s not that the Buckeyes are immune to unexpected losses or unmet expectations. But early-season struggles like this in the face of such hope … that is foreign territory at least in the last 20 years.

No jinxes here or knocking on wood. This is just another version of the never-ending discussion about Ohio State’s place as the most consistent program in college football, and arguably, North American sports.

From those lofty preseason perches, Texas, Penn State and Clemson are all currently unranked. They could climb back by the end of the year. But let’s look at the last 18 times Ohio State was ranked in the top 10 in the preseason.

Ohio State finished out of the top 10 in just one of those 18 seasons. And that was 2013, when the Buckeyes went through the regular season undefeated and then lost the Big Ten Championship Game to Michigan State and the Orange Bowl to Clemson to finished at No. 12.

The Buckeyes lost two regular-season games in just six of those 18 seasons, and they never lost three. Put that team at No. 3 in the preseason? That’s a good bet.

As for the rest of our contenders …

• Texas came in with the preseason Heisman favorite at quarterback in Arch Manning. Ohio State’s Julian Sayin wasn’t spoken of that way. By the QB rating numbers at cfbstats, Sayin is No. 3 in the country. Manning is No. 39.

• Penn State came in with Jim Knowles as a $3 million a year defensive coordinator who looked like the final piece for a title run. Ohio State’s Matt Patricia wasn’t spoken of that way. Knowles and that Penn State defense gave up 42 points and five touchdowns to UCLA on Saturday. Patricia and the Buckeyes have given up 25 points and two touchdowns all season.

• Clemson came in with two-time national championship head coach Dabo Swinney saying he thought the Tigers had a chance to be the first 16-0 team ever. Ohio State’s Ryan Day wasn’t speaking that way. Day on Saturday moved his record to 75-10, his winning percentage of .882 now the best in major college football history. Since Day took over full-time at Ohio State in 2019, Swinney has double the number of losses with 20.

What’s happening with these teams isn’t a one-time thing. It’s not just a bad week. There are cracks in the foundation at head coach, at coordinator, at quarterback, when these teams were viewed as potentially the best in the country.

As with everything, Ohio State’s four-game losing streak to Michigan enters the picture. Again, the Buckeyes aren’t infallible. But in their worst moments in a season, they have usually stopped the bleeding.

Kyle McCord in 2023 was their closest version of a QB failing, but they still were 11-0 and No. 3 in the country before losses to Michigan and to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl to end the season.

Kerry Coombs in 2021 as the defensive coordinator was their closest version of a coordinator failing, but Day made a change early in that season, and the Buckeyes still went 11-2 and finished No. 6.

Day losing to Michigan last season was their closest version of a head coach failing, but the Buckeyes bounced back from that with four straight wins to claim the national title.

They haven’t been this down, this early, this devastatingly.

The last time was in 2004, when the Buckeyes opened the season at No. 9, barely escaped Marshall in Week 2, and then lost three straight games to Northwestern, Wisconsin and Iowa.

What did the Buckeyes do? They started the transition to a quarterback in Troy Smith who would win the Heisman Trophy two years later; they managed to upset No. 7 Michigan in their biggest game of the season; and they built the foundation for the 2005 and 2006 teams that were as talented and competitive as any in the country.

Since that 2004 season, the Buckeyes have the highest winning percentage in major college football at 230-37.

Of those 37 losses:

• 15 were to teams ranked in the Top 5 at the time

• Another 11 were to teams ranked between No. 6 and No. 21

• 11 were to unranked teams, with the loss to Michigan in 2024 the only unranked loss of the last seven season

So I’m out on searching for things the Buckeyes could learn from what went wrong for Texas, Penn State and Clemson. But if their seasons continue to go south, maybe they could learn something from 2004 Ohio State.