This Ohio State-Indiana rematch will be played somewhat in the shadow of the players gone from last year

There were 19 NFL Draft picks in last year’s Big Ten Championship Game, and the Buckeyes and Hoosiers are still finding their way without them.

Ohio State defensive end Caden Curry is among the players missed from last year’s Ohio State-Indiana matchup. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State football)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State and Indiana aren’t the same teams that played in the Big Ten Championship last season, obviously, and that message has been clearly inserted into Ohio State’s talking points this week.

OSU cornerback Devin Sanchez went out of his way to say that in an answer to a question Wednesday night that was only tangentially about last year’s loss.

“It's a completely different team, not the same team as last year, different quarterback, different receivers,” Sanchez said.

These teams aren’t actually completely different. They’re half different.

Looking at the players who took part in at least 25 percent of the snaps in this matchup last year, Ohio State had 26 of those players and Indiana had 29.

Thirteen of those Buckeyes should play Saturday, and 13 of those Hoosiers should play Saturday.

Among the 22 starters from each team last year, Ohio State should have nine of those players starting Saturday and Indiana should have 11. The Buckeyes would have 10 if starting offensive lineman Austin Siereveld wasn’t out for Saturday with an illness.

In some ways, though, these teams are still defined by who they’ve had to replace this season. The Buckeyes lost 11 players to the NFL Draft, including eight picked in the first three rounds. The Hoosiers lost eight players to the draft, including four taken in the first three rounds.

Last season, the Buckeyes and Hoosiers also met when they were fully formed, with the regular season behind them. They were a combined 24-0, the only undefeated teams in the nation and ranked at the top of the polls. As we mentioned on Wednesday’s show, the stats for Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover right now are similar to where Fernando Mendoza was statistically last year through six games. But by the end of the season, Mendoza was on his way to the Heisman Trophy.

Hoover may have a similar second half of this regular season. But right now, with the Buckeyes taking a loss and the Hoosiers escaping one-score wins over Northwestern and Nebraska, both programs are still finding themselves. And they’re still making up for talent that went out the door.

So reminding ourselves of what these teams were last season, and addressing how they’ve replaced who left, isn’t a bad way to analyze Saturday’s matchup.