This year’s Ohio State Buckeyes are the Greg Maddux of college football

Whether it’s the silly strength-of-schedule argument or the idea that Ohio State hasn’t played an aesthetically pleasing brand of football this fall, haters around the country have been trying to downplay the Buckeyes’ dominance for weeks. They’ve tried to argue that since Ohio State has blown out all of its opponents and hasn’t been in a close game since the season opener, they aren’t actually good because they haven’t been pushed.

Now, you and I both know that’s all a bunch of poppycock. While SEC apologists will do whatever they can to downplay the successes of any team outside their sacred footprint, advanced analytics don’t lie. The Buckeyes are the best team in the country, and it’s not especially close; in fact, the only competition truly even close is the other undefeated Big Ten team, the No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers.

Whether it is the gold standard of college football ratings systems, SP+, or the most respected single advanced analytics stat in college football, Adj. EPA/Play (Adjusted Extra Points Anticipated per Play), Ohio State is clearly head and shoulders above the pack.

SP+ has the Buckeyes as the No. 1 team in the country with the No. 6 offense and No. 1 defense. With a score of 32.4, the model from ESPN’s Bill Connolley has the Buckeyes nearly 10% better than No. 2 Indiana, which has a score of 29.9. That’s the kind of separation you’d expect to see between tiers of teams, not between No. 1 and No. 2.

According to Adj. EPA/Play, which measures how much each play increases or decreases a team’s chance of scoring, and is adjusted for both quality of opponent and garbage time, the Buckeyes average +0.38 points per play, while No. 2 Oregon is at only +0.25. That means that there is as big a gap between Ohio State and the second most efficient team in college football as there is between the Ducks and the 22nd most efficient team in college football.

I guess if I were rooting for a conference (also, who roots for a conference rather than their specific team?) clearly falling behind now that everyone is legally allowed to pay players, I would try to downplay unbiased analytics and hype up idiotic propaganda about needing to be trailing in the fourth quarter just to prove how good you are, too. Maybe, and hear me out, the reason no one has challenged Ohio State in college football this season is that no one in college football is able to challenge Ohio State this season.

As I was watching a powered-down Ohio State demolish Rutgers last weekend while playing without its top two offensive playmakers, having stopped showing anything creative for three weeks, getting by on talent and technique alone, and saving everything that makes them special for their rivals, I realized that the reason people couldn’t truly appreciate the precision with which the Buckeyes have operated this season is the same reason that baseball fans a generation ago were often underwhelmed by watching Greg Maddux pitch.

Maddux wasn’t the best pitcher of his era because his stuff simply overwhelmed opponents; he dominated hitters for over two decades because his attention to detail eliminated nearly every imaginable margin for error. Perhaps the Buckeyes don’t have the most overwhelming fastball in college football (I would argue that they do, but they just haven’t had to show it that yet), but neither did Maddux. Maybe Ohio State’s dominance has been more methodical than eye-popping, but the same can be said for the man nicknamed The Professor. Perhaps OSU’s style of play this season is more meticulous than sexy, but as Maddux understood decades ago, “Chicks dig the long ball.”

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has said this season that the Buckeyes will step on the gas when the time is right, and I have a feeling he was talking about today’s game against That Team Up North. Similarly, Maddux could pull out a 95 mph fastball when he needed to, but his precision and execution were just so elite that it often was unnecessary.

The Atlanta Braves’ great could dominate opponents with pinpoint accuracy and his preternatural ability to put the ball exactly where it needed to be. Similarly, Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin is leading the country with a staggering 79.4% completion percentage (honestly disappointed that it’s dropped below 80%), 5.1% better than anyone in the FBS. But the real Madduxian brilliance shows up on defense — a unit giving up just 7.64 points per game, on the verge of a historic regular-season showing.

The 2025-26 Buckeyes are the thinking man’s college football team. Completion percentage and points allowed aren’t exactly the first stats that people go to when salivating over historically great teams, but they are what have made this Buckeye squad stand out from the college football also-rans. We all know that the Buckeyes’ roster is stacked with elite athletes on both sides of the ball — from Jeremiah Smith to Caleb Downs, from Sonny Styles to Bo Jackson — but their success has been built on far more than just physical gifts.

The defense has made a monumental leap (despite being atop CFB last season) with the arrival of Matt Patricia. He has elevated not only the schemes that the Silver Bullets employ, but also their mindset. While under Jim Knowles, the defense was stout, they had a boom-or-bust strain that would often see them get caught being overly aggressive in the worst possible moments.

While this year’s defense is just as aggressive, it is far more fastidious, and that shift in mindset shows up everywhere you look. The Buckeyes have given up the fewest plays of 10 yards or more in college football this season, as well as the fewest of 20+, 30+, 40+, 70+, 80+, and 90+ yards (they are second in both 50+ and 60+). This defense is suffocating; it leads the FBS in opponents’ red zone conversions (63.16%), is fourth in third down conversions allowed (28.57%), and has given up the fewest first downs in college football this season.

Simply put, the Silver Bullets are Maddux-level dominant.

On offense, the Buckeyes are incredibly efficient, and were statistically even more so before they began letting players like Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith, C.J. Donaldson, and Quincy Porter rest and heal up for the trip to Ann Arbor. They lead the country in EPA per dropback and are first in passing success rate percentage (58.5%) by 4.4%, a larger distance between first and second than between second and sixth.

While the running game is just recently finding its footing (5.67 yards per carry against admittedly poor defenses over the last three weeks), as a whole, the Buckeye offense is Maddux-level efficient.

So while everybody outside of Buckeye Nation might not yet be enamored by Ohio State’s style of play, anyone with a passing understanding of the game and its metrics realizes that what this team is doing this season is remarkable, and now that the postseason has begun, it’s time to take the restrictor plate and put the pedal to the metal. If you thought last year’s postseason run was impressive, wait until Day and company combine Nolan Ryan talent and ability with Greg Maddux execution and efficiency as they head into Ann Arbor to break a streak and continue building a dynasty the 1990s Braves could only dream about.