Ohio State has everything going for it at the moment. The Buckeyes are No. 1 with a 9-0 record, and there are hardly any weaknesses. However, going back-to-back doesn’t happen that easily. Nick Saban won six national championships with the Tide, but Alabama only won them consecutively once. So, he knows a thing or two about it.

On the November 14th episode of Pat McAfee Show Live on ESPN, McAfee asked Nick Saban about the different perspectives on Ohio State. For instance, analysts like Desmond Howard have criticized their easy schedule, while others have noted that the Buckeyes haven’t had close games, and that may come to bite them in the playoffs.  

Saban started his answer while acknowledging Ohio State’s dominance. “They’re only giving up seven points a game defensively, and they score a whole bunch of points. They’ve got good receivers, and the quarterback has played well.” The two stars of the offense, Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith, live up to their hype every week. The QB1 has an 80.9% completion rate, passing for 2,491 yards and 24 touchdowns. On the other hand, Smith has 65 receptions for 862 yards for 10 TDs.

On the other hand, the former coach also pointed out some things that Ohio State needs to do better. “They don’t run the ball great if they have a flaw. But at the same time, I always wanted our teams to be tested. I always wanted to play against good teams because I wanted to see what the competitive spirit of our team really was, what the mental toughness was, and how we could overcome adversity.”

Even Ryan Day has noted that the run game has to be better. There will be games where the opposing defense will try to make the Buckeyes’ offense one-dimensional. That’s what Michigan did last year. You don’t want your run game to be at the forefront without any experience of leading the attack.

Saban then warned Ryan Day that the fans will be frustrated if they dominate everyone and struggle in tight game situations. “When you dominate everybody, then you get into a tight game. People start getting frustrated because they’re not dominating. You’ve got to win. You know, I mean, you can’t get frustrated just because you’re not dominating the game.”

Some wins will be ugly, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Fortunately for Day, his team has dismantled everyone they have faced. The only challenge, in hindsight, was Texas, which the Buckeyes won 14-7. With all being said, Nick Saban thinks that “Ohio State has a good team.”

Ohio State’s strength of schedule

The Buckeyes are left with three games in their regular schedule, where they’ll face the UCLA Bruins this Saturday, followed by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Michigan Wolverines. The Wolverines are the only ranked team left on the schedule. They are ranked 18th with a 7-2 (5-1 in the B1G) record. This makes them the Buckeyes’ second ranked team in the season.

And comparisons have been drawn to other teams that went undefeated. For instance, Josh Pate talked about Oregon’s 2024 season. “Ohio State holds all the cards right now, because, if they are as good as they look, then it’s them and then it’s everybody else,” Pate said. “If there are flaws, kind of like Oregon last year? Oregon went wire-to-wire. Then they randomly get blown out in their first playoff game, and then you’re like, ‘Wow, undefeated, number one overall seed, I guess we just didn’t know what we didn’t know.’ If that remotely ends up being the case with Ohio State, we go from one North Star and everyone else to literally 10 teams that could win this whole thing.”

However, unlike Oregon, the Buckeyes haven’t played as many close games in the regular season. For now, it looks like their first real challenge may come in the Big 10 championship game.