Ohio State Buckeyes Suffer Historic AP Poll Drop After USC Loss

The Ohio State Buckeyes’ run of 86 straight polls in the AP top 10 ended on Sunday, when a 30-18 loss at the USC Trojans dropped them from No. 2 to No. 11. They had last been outside the top 10 on Sept. 26, 2021.

Ohio State outgained USC by 126 yards at the Coliseum and held the ball for nearly 20 more minutes. It also committed 11 penalties and came away without a touchdown on four of its five trips inside the red zone.

“It’s extremely frustrating coming to a game like this with a young quarterback and not play cleaner than we did. Just too many penalties. I think we found ourselves down in those red zone situations. We just weren’t able to execute very well and play clean. And then the penalties were not good. And then when we got that one drive going, we fumbled on offense, turned that ball over … For Luke, he competed. It wasn’t perfect. We had some huge drops. We weren’t able to help him,” Ryan Day said in his postgame remarks.

Is Julian Sayin’s injury the whole story for Ohio State?

True freshman Luke Fahey was making his first road start because Julian Sayin hurt his throwing arm in the 19-15 win at the Indiana Hoosiers on Oct. 17. Day said on Oct. 20 that the Buckeyes plan to be without him through the postseason.

That absence accounts for a freshman under center on a tough road trip, and it accounts for only one of Ohio State’s recent losses. Saturday was the Buckeyes’ fourth loss in their last 10 games, a 6-4 stretch, and USC was the first game Sayin missed. He was the starter for the other three, including the 24-23 defeat at the Texas Longhorns in September.

Voters had little reason to go easy on them. USC was unranked at kickoff, and Ohio State was the only top-10 team to lose on Saturday. The No. 2 team has now lost three straight weeks for the first time since 2007.

The College Football Playoff committee releases its first rankings of the season on Tuesday, and the Buckeyes will go into that at 4-1 in the Big Ten. The Oregon Ducks (5-3) visit Ohio Stadium at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday on CBS, followed by the Northwestern Wildcats (6-2), a trip to the Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-3) and the Michigan Wolverines (5-3) on Nov. 28.

Sophomore Tavien St. Clair was also in line for first-team snaps during the bye week before Fahey got the start at USC. Day did not commit to either one when he announced Sayin’s status.

“We’re going to play the guy that gives us the best chance to win,” Day said that day.

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