Neither Chris Holtmann nor his players need to think long and hard about Ohio State being in this spot at in the recent past.
They just have to look back about 365 days.
A year ago, the Buckeyes were riding high, ending the calendar year of 2018 with a 12-1 record as they readied to fully immerse themselves in Big Ten play as the 14th-ranked team in the country. Right now, they’re ranked even higher at No. 5 due to a 11-2 record that featured a difficult non-conference slate with only a single loss.
For Ohio State, though, which is preparing for its first game of 2019 against Wisconsin on Friday, this feels quite a bit different than it did a year ago.