Ohio State Football: Breaking Down Expectations for Urban Meyer's First Season

Urban Meyer's first season as the head coach at Ohio State is among the most highly anticipated seasons in modern Buckeye football history.

The Buckeyes won't play in a bowl game this season due to NCAA sanctions, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot on the line.

Meyer can position this team for the national title run some fans think this team can have in 2013.

Here is a look at some of those expectations.

A Vastly Improved Offense

To say that OSU's offense was porous and abysmal last season is an understatement.

The Buckeyes offense—especially in the passing game—was utterly atrocious, and it got worse and worse as the year went on.

The entire offensive coaching staff was overhauled, led by the appointment of new offensive coordinator Tom Herman.

With a group of young players growing another year, including quarterback Braxton Miller, there is no reason to think that this offense won't take several steps forward in productivity.

Better Offensive Line Play

As bad as the offense was last year, the offensive line was even worse than that.

With three seniors on the line, Jim Bollman's last offensive line looked worse every single game and like a group that had issues protecting their quarterbacks.

New offensive line coach Ed Warriner has been hard at work trying to overhaul this group, and overhaul he has. His two returning starters—Jack Mewhort and Corey Linsley—are playing different positions than they were last year.

The improvement up front will be as big a key to the improvement of the offense as a whole.

Defense Creates Tremendous Pressure, Turnovers

Last year's Ohio State defense really resembled that which Florida demolished in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game: passive, slow and non-instinctive.

Luke Fickell is returning to the defensive coordinator position. With him is Mike Vrabel, North Carolina defensive coordinator Everett Withers and Cincinnati defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs. There's no reason to think the defense won't climb back to where it used to be.

This group should be able to get back to playing downhill defense, especially with a greater emphasis on generating a consistent pass rush with just four.

Freshmen Noah Spence and Adolphus Washington could be major contributors this year, but different coaching styles and an aggressive mindset should focus on the Buckeyes getting big turnovers on defense.

9-10 Wins Is Very Reasonable

When you look at Ohio State's schedule, there are only a handful of games that should be toss-ups, including road games at Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin.

Home games against Nebraska and Michigan are very difficult challenges as well. As far as non-conference games go, only Cal should give Ohio State some difficulty.

At worst, Ohio State should be able to go 8-4 on the season.

Nine or 10 wins is certainly in the realm of possibility because Meyer will keep trying to push his players' buttons and to make sure they won't let up.

Their road schedule this year is just so tough that it's going to be tough for OSU to get anything more than 10 wins.

Beat Michigan

Michigan beat Ohio State for the first time in eight years last November, and the mindset of some Ohio State fans is that not only will the Buckeyes get revenge in Columbus, but that they will run up the score as well.

Now it should be the expectation at Ohio State to beat Michigan every single season as it is the opposite way in Ann Arbor.

It's never realistic to expect Ohio State to beat Michigan by 40-50 points this year, especially with the Wolverines looking to be much better defensively than they were last season.

But the Buckeyes certainly look like the early favorite to beat Michigan at home, especially since it is their bowl game this season.

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