Can Ohio State win with defense again in the modern Big Ten?

That is not just good enough to complement an offense. That is foundational dominance, and it came in the same modern landscape people keep insisting has made elite defense impossible.

What “winning with defense” actually means now

The phrase “winning with defense” is often misunderstood because it evokes a conservative, clock-choking brand of football that no longer projects cleanly onto the sport’s best teams.

Modern elite defense is not about dragging everything into the mud, it is about compressing efficiency, stealing space, and eliminating explosives so that even good offenses are forced to drive the field with patience.

Ohio State’s 2025 defense embodied that. It did not lead the nation in havoc rate or takeaways, which Ryan Day himself acknowledged as an area where the Buckeyes still wanted more, but it consistently kept opponents behind schedule, suffocated explosive plays, and made scoring drives feel expensive and methodical.

In a sport driven by chunk gains and red-zone efficiency, that is a modern winning formula.

That distinction matters when projecting forward to the 2026 season. Ohio State does not need to recreate last year’s defense play-for-play to remain a program that can win with defense. It needs to preserve the traits that travel best across eras and across conferences. Coverage adaptability, structural soundness, red-zone discipline, and front-to-back communication.

Patricia’s success was not just built on elite rankings or recruiting, but on limiting successful plays and pairing scheme with talent. That kind of system is more sustainable than one built purely on talent, takeaways and variance.

Ohio State does not need a time machine to keep winning with defense. It needs continuity in the principles that still beat modern offense.

The modern Big Ten, the blueprint, and the reality

The modern Big Ten, however, makes that job harder, and even more valuable. The conference still features physical line of scrimmage football, but it now includes offenses designed to spread the field, attack matchups, and stress defenses horizontally and vertically.

That makes versatility critical. A defense that can handle both power football and modern spread concepts is more important now because there are more offensive archetypes to face on the path to a championship. Ohio State’s defensive identity has worked because it has not been tied to one style.

It has been built to answer multiple problems within one structure.

The challenge entering 2026 is turnover. The Buckeyes lost key pieces like Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, Arvell Reese, and Kayden McDonald and that makes any assumption of repeat dominance unrealistic. But the portal era changes that equation.

Ohio State can now replace experience with experience, not just potential. By adding transfers across the depth chart, the Buckeyes can maintain maturity even while replacing star power. The modern game cuts both ways. Offenses have evolved, but so has roster construction.

There is also a schematic reason to believe the answer is still yes. Patricia’s system appears built to adapt rather than stay rigid. Spring reports emphasized flexibility, experimentation with personnel groupings, and a willingness to tailor the scheme to the roster.

That matters in a conference where the offensive challenges vary week to week. The best defenses now are not static, they are very dynamic. Ohio State showed that understanding in 2025, and the next step is proving it can replicate that adaptability with a new group.

At the same time, the burden on the defense is different. Ohio State does not need its defense to carry a limited offense. It needs it to elevate one.

With talent like Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith, the Buckeyes simply need a defense that can control games, preserve field position, and prevent momentum swings. “Winning with defense” in 2026 is not about low-scoring games every week. It is about having a unit reliable enough to stabilize everything else.

The real risk is not whether Ohio State can win with defense. It is whether it can replicate dominance. The 2025 unit was historically good, allowing fewer points and yards than any FBS defense in over a decade. Expecting that level again, especially with roster turnover, is unrealistic.

The more reasonable expectation is that Ohio State remains strong enough defensively for that to be the most dependable part of the team in its biggest moments.

That is ultimately the answer. Yes, Ohio State can still win with defense in the modern Big Ten, because modern defense is not about nostalgia. It is about adaptability, structure, and eliminating what matters most.

The Buckeyes have already proven that formula works. Now they just have to prove it is sustainable.