COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik, and Andrew Gillis sat down with Ohio State’s departing stars on the latest episode of Buckeye Talk, they asked a simple question: How would you define the 2025 season?
The answers were brutally honest.
“Not enough. We didn’t do enough. It wasn’t enough. We didn’t win it win. So, it doesn’t even matter. The season doesn’t even matter because we didn’t win. We didn’t accomplish anything. We all feel that way.”
— Arvell Reese
Let that sink in. A 12-2 season—with a win over Michigan, a perfect regular season, and a No. 2 playoff seed—and one of the team’s leaders is calling it meaningless. But here’s the thing: he’s not wrong.
On the podcast, Stefan Krajisnik dove deep into the psychology of Ohio State’s impossible standards.
“If life is just defined by wins and losses, like you’re never going to be happy… but for Ohio State and what they expected in 2025 season and what they showed they could do in the 2025 season to finish the way they did, it it was not a success. It was close to a failure and they’re they’re okay saying that.”
— Stefan Krajisnik
The hosts spent considerable time unpacking what makes this particular failure sting more than others. This wasn’t a team that overachieved and came up short. This was a roster that’s about to send four players in the top 10 of the NFL Draft—potentially five first-rounders total—that couldn’t get past the quarterfinals.
“We won a national championship the year before that, so to me it was a bust. It was back-to-back or bust. So, it wasn’t a good season if you ask me.”
— Davison Igbinosun
Back-to-back or bust. That’s the standard in Columbus.
The Buckeye Talk crew made a fascinating point about relative expectations. For most programs, 12 wins and a playoff berth would be a dream season. But Ohio State isn’t most programs. As Means pointed out on the pod, when you have a defense that “ethically” allowed only 14 points or fewer all season long, when you have that much NFL talent, the expectations can’t be relative to Oregon or Penn State or anyone else.
They’re relative to what Ohio State is capable of—and this roster was capable of winning it all.
What makes the failure sting even more is how it happened. The Buckeyes didn’t lose a heartbreaker in the national championship. They didn’t even make it to the semifinals. They lost to Indiana and Miami in consecutive weeks, never sniffing the title game despite dominating the regular season.
“There wasn’t really that gray area” with this season. Beat Michigan, check. Then immediately lost the next two games when it mattered most. The Gold Pants are great, but that’s not enough for a roster this talented.
— Stefan Krajisnik
The hosts will continue unpacking the 2025 season and its lessons as spring football rolls on. But one thing is crystal clear from this episode: when the players themselves are calling it a failure, fans don’t need to apologize for feeling the same way.
Here’s the podcast for this week: