How Ohio State opponents are being called for holding compared to 2024
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During the 2024 regular season, Ohio State football had just one opponent flagged for an offensive holding call that ended up being enforced. This season, the trend of opposing offensive lines not drawing calls continued.
Through the Buckeyes’ 13 games ahead of the 2025 College Football Playoff, two offensive holding penalties by the opponent were enforced. On the flip side, the Buckeyes‘ offensive line was hit with holding calls six times.
Holding in the NCAA rulebook prohibits the use of hands or arms to: “grasp, pull, hook, clamp or encircle in any way that illegally impedes or illegally obstructs an opponent.”
Texas offensive lineman DJ Campbell was flagged for a holding infraction against Ohio State’s defense line in the third quarter of the season opener on Aug. 30. It took until Dec. 6 for the second to be enforced, when a holding call against Indiana’s Bray Lynch was accepted during the Big Ten title game.
Michigan was the only other Ohio State opponent to draw a holding call, but the Buckeyes declined the penalty.
Once the Buckeyes entered last season’s College Football Playoff, Notre Dame recorded two holding penalties on the same drive in the CFP championship game.
Ohio State’s lack of opponent holding calls follows the trend of Big Ten schools having fewer penalties called, both for and against.
The Buckeyes rank 131 out of 136 nationally in opponents’ penalties with 50, and seven of the 10 schools with the fewest opponent penalties are from the Big Ten. At the same time, seven of the 10 least penalized teams in the FBS, measured both by penalties and penalty yards per game, are from the Big Ten.
OSU’s Big Ten championship foe, Indiana, had its opponents penalized for just five holding calls this season. (An additional penalty against Oregon was called but declined.)
As for Ohio State’s potential Cotton Bowl matchups? Miami’s opponents were flagged for holding six times this year and Texas A&M’s were whistled nine such times.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football continues to see limited opponent holding calls
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