woofermazing said:

Catfish Biffs. Oh wait...

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Oh man, hookup central in south campus. Pizza never tasted so good at 2am and if you struck out on High Street, you got a chance at redemption at Biff's (and were guaranteed the best dunk pizza known to Columbus).

I plucked a few posts from the Matt Patricia thread:

pnuts34 said:

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OregonBuckeye said:

The trade-off was always allowing the players to play faster by not thinking as much in a simpler scheme vs a complex scheme that slows down their reaction time and possibly leads to blown assignments. Patricia has done an excellent job of teaching them so we're seeing the best of both options

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RugbyBuck said:

"I'm glad it was the right culture fit because Patricia is a defensive genius."

And he's a genius who fits the culture because unlike FrankenKnowles, he would never refer to himself as a genius and/or mad scientist.

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buckeyeintn said:

As much as he's done with the X's and O's, I don't think you can ignore the value of his relationships and interactions with players and other coaches. He's always hugging and encouraging others, offense, defense, or Coach Day. Him hugging Day and talking to him after the game, it appeared a lot of Patricia's joy was for Day. Him hugging KMAC and telling him, "Celebrate with me," when it appeared KMAC was almost overcome with emotion, and at least a dozen other examples. He's been a tremendous addition to the program, well beyond drawing up game plans.

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Just sayin': I know some may disagree) however, I do think that Arthur Smith has proven to be a very competent OC at the NFL level. He also needs to be the right "culture fit". The questions are: Can he adapt his coaching style to fit the college game? Can he come off as "genuine" and get the college players to "buy in" on what he is coaching/teaching? Does he teach in an effective manner so every player thoroughly understand where he fits into the overall scheme? Does he genuinely value the personnel relationships with the players? If the answer is "yes' to these questions; I believe he will be a very successful coordinator at Ohio State too.

Just sayin': Here is an excellent 11W article explaining how Ohio State is apparently following what Indiana and Miami had done in building an "older" roster. Ohio State is currently positioned to field an older (i.e. more experienced) team in 2026. Needless to say, like it or not, with NIL and the transfer portal this is what college football has become.

Ohio State Following Formula Presented by Indiana, Miami In Building Older Roster Through Transfer Portal​

A lot of average age numbers were floated about Indiana’s 2025 football roster during and after the Hoosiers’ run to a national championship.

In truth, those figures can only be estimates. College football teams don’t hand out birthdates for their players. ESPN claimed during its College Football Playoff national championship broadcast (and Cam Newton claimed during his podcast) that the average age of Indiana's starting lineup was 23 years old. Google's AI, Gemini (not as reliable as you think, trust me), claims the same. Other... sources? Claimed it to be 24.

To be 23 years old playing college football means being a sixth-year player who was 18 years old as a true freshman, as the majority of college freshmen are in the fall. But if you're generous and say every freshman started at 19, that makes the average man in Indiana's starting lineup a fifth-year senior in terms of experience. 14 of the Hoosiers' 22 starters were fourth-year players or younger. The math is not mathing.

2025 Indiana Starters
Exaggerated age figures aside, the level of experience consistent throughout Curt Cignetti's national championship-winning roster is undeniable. Seventeen of his 22 starters were in their fourth year or later of college football. They started one sophomore on offense and two on defense, then the rest were juniors or older. And more than half of them arrived in Bloomington, Indiana, through the transfer portal. That included redshirt junior Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, an import from Cal.

That last fact is also true of Miami, the team Indiana played in the College Football Playoff national championship and the only team outside the Hoosiers to beat Ohio State in 2025. The Hurricanes’ roster was built out of a majority of portal acquisitions, and 15 of their 22 starters were fourth or fifth-year players.

Call them mercenaries, sulk about the current state of affairs in a college football landscape with yearly unrestricted free agency for each of its players, but it’s reality. This is quickly becoming the way to win in this sport. Program-developed recruits have their place, but less of one than ever before. Get the proven portal players or play from behind the rest of the country.

It’s become clear from the movement to and from Ohio State in this transfer portal cycle that Ryan Day is not ignorant of this fact. Oxymoronically, the Buckeyes are modernizing by going older. The new pieces going out and coming in are skewing the average age of their team higher – even if the exact figures can’t be known. Let’s break it down.

An Exodus of Youth​

Was it the exact plan for Ohio State to shed no less than nine members of its 2025 freshman class after that group was on campus for less than a calendar year? Or for the Buckeyes to lose another 11 class of 2024 representatives as part of a 31-player flood from Columbus to the portal? Not those exact numbers, no. But the general trend, yes.

It happened everywhere during the portal’s 15-day window from Jan. 2 through Jan. 16. Alabama saw 21 players enter the portal, Texas had 25, notoriously huge NIL spender Oregon had 28 and Oklahoma had 27. These are all blueblood schools retaining their head coaches in 2026. Wonder what it’s like for a have-not undergoing a regime change? The now-Mike Gundy less Oklahoma State had 64 players portal out and has 54 commitments from the portal so far.

The harsh fact is, roster space needed to be cleared, and many of the players leaving the confines of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center weren’t going to contribute to Ohio State’s 2026 football team, and in many cases, weren’t ever going to contribute to any Ohio State football team. Not in games, at least. There are exceptions to that rule that hurt.

Five-star class of 2025 wide receiver Quincy Porter (Notre Dame) topped the list and the two top-100 2024 Ohio State prospects at cornerback, Bryce West (Wisconsin) and Aaron Scott Jr. (Oregon), had legitimate shots at playing time in 2026. So too did 2025 class member and defensive tackle Jarquez Carter (Miami) and rising third-year wide receiver Mylan Graham (Notre Dame).

Was it the exact plan for Ohio State to shed no less than nine members of its 2025 freshman class after that group was on campus for less than a calendar year? Or for the Buckeyes to lose another 11 class of 2024 representatives as part of a 31-player flood from Columbus to the portal? Not those exact numbers, no. But the general trend, yes.

It happened everywhere during the portal’s 15-day window from Jan. 2 through Jan. 16. Alabama saw 21 players enter the portal, Texas had 25, notoriously huge NIL spender Oregon had 28 and Oklahoma had 27. These are all blueblood schools retaining their head coaches in 2026. Wonder what it’s like for a have-not undergoing a regime change? The now-Mike Gundy less Oklahoma State had 64 players portal out and has 54 commitments from the portal so far.

The harsh fact is, roster space needed to be cleared, and many of the players leaving the confines of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center weren’t going to contribute to Ohio State’s 2026 football team, and in many cases, weren’t ever going to contribute to any Ohio State football team. Not in games, at least. There are exceptions to that rule that hurt.

Five-star class of 2025 wide receiver Quincy Porter (Notre Dame) topped the list and the two top-100 2024 Ohio State prospects at cornerback, Bryce West (Wisconsin) and Aaron Scott Jr. (Oregon), had legitimate shots at playing time in 2026. So too did 2025 class member and defensive tackle Jarquez Carter (Miami) and rising third-year wide receiver Mylan Graham (Notre Dame).

Those types of talents hurt to lose. At the same time, there needs to be a constant drive to win now for Ohio State, and a matter of resource allocation. Proper resource allocation toward retention of a pile of seniors and big transfer portal acquisitions like Caleb Downs, Seth McLaughlin, Quinshon Judkins and Will Howard led Ohio State to a national championship in 2024. The Buckeyes were ahead of the times in dedicating NIL dollars to roster retention. Now, the times call to allocate resources away from young, and perhaps more unknown, players (which other teams might be tampering to poach) and spend those funds on veterans with known value to achieve the best result possible seven months later.

And until guardrails are put in place to contain some of this chaos, that’s how the top teams in college football will be built. All-in pushes on portal veterans to win now. There is no longer the time or resources or patience from players and their agents for programs to build over multiple years.

An Influx of Experience​

Ohio State shed 20 players who just completed their first or second season in 2025 during this past portal window. The Buckeyes have added back 17 players since, and in the true mold of Indiana and Miami, 15 are fourth or fifth-year players. Only one portal signee, rising sophomore cornerback Dominick Kelly (Georgia), is an underclassman.

The targeted goal of building with experience is exemplified on the defensive side of the football. There’s a chance that a majority of the starters on Ohio State’s defense are redshirt juniors or seniors acquired via the portal. Safeties Terry Moore (Duke) and Earl Little Jr. (Florida State) and defensive tackle John Walker (UCF) are shoo-ins for starting jobs, while linebacker Christian Alliegro (Wisconsin), defensive tackles James Smith (Alabama) and defensive end Qua Russaw (Alabama) will have solid chances to win them in position battles.

Tight ends Mason Williams (Ohio) and Hunter Welcing (Northwestern) will bolster the top of the team’s depth chart at the position as a redshirt junior and redshirt senior, respectively. One of fourth-year wide receivers Kyle Parker (LSU) and Devin McCuin (UTSA) is likely to start alongside Jeremiah Smith and Brandon Inniss out wide, unless they are both overtaken by incoming five-star freshman Chris Henry Jr.

Even on special teams, core contributors will be grizzled veterans of other programs. Redshirt senior Dalton Riggs (UCF) is Ohio State’s new long snapper. Redshirt sophomore kicker Connor Hawkins joins Kelly as the Buckeyes’ only other transfer with less than three years of seasoning, and he gained plenty of experience as a redshirt freshman at Baylor in 2025, going 18-of-22 (81.8%) on field goals with a long of 54 yards.
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Ohio State is doing its best to modernize by getting older as Ryan Day enters his eighth season at the helm. 135 other FBS programs are doing the same. The portal has reshaped how contenders will rise and fall in the sport. Indiana is proof. One great class can win a natty. One bad class can blow up in catastrophic ways. But the Buckeyes chose to adapt rather than let any chances of a championship die in January, and hope their most one-year-mercenary-laden roster of the Day era takes them to the places they want to go.

Zurp said:

I agree, but are you referring to something specific?

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The patch approval. Greed is pervasive in every facet of life these days

colobuck79 said:

If it is, it would be awesome if Smith held a press conference to say he was improperly contacted by xyz university and play a recording of the phone call.

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It'd be funny as hell if he did it Miami as you know they tried the last 2 years but it's better for kids not to burn agents as it's not in their interest

colobuck79 said:

Agreed. I had Rome fatigue after a few years but he is much more listenable now.

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“Rack’em”

What the hell, why not?

I'll let Yahbot draft another pack of slappys and cut three All Stars in the first week.

It's a rite of spring

Won 6 out of 7 and beat Tampa 8-5 tonight....

Remember When: Ohio State Shuts Out USC, 33-0, For Its First-Ever West Coast Win​

“It was, to an Ohio stater, one of the most remarkable and soul-satisfying games a scarlet eleven ever has played.”– Columbus Dispatch sports editor Russ Needham on Ohio State’s 33-0 win over USC in 1941

Traveling to the West Coast has become an annual part of the Ohio State football season since the latest round of Big Ten expansion, but it used to be a far more rare occurrence.

When Ohio State traveled to Southern California for the second game of the 1941 season, it was just the third time in the 50-year history of Ohio State football that the Buckeyes played in the Pacific Time Zone. The first two trips didn’t go well for the scarlet and gray; Ohio State was shut out 28-0 in the 1921 Rose Bowl, then lost 13-12 in its first-ever game against USC in Los Angeles in 1937.

The Buckeyes’ second trip to the L.A. Coliseum, however, went far better than the first.

Although Ohio State was coming off a 12-7 win over Missouri in Paul Brown’s first game as head coach, beating USC was expected to be a tougher test for the Buckeyes. After all, just getting to Los Angeles was a three-day endeavor for the Buckeyes in those days; they left Columbus by train on Wednesday, stopping in Chicago to practice that day and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to practice on Thursday before arriving in Los Angeles on Friday.

The game got off to a precarious start for the Buckeyes when Ohio State’s Tom Kinkade lost a fumble that USC recovered at Ohio State’s 49-yard line on the Buckeyes’ opening drive, but Ohio State’s defense stood stout to force a punt. USC got an even shorter field for its second possession after a low, wobbly punt by Ohio State’s John Hallabrin went out of bounds at the 26-yard line, but the Buckeyes made a fourth-down stop on a fake reverse to force a turnover on downs.

Ohio State drove 83 yards down the field on its third possession, with Jack Graf running for a 2-yard touchdown that was set up by a run by future Heisman Trophy winner Les Horvath, a backup halfback for Ohio State at the time. Dick Fisher scampered for 46 yards on a fake punt run on Ohio State’s fourth possession, setting up a 17-yard touchdown run by Charlie Anderson to put the Buckeyes up 13-0 before the end of the first quarter.

USC got another short field in the second quarter when it blocked a Hallabrin punt, but Kinkade intercepted a pass by USC’s Mickey Anderson in the end zone. The Buckeyes drove the ball 80 yards down the field, with Fisher rushing for a touchdown, to make it 20-0 before halftime.

Bob Shaw made a leaping catch on a pass from Graf and turned it into a 48-yard touchdown on Ohio State’s second possession of the third quarter to extend the Buckeyes’ lead to 27-0. After a fumble by Graf on Ohio State’s next series, Fisher intercepted a pass by USC’s Bobby Robertson. The Buckeyes drove from their 13-yard line all the way down the field on their subsequent possession, with Fisher gaining 10 yards on another fake punt and eventually finishing the drive with his second touchdown run of the game to make it 33-0.
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Fewest Rushing Yards By An Ohio State Opponent (Since 1936)
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gracelhink said:

Bucks win 4-0 over Purdue to advance to the ita national indoor tournament.
Bucks get wins at dubs and #1, Kim, 4 Bernard and 6 Byers in singles.
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Just sayin': The real winners were the fans in attendance; the forecasted snow storm held off until the match was over.....

buckeyebri said:

Life is full of choices….making them is easy…. Living with them is well the other part

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Yeah, and ....

Thump said:

I cannot be the only one that reads his name as Wonderful “Mounds” right?

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I’ve known a few…..just sayin

I want you to sit with this for a minute, Clowns fans...



Tanned, rested, and ready.

Sharing the ball beautifully this first half tonight. Lovely

Those silver pants are beautiful

Sorry but Patricia is a literal rocket scientist that was renowned for being a football savant, had a ton of expertise under Belichick and constantly fielded great defenses. He just failed at leading as a head coach. His calling card is simply calling defenses - and Day gave him a perfect home.

I don’t think Athur Smith has once been mistaken for smart. And brings little excitement from his offensive history.

Sorry, I’ll go on record as not liking it. OSU will still find success because Day + talent. Happy to be wrong, obviously. At least he checks the NFL experience box and knows, in theory, how to call a game so he’s not green. Let’s hope it works.

ScriptOhio said:

Ohio State football program may have wasted a boatload of NIL money on this transfer

Based on reports coming out of training camp, the Buckeyes may have paid a lot of money to land a very expensive third-string player.

scarletandgame.com

Ohio State paid over $1 million to bring in Ethan Onianwa from Rice. He was expected to be the starting left tackle this season after Ohio State lost four starters on the offensive line.

Just sayin': Obviously not all transfer portal pick ups work out. I'll say unless he really stands out at the Senior Bowl he may not even be drafted in the 2026 NFL draft; however, I did find one mock drat that lists him as a 7th rounder:

Ethan Onianwa 2026 NFL Draft Profile, Stats, and Projections | NFL Mock Draft Database

Explore Ethan Onianwa's 2026 NFL Draft profile, including scouting reports, combine stats, mock draft projections, and team fits. See where Ethan Onianwa, OT, is projected to be drafted.

www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com

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Future pro bowler Lol.

Hot dang

brodybuck21 said:

Former Ohio State Linebacker Anthony Schlegel Rejoins Staff As Strength and Conditioning Coach

Former Ohio State linebacker Anthony Schlegel has rejoined the Buckeyes’ strength and conditioning staff after previously working for OSU from 2011-15.

www.elevenwarriors.com

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Ohio State had a vacancy on its strength and conditioning staff with the departure of associate director of strength and conditioning AT Turner, who left Ohio State to become Brian Hartline’s head strength and conditioning coach at USF.

buckeyebri said:

Was this to get Aaron to come back?

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You gotta lock that down.

brodybuck21 said:

I've literally watched bball for last 6 hours today. Saw some.fantastic performances but Wagler for Illinois and the frosh from Houston have been on another level

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Bet both of those today!

Badass driving a badass car. Makes sense