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LGHL You’re Nuts: What is your least favorite Big Ten road venue for Ohio State to play in?
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You’re Nuts: What is your least favorite Big Ten road venue for Ohio State to play in?
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Which B1G program do you hate the see the Buckeyes have to play on the road?
Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.
In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.
This week’s topic: What is your least favorite Big Ten road venue for Ohio State to play in?
Ohio State hits the road to take on Purdue this weekend, and if you know anything about Buckeye football (especially in or during the 21st century) then you may have just winced in discomfort. I don’t want to spill the beans or give the entire backstory on West Lafayette (IN), but let’s just say that it has not always been kind to OSU... Great windmill scene, though. It’s a beautiful drive if you ever find yourself in the mood for midwestern scenery.
**Above is quite possibly the most sarcastic comment I have ever made or written for LGHL.
The Buckeyes’ upcoming road trip got Gene and I thinking about away venues that Ohio State frequently visits — in particular, which ones we like and/or dislike. Originally, we were going to pick a venue and write about our personal favorite(s), but Gene is still a bit fired up after OSU’s first half on Saturday. So I leaned into the darkness and dislike with him. Thus, the inspiration for today’s edition of You’re Nuts: What is your least favorite place/venue in which the Scarlet and Gray play consistently?
As much as I love the occasional swerve or surprise, I am going to go ahead and pick the low hanging fruit here. My least favorite road venue is Ann Arbor, Michigan and of course Michigan Stadium AKA The Big House. I literally never look forward to the Buckeyes making this trip, Gene. Even more so – or less so, I guess? – now that Jim Harbaugh has his Wolverines playing at such a high level.
Ohio State had a nice two-decade run, dominating the world’s greatest rivalry from 2001-2019. But the pandemic sort of killed OSU’s momentum. And even then... Even when the Scarlet and Gray were busy winning 17 out of 19... Games that took place in Ann Arbor were not particularly enjoyable. At least for Buckeye fans with a beating heart in their chest(s). There were too many close calls, and both of TTUN’s wins during that span did obviously come in The Big House.
Going back even further, TTUN enjoyed their run of rivalry dominance throughout the 80s and 90s, when I was just a young pup. So some of my earliest football memories are of John Cooper and the Buckeyes getting their asses kicked up and down the field in Ann Arbor. Ohio State did not win a game in Michigan Stadium during his entire tenure. As a result, I got all the way to high school thinking OSU was not allowed to win up north!
Thankfully Jim Tressel came along, but there is at least one other reason that The Big House in Ann Arbor is my least favorite venue for the Buckeyes to visit. It is very personal and very painful.
I actually attended the 2003 rivalry game at Michigan Stadium, which Ohio State lost 35-21. Just my luck, right? Not only that, but I spent like $300 on scalped tickets – which was a fortune for a college freshman or sophomore, whatever I was – to do so. And we made the drive morning of. And we were hungover. Oh, and due to traffic near the stadium, I had to hold a steering wheel while my best friend ‘took care of business’ in a Gatorade bottle. So yeah, it was one of the worst football-related experiences of my entire life. Thanks for asking!
I realize that I am taking the easy route here, but often the most obvious answer is the correct one. Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor has been a (Big) house of horrors for OSU in the past. While the Scarlet and Gray have only lost once there since 2011, hideous scars remain. Here’s hoping the Buckeyes can get retribution in 2023 and take back the rivalry in that state and stadium up north.
It’s safe to say that no Ohio State fans enjoy when the Buckeyes have to make the trip to Ann Arbor. It was a much more fun time when TTUN was at its lowest and Buckeye Nation was filling Michigan Stadium with scarlet, but as Josh laid out above, the road games at Michigan are even worse now that Jim Harbaugh has the Wolverines playing at a College Football Playoff level. There is perhaps no worse trip to have to make in recent memory than the one Ryan Day and his team will have to endure this season, as having to break a two-game losing streak to your biggest rival in their home stadium will be no easy feat.
I can go a number of different ways here, and I thought about picking this week’s opponent in Purdue to keep things topical. The last time the Buckeyes had to travel to West Lafayette, they were demolished 49-20. In fact, Ohio State has lost three of the last four meetings between the two teams when the game takes place at Purdue, dating all the way back to 2009. The strange part is that none of those Boilermaker teams were really all that good, with the 2018 group going 5-4, the 2011 team going 7-6 and the 2009 unit finishing 5-7.
Still, while it is strange that Purdue has found a way to upset Ohio State at home on multiple occasions, I don’t really know how much of that has to do with the actual crowd factor of the venue. The Boilermaker faithful are a rowdy bunch, don’t get me wrong, but Ross-Ade Stadium holds less than 60,000 people — the 12th-biggest stadium in the conference if you include the West Coast teams joining the fold in 2024. It’s definitely not a place you want to go, but I give credit more so to the ‘Spoilermakers’ playing up to the level of competition rather than the environment itself.
Instead, I’m going to pivot to the other venue that has produced a memorable upset of Ohio State in recent years, and that of course is Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium.
While Kinnick also isn’t near the top of the list in terms of size in the Big Ten, holding around 70,000 fans, the way the stadium is built puts the fans right on top of you. With the Hawkeyes laying ownership to one of the toughest places to play in all of college football, Iowa has played to a 33-10 record at home dating back to 2017 — a 77% win rate — with four wins over top-20 opponents in that stretch.
Of course, one of the biggest wins during that timespan was their 55-24 rout of a previously undefeated Ohio State team during that 2017 season. In 2019, the Hawkeyes welcomed a 9-0 Minnesota team that was ranked No. 7 in the country, and proceeded to upset the Golden Gophers 23-19. The 2021 team took down two ranked opponents at home, beating up on No. 17 Indiana 34-6 in the season opener and following it up later in the year by taking down No. 4 Penn State, 23-20. The proof is in the pudding here, and even when Iowa isn’t particularly one of the best teams in the country, the home field advantage at Kinnick Stadium is the real deal.
Ohio State has split the last four meetings between the two teams in Iowa City, defeating the Hawkeyes in 2010 and 2006, while the Hawkeyes own that big win in 2017 as well as a 33-7 blowout victory in 2004. The Buckeyes have not returned to Kinnick since that more recent loss, and does not play Iowa at all this season. The Hawkeyes will come to Columbus for the second-straight time in 2024, with Ryan Day’s group winning the last home matchup between the two schools 54-10, and Ohio State will finally return to Iowa City during the 2026 season.
Continue reading...
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Which B1G program do you hate the see the Buckeyes have to play on the road?
Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.
In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.
This week’s topic: What is your least favorite Big Ten road venue for Ohio State to play in?
Josh’s Take
Ohio State hits the road to take on Purdue this weekend, and if you know anything about Buckeye football (especially in or during the 21st century) then you may have just winced in discomfort. I don’t want to spill the beans or give the entire backstory on West Lafayette (IN), but let’s just say that it has not always been kind to OSU... Great windmill scene, though. It’s a beautiful drive if you ever find yourself in the mood for midwestern scenery.
**Above is quite possibly the most sarcastic comment I have ever made or written for LGHL.
The Buckeyes’ upcoming road trip got Gene and I thinking about away venues that Ohio State frequently visits — in particular, which ones we like and/or dislike. Originally, we were going to pick a venue and write about our personal favorite(s), but Gene is still a bit fired up after OSU’s first half on Saturday. So I leaned into the darkness and dislike with him. Thus, the inspiration for today’s edition of You’re Nuts: What is your least favorite place/venue in which the Scarlet and Gray play consistently?
As much as I love the occasional swerve or surprise, I am going to go ahead and pick the low hanging fruit here. My least favorite road venue is Ann Arbor, Michigan and of course Michigan Stadium AKA The Big House. I literally never look forward to the Buckeyes making this trip, Gene. Even more so – or less so, I guess? – now that Jim Harbaugh has his Wolverines playing at such a high level.
Ohio State had a nice two-decade run, dominating the world’s greatest rivalry from 2001-2019. But the pandemic sort of killed OSU’s momentum. And even then... Even when the Scarlet and Gray were busy winning 17 out of 19... Games that took place in Ann Arbor were not particularly enjoyable. At least for Buckeye fans with a beating heart in their chest(s). There were too many close calls, and both of TTUN’s wins during that span did obviously come in The Big House.
Going back even further, TTUN enjoyed their run of rivalry dominance throughout the 80s and 90s, when I was just a young pup. So some of my earliest football memories are of John Cooper and the Buckeyes getting their asses kicked up and down the field in Ann Arbor. Ohio State did not win a game in Michigan Stadium during his entire tenure. As a result, I got all the way to high school thinking OSU was not allowed to win up north!
Thankfully Jim Tressel came along, but there is at least one other reason that The Big House in Ann Arbor is my least favorite venue for the Buckeyes to visit. It is very personal and very painful.
I actually attended the 2003 rivalry game at Michigan Stadium, which Ohio State lost 35-21. Just my luck, right? Not only that, but I spent like $300 on scalped tickets – which was a fortune for a college freshman or sophomore, whatever I was – to do so. And we made the drive morning of. And we were hungover. Oh, and due to traffic near the stadium, I had to hold a steering wheel while my best friend ‘took care of business’ in a Gatorade bottle. So yeah, it was one of the worst football-related experiences of my entire life. Thanks for asking!
I realize that I am taking the easy route here, but often the most obvious answer is the correct one. Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor has been a (Big) house of horrors for OSU in the past. While the Scarlet and Gray have only lost once there since 2011, hideous scars remain. Here’s hoping the Buckeyes can get retribution in 2023 and take back the rivalry in that state and stadium up north.
Gene’s Take
It’s safe to say that no Ohio State fans enjoy when the Buckeyes have to make the trip to Ann Arbor. It was a much more fun time when TTUN was at its lowest and Buckeye Nation was filling Michigan Stadium with scarlet, but as Josh laid out above, the road games at Michigan are even worse now that Jim Harbaugh has the Wolverines playing at a College Football Playoff level. There is perhaps no worse trip to have to make in recent memory than the one Ryan Day and his team will have to endure this season, as having to break a two-game losing streak to your biggest rival in their home stadium will be no easy feat.
I can go a number of different ways here, and I thought about picking this week’s opponent in Purdue to keep things topical. The last time the Buckeyes had to travel to West Lafayette, they were demolished 49-20. In fact, Ohio State has lost three of the last four meetings between the two teams when the game takes place at Purdue, dating all the way back to 2009. The strange part is that none of those Boilermaker teams were really all that good, with the 2018 group going 5-4, the 2011 team going 7-6 and the 2009 unit finishing 5-7.
Still, while it is strange that Purdue has found a way to upset Ohio State at home on multiple occasions, I don’t really know how much of that has to do with the actual crowd factor of the venue. The Boilermaker faithful are a rowdy bunch, don’t get me wrong, but Ross-Ade Stadium holds less than 60,000 people — the 12th-biggest stadium in the conference if you include the West Coast teams joining the fold in 2024. It’s definitely not a place you want to go, but I give credit more so to the ‘Spoilermakers’ playing up to the level of competition rather than the environment itself.
Instead, I’m going to pivot to the other venue that has produced a memorable upset of Ohio State in recent years, and that of course is Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium.
While Kinnick also isn’t near the top of the list in terms of size in the Big Ten, holding around 70,000 fans, the way the stadium is built puts the fans right on top of you. With the Hawkeyes laying ownership to one of the toughest places to play in all of college football, Iowa has played to a 33-10 record at home dating back to 2017 — a 77% win rate — with four wins over top-20 opponents in that stretch.
Of course, one of the biggest wins during that timespan was their 55-24 rout of a previously undefeated Ohio State team during that 2017 season. In 2019, the Hawkeyes welcomed a 9-0 Minnesota team that was ranked No. 7 in the country, and proceeded to upset the Golden Gophers 23-19. The 2021 team took down two ranked opponents at home, beating up on No. 17 Indiana 34-6 in the season opener and following it up later in the year by taking down No. 4 Penn State, 23-20. The proof is in the pudding here, and even when Iowa isn’t particularly one of the best teams in the country, the home field advantage at Kinnick Stadium is the real deal.
Ohio State has split the last four meetings between the two teams in Iowa City, defeating the Hawkeyes in 2010 and 2006, while the Hawkeyes own that big win in 2017 as well as a 33-7 blowout victory in 2004. The Buckeyes have not returned to Kinnick since that more recent loss, and does not play Iowa at all this season. The Hawkeyes will come to Columbus for the second-straight time in 2024, with Ryan Day’s group winning the last home matchup between the two schools 54-10, and Ohio State will finally return to Iowa City during the 2026 season.
Continue reading...
LGHL Jalen Powell is recruiting, coaching, baking the legacy of Ohio State women’s basketball
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Jalen Powell is recruiting, coaching, baking the legacy of Ohio State women’s basketball
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
How the assistant entering her third season in Columbus is vital to a program on the rise.
Sitting neatly in a row across a folding table sit three hats. Each adorns a different college athletic logo, signifying options for the biggest decision an 18-year-old will make: Choosing who has the luxury of earning the teenager’s athletic ability on their school basketball court.
It’s a moment that’s earned through hours in the gym, on the court, and even more hours driven across the city, state or country to earn the attention of scouts and get into the national recruiting narrative. Behind the table is someone who’s so far lived under the protective bubble of their sports-infused world and a small room in their parent’s house.
Next to the future college student are parents, siblings, coaches, and anyone important enough to get a spot on the other side of the camera phone capturing personal history. As hats are picked up, put down, tried on, and placed back off of the player’s head, it's blasted live across social media. The stream elicits moments of pride, expectancy, and anxiety disguised as engagement.
After a hat is chosen, tears are shed and hearts, thumbs up, and sad face emojis fly across the screen, what’s left is an expectation of rigorous athletic focus balanced with a full-time college student workload. It's the first step down the road that segues the young star from a high school prodigy to a soon-to-be full-time adult.
When the attention diminishes and the real work begins, it’s lonely. Imagine moving away from home for the first time away from friends and family. It’s tough. Enter Jalen Powell.
Ohio State women’s basketball assistant coach Jalen Powell’s official job responsibilities can’t be pinned down to one or two things. On the court, Powell works with the guards, alongside assistant head coach Carla Morrow who runs game planning. That’s during practices and games, but it stretches far beyond what fans see on the court.
“I do a lot of different external stuff. I help out with our social media. I help out with our marketing,” said Powell. “But, I also do a lot of recruiting.”
With a mixed bag of things needing to be done each day, Powell’s days are never the same. After going through emails each morning, the focus shifts to practice. After practice, Powell pivots to helping the social media team and going through her list of recruits.
Powell joined Ohio State before the 21/22 season, coming over from an assistant coaching role at one of the largest HBCUs in the nation, Florida A&M. In Powell’s time so far in Columbus, the coach’s work in building relationships with players, parents, and coaches is yielding results.
The 2024 class features many commits who got on the Buckeyes’ radar through Powell. The team’s class so far features 6-foot-4 forward Ella Hobbs (No. 89 in ESPN’s Top-100 2024 recruits), guard Ava Watson (No. 49), forward Sieni Hicks, and 6-foot-6 Finnish center Elsa Lemmilä.
It’s not all Powell, who finds recruits and fosters relationships while bringing head coach Kevin McGuff into the conversations, who has the ultimate final decision-making authority. Powell is careful though in how she recruits. It’s not a text-a-day relationship, pressuring a high schooler into becoming a Buckeye.
“I’m not someone who’s going to text you 20 times throughout the day. I’m a very big believer in kids being kids,” said Powell. “The recruiting period is a transition for everybody. Their families, themselves, and their coaches. A lot of these kids are maybe one of the best players they ever had in their town or their city. So it’s kind of a big transition for everyone involved.”
Powell puts the power in the hands of the recruits and key stakeholders like parents and coaches. After establishing how everyone wants to communicate when Powell sticks to it and makes sure all other coaches involved know it. It’s a small detail on the surface, but it only scratches the surface of the trust Powell builds with people.
That trust isn’t an ulterior motive to earn a recruit either. For Powell, that trust is authentic to who she is, and it’s what sets the coach apart.
Powell didn’t play college basketball like many of her coaching peers but has experience dating back to the moment she joined the human race. In a biographical feature back in 2021 with The Lantern, Powell discussed her basketball upbringing, raised by a dad who didn’t only love basketball but it’s his life.
Growing up in New York, Powell learned the game from her dad Jerry Powell, and his training organization “Basketball Results.” Jerry Powell brings experience working with both NBA and WNBA players to all ages of the game, and Jalen was around for all of it. It turned into Powell coaching sibling’s teams and shifting that love to college as a team manager.
What makes Powell so authentic isn’t all of that basketball Xs and Os knowledge. Anyone recruiting in the NCAA should be able to talk basketball. Powell talks the language of a college athlete because Powell isn’t far removed from college herself.
Graduating from the University of Mississippi in 2017, Powell spent the next six years around the game and forming relationships, working closely alongside basketball players. All Powell’s life she’s formed relationships with basketball players. To Powell, relationships are vital.
“I don’t think people realize the foundation relationship holds,” said Powell. “I think people overlook it. I think a lot of times in this profession you’ll see kids go to universities and you’ll be like, ‘OK, what was that about?’ and it’s usually about a relationship. Then sometimes you see kids leave universities and you’re like, ‘OK, what was that about?’ and it’s the lack of a relationship.”
That relationship-building ability for Powell helps in a different kind of recruiting that garners big attention: The transfer portal.
In the summer of 2023, it was Powell who helped Ohio State be one of the more active teams in the portal.
“When I put my name in the portal, JP (Powell’s nickname) followed me on Instagram but she was already recruiting my little sister,” said transfer guard Kennedy Cambridge, sister of No. 3 ranked 2024 prospect Jaloni Cambridge. “At this point, I’m in the portal and she’s on the phone with my sister and she has this dog. I don’t know what it is. It’s tiny and it's white and it has pink paws and pink ears. She put it on her Instagram story and so I slid up and was like, ‘There ain’t no way.’ Then boom, we started talking.”
Powell didn’t see the sister of a highly-touted recruit but a young player, Cambridge is only a sophomore, who plays with high energy and a menace on the defensive side of the ball. Something treasured by McGuff and his high-intensity pressing defense. At the time, Ohio State already brought in two transfers from Power Five schools, but the Buckeyes had one scholarship left.
The coach did what she does best and got to know Cambridge. Although their personalities were different, Powell found a lot of similarities between her and the guard departing the Kentucky Wildcats program. The feeling was reciprocated.
“As I kept getting to talk to her, I learned that she cares more about what you want to be as a person rather than what you can do on the basketball court,” said Cambridge. “She wants you to be the best version of yourself and she’s going to do whatever it takes to help you be the best version of yourself.”
Entering Ohio State, Cambridge couldn’t practice right away, not beginning team practices until the middle of August after committing to the Buckeyes on May 24, with plenty of time before summer practice. Being able to play didn’t matter to Powell, as she kept working with Cambridge not on basketball things but all of the other responsibilities that come with transferring schools and getting established. Life things.
It’s not lip service. The proof is in how players respond to the coach. While hundreds of incoming freshmen and transfers are posting their commitments in team jerseys and alongside head coaches, who was Cambridge standing next to when the Buckeyes became her team?
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24980939/Screenshot_2023_10_05_at_6.32.02_PM.png)
Kennedy Cambridge on Instagram | @kennedycambridge
Guard Kennedy Cambridge hugging assistant coach Jalen Powell
“I feel like in my last school, from a coaching standpoint, it was different,” said Cambridge. “JP brings something that I didn’t have at Kentucky. And I’m not going to say they didn’t care about me, but it’s a different care over here.”
Another transfer, one of the biggest in the NCAA in 2023, was guard ACC Defensive Player of the Year Celeste Taylor. The relationship work of Powell wasn’t needed when Taylor’s name went into the transfer portal; it already dates back 12 years.
Taylor, who walked into Jerry Powell’s training company as an unknown middle schooler, met JP early. They both grew up in the gym and as they grew older, Taylor saw Powell leave, go to college, graduate, and start her path to eventually landing at Ohio State.
However, once Powell joined the coaching ranks, and Taylor went off to Texas, and then Duke, the relationship changed. With NCAA recruiting rules, Powell and Taylor had more distance between themselves, but the relationship they built didn’t diminish.
“She’d always be there to support me but it was never come play for me,” said Taylor. “Just to know she supported me no matter what I did it showed our relationship and our bound.”
When Taylor entered the transfer portal though, the decision was easy. After two failed recruiting attempts by the Buckeyes, Taylor knew when she joined the portal that she wanted to be in scarlet and gray with JP. While Taylor and Powell still have a strong bond, now that they’re both in the program chasing a national championship, their relationship has changed again.
“It’s a sister thing off the court but on the court, I have, and so do all the other girls, have a respect that she is our coach and she wants the best for us and she wants to work with us,” said Taylor. “It’s so funny because I can see her dad in her. And she’ll always deny it but it's really so funny. It takes me back to when I was younger.”
Recruiting freshman and transfers takes up a lot of time. It’s easy to imagine a coach with all the responsibilities of leading at Ohio State to stay in their lane. Powell isn’t that kind of coach. After all, relationships don’t end when a player steps onto the court ready to play for the Buckeyes.
Powell prides herself on being available for all 15 players on the roster, not only those she’s recruited or known since childhood. There are two tools key in Powell’s work with players on the scarlet and gray roster: Her phone and house.
At any time of the night, players can call Powell.
“If you call her at 1 a.m., she’s going to answer,” said Cambridge. “Anything you need, she’s going to be there no matter what. She’ll be asleep at 8 o’clock but I’m going to call her at 10:30 and she’s going to answer.”
Her home is as open as when her players can call.
College basketball is a year-round sport with offseason conditioning, summer practices, and then the rigor of the September to potentially April grind of practices, games, and travel. Anytime there are basketball players on campus, they’re likely stopping by JP’s house, especially if you like baked goods.
“She makes sure those who can’t go home she cooks and has dinner for us,” said veteran Buckeyes guard Rikki Harris. “We go to her house and bake. At Thanksgiving, she has people over who can’t go home for it.”
Throughout the season, Powell also hosts baking competitions at her home, with everyone on the squad invited.
“It’s just freaking chaotic,” said Powell. “It just gets fun. It’s fun to have them around. It’s fun to be in their energy. It’s fun to know them outside of basketball because they’re so bright and they’re so full of energy and just they have so much life in them.”
Coach Powell won’t divulge who’s the worst baker, but teammates aren’t as bashful.
“I’d have to say Jacy (Sheldon) because I know Jacy does not cook,” said Harris. “She could do it. She could read the instructions but I would say Jacy because I know she doesn’t cook.”
Even if baking isn’t Sheldon’s forte, Powell knows that the guard loves sweets and will eat a cookie at 8 o’clock in the morning if one was given to her. JP knows it because she knows her players, and also happens to bring in sweets.
“Yesterday I brought him pumpkin muffins because they love pumpkin, chocolate chip, pumpkin muffins,” said Powell.
It’s not only the beautiful chaos of 15 basketball players in Powell’s kitchen but one-on-one time with the team’s best baker, junior Taylor Thierry.
The soft-spoken rising star for the Buckeyes out of Cleveland, Ohio comes to Powell’s place often, giving Thierry a place to spend time with someone who off the court carries similar traits to a best friend than a coach.
There could be issues with a coach-as-a-friend relationship if all the coach wants to do is be a friend, but the respect built off the court means players also respect Powell on the court, when its time for the team to get to work.
“She’s also a big ball of energy. Her personality is contagious,” said Cambridge. “She’s going to laugh, she’s going to dance with you but when it comes time for business she’s going to get serious.”
“She’s going to be on you,” said Harris. “JP is down to play with you but when it is time to focus and you’re messing around she’ll let you know you’re messing around and I like that about her.”
When Powell joined the Buckeyes, the program was in a time of transition. McGuff hired Powell soon after bringing in fellow assistant coach Wesley Brooks, and at the same time promoted coach Morrow to associate head coach. It was following Ohio State’s final year of sanctions due to past recruiting violations. Violations where former assistant Patrick Klein paid for players' manicures, textbooks for non-scholarship players, and more.
For a player like Harris who joined the Buckeyes in 2019, Powell’s inclusion in the team was a breath of fresh air.
“She does everything for us. She wants to see us thrive off the court, on the court, at home,” said Harris. “She’s not much older than some of us, so she understands a lot of what we do, what we go through at this age because she’s been through it recently but we also respect her as a coach, even though she’s younger.”
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24469412/usa_today_19950079.jpg "Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch")
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Now it’s not all Powell, but since the coaching staff changed, Ohio State’s gone from a team losing starters in the transfer portal to winning a share of the Big Ten regular season championship in 2022 and making it to the Elite Eight in 2023.
Powell tells the team that this isn’t only a personal legacy but creating the legacy of the Ohio State Buckeyes. For years it was the 1993 team that made it to the NCAA National Championship game with legend Katie Smith. Then there are individual standout stars over the years like Kelsey Mitchell and Jantel Lavender, even if the team overall wasn’t performing at the top of the NCAA.
Today, McGuff, Powell, and the staff are about creating a new history.
“Everyone talks about UConn. Everyone talks about South Carolina and what they’ve developed over the years and two great programs, you know, super historic,” said Powell. “You know, they had to go through this to get to that and it’s like we’re kind of on that same brink as far as a culture piece.”
The culture of the Buckeyes is welcoming. Taylor’s already become a leader on the team and transfers like Cambridge could tell a difference right away. A difference between a program that focuses on winning and a program that’s focused on building relationships while winning.
When recruits pick up the Ohio State hat live on Instagram these days, it’s partly because of Powell. When recruits become successful players and, more importantly, humans in the program, it’s because of the legacy Powell is helping create.
Continue reading...
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
How the assistant entering her third season in Columbus is vital to a program on the rise.
Sitting neatly in a row across a folding table sit three hats. Each adorns a different college athletic logo, signifying options for the biggest decision an 18-year-old will make: Choosing who has the luxury of earning the teenager’s athletic ability on their school basketball court.
It’s a moment that’s earned through hours in the gym, on the court, and even more hours driven across the city, state or country to earn the attention of scouts and get into the national recruiting narrative. Behind the table is someone who’s so far lived under the protective bubble of their sports-infused world and a small room in their parent’s house.
Next to the future college student are parents, siblings, coaches, and anyone important enough to get a spot on the other side of the camera phone capturing personal history. As hats are picked up, put down, tried on, and placed back off of the player’s head, it's blasted live across social media. The stream elicits moments of pride, expectancy, and anxiety disguised as engagement.
After a hat is chosen, tears are shed and hearts, thumbs up, and sad face emojis fly across the screen, what’s left is an expectation of rigorous athletic focus balanced with a full-time college student workload. It's the first step down the road that segues the young star from a high school prodigy to a soon-to-be full-time adult.
When the attention diminishes and the real work begins, it’s lonely. Imagine moving away from home for the first time away from friends and family. It’s tough. Enter Jalen Powell.
Letting Kids Be Kids
Ohio State women’s basketball assistant coach Jalen Powell’s official job responsibilities can’t be pinned down to one or two things. On the court, Powell works with the guards, alongside assistant head coach Carla Morrow who runs game planning. That’s during practices and games, but it stretches far beyond what fans see on the court.
“I do a lot of different external stuff. I help out with our social media. I help out with our marketing,” said Powell. “But, I also do a lot of recruiting.”
With a mixed bag of things needing to be done each day, Powell’s days are never the same. After going through emails each morning, the focus shifts to practice. After practice, Powell pivots to helping the social media team and going through her list of recruits.
Powell joined Ohio State before the 21/22 season, coming over from an assistant coaching role at one of the largest HBCUs in the nation, Florida A&M. In Powell’s time so far in Columbus, the coach’s work in building relationships with players, parents, and coaches is yielding results.
The 2024 class features many commits who got on the Buckeyes’ radar through Powell. The team’s class so far features 6-foot-4 forward Ella Hobbs (No. 89 in ESPN’s Top-100 2024 recruits), guard Ava Watson (No. 49), forward Sieni Hicks, and 6-foot-6 Finnish center Elsa Lemmilä.
It’s not all Powell, who finds recruits and fosters relationships while bringing head coach Kevin McGuff into the conversations, who has the ultimate final decision-making authority. Powell is careful though in how she recruits. It’s not a text-a-day relationship, pressuring a high schooler into becoming a Buckeye.
“I’m not someone who’s going to text you 20 times throughout the day. I’m a very big believer in kids being kids,” said Powell. “The recruiting period is a transition for everybody. Their families, themselves, and their coaches. A lot of these kids are maybe one of the best players they ever had in their town or their city. So it’s kind of a big transition for everyone involved.”
Powell puts the power in the hands of the recruits and key stakeholders like parents and coaches. After establishing how everyone wants to communicate when Powell sticks to it and makes sure all other coaches involved know it. It’s a small detail on the surface, but it only scratches the surface of the trust Powell builds with people.
That trust isn’t an ulterior motive to earn a recruit either. For Powell, that trust is authentic to who she is, and it’s what sets the coach apart.
A Dog with Pink Paws
Powell didn’t play college basketball like many of her coaching peers but has experience dating back to the moment she joined the human race. In a biographical feature back in 2021 with The Lantern, Powell discussed her basketball upbringing, raised by a dad who didn’t only love basketball but it’s his life.
Growing up in New York, Powell learned the game from her dad Jerry Powell, and his training organization “Basketball Results.” Jerry Powell brings experience working with both NBA and WNBA players to all ages of the game, and Jalen was around for all of it. It turned into Powell coaching sibling’s teams and shifting that love to college as a team manager.
What makes Powell so authentic isn’t all of that basketball Xs and Os knowledge. Anyone recruiting in the NCAA should be able to talk basketball. Powell talks the language of a college athlete because Powell isn’t far removed from college herself.
Graduating from the University of Mississippi in 2017, Powell spent the next six years around the game and forming relationships, working closely alongside basketball players. All Powell’s life she’s formed relationships with basketball players. To Powell, relationships are vital.
“I don’t think people realize the foundation relationship holds,” said Powell. “I think people overlook it. I think a lot of times in this profession you’ll see kids go to universities and you’ll be like, ‘OK, what was that about?’ and it’s usually about a relationship. Then sometimes you see kids leave universities and you’re like, ‘OK, what was that about?’ and it’s the lack of a relationship.”
That relationship-building ability for Powell helps in a different kind of recruiting that garners big attention: The transfer portal.
In the summer of 2023, it was Powell who helped Ohio State be one of the more active teams in the portal.
“When I put my name in the portal, JP (Powell’s nickname) followed me on Instagram but she was already recruiting my little sister,” said transfer guard Kennedy Cambridge, sister of No. 3 ranked 2024 prospect Jaloni Cambridge. “At this point, I’m in the portal and she’s on the phone with my sister and she has this dog. I don’t know what it is. It’s tiny and it's white and it has pink paws and pink ears. She put it on her Instagram story and so I slid up and was like, ‘There ain’t no way.’ Then boom, we started talking.”
Powell didn’t see the sister of a highly-touted recruit but a young player, Cambridge is only a sophomore, who plays with high energy and a menace on the defensive side of the ball. Something treasured by McGuff and his high-intensity pressing defense. At the time, Ohio State already brought in two transfers from Power Five schools, but the Buckeyes had one scholarship left.
The coach did what she does best and got to know Cambridge. Although their personalities were different, Powell found a lot of similarities between her and the guard departing the Kentucky Wildcats program. The feeling was reciprocated.
“As I kept getting to talk to her, I learned that she cares more about what you want to be as a person rather than what you can do on the basketball court,” said Cambridge. “She wants you to be the best version of yourself and she’s going to do whatever it takes to help you be the best version of yourself.”
Entering Ohio State, Cambridge couldn’t practice right away, not beginning team practices until the middle of August after committing to the Buckeyes on May 24, with plenty of time before summer practice. Being able to play didn’t matter to Powell, as she kept working with Cambridge not on basketball things but all of the other responsibilities that come with transferring schools and getting established. Life things.
It’s not lip service. The proof is in how players respond to the coach. While hundreds of incoming freshmen and transfers are posting their commitments in team jerseys and alongside head coaches, who was Cambridge standing next to when the Buckeyes became her team?
Guard Kennedy Cambridge hugging assistant coach Jalen Powell
“I feel like in my last school, from a coaching standpoint, it was different,” said Cambridge. “JP brings something that I didn’t have at Kentucky. And I’m not going to say they didn’t care about me, but it’s a different care over here.”
Sisters Reunited
Another transfer, one of the biggest in the NCAA in 2023, was guard ACC Defensive Player of the Year Celeste Taylor. The relationship work of Powell wasn’t needed when Taylor’s name went into the transfer portal; it already dates back 12 years.
Taylor, who walked into Jerry Powell’s training company as an unknown middle schooler, met JP early. They both grew up in the gym and as they grew older, Taylor saw Powell leave, go to college, graduate, and start her path to eventually landing at Ohio State.
However, once Powell joined the coaching ranks, and Taylor went off to Texas, and then Duke, the relationship changed. With NCAA recruiting rules, Powell and Taylor had more distance between themselves, but the relationship they built didn’t diminish.
“She’d always be there to support me but it was never come play for me,” said Taylor. “Just to know she supported me no matter what I did it showed our relationship and our bound.”
When Taylor entered the transfer portal though, the decision was easy. After two failed recruiting attempts by the Buckeyes, Taylor knew when she joined the portal that she wanted to be in scarlet and gray with JP. While Taylor and Powell still have a strong bond, now that they’re both in the program chasing a national championship, their relationship has changed again.
“It’s a sister thing off the court but on the court, I have, and so do all the other girls, have a respect that she is our coach and she wants the best for us and she wants to work with us,” said Taylor. “It’s so funny because I can see her dad in her. And she’ll always deny it but it's really so funny. It takes me back to when I was younger.”
Baking Challenge
Recruiting freshman and transfers takes up a lot of time. It’s easy to imagine a coach with all the responsibilities of leading at Ohio State to stay in their lane. Powell isn’t that kind of coach. After all, relationships don’t end when a player steps onto the court ready to play for the Buckeyes.
Powell prides herself on being available for all 15 players on the roster, not only those she’s recruited or known since childhood. There are two tools key in Powell’s work with players on the scarlet and gray roster: Her phone and house.
At any time of the night, players can call Powell.
“If you call her at 1 a.m., she’s going to answer,” said Cambridge. “Anything you need, she’s going to be there no matter what. She’ll be asleep at 8 o’clock but I’m going to call her at 10:30 and she’s going to answer.”
Her home is as open as when her players can call.
College basketball is a year-round sport with offseason conditioning, summer practices, and then the rigor of the September to potentially April grind of practices, games, and travel. Anytime there are basketball players on campus, they’re likely stopping by JP’s house, especially if you like baked goods.
“She makes sure those who can’t go home she cooks and has dinner for us,” said veteran Buckeyes guard Rikki Harris. “We go to her house and bake. At Thanksgiving, she has people over who can’t go home for it.”
Throughout the season, Powell also hosts baking competitions at her home, with everyone on the squad invited.
“It’s just freaking chaotic,” said Powell. “It just gets fun. It’s fun to have them around. It’s fun to be in their energy. It’s fun to know them outside of basketball because they’re so bright and they’re so full of energy and just they have so much life in them.”
Coach Powell won’t divulge who’s the worst baker, but teammates aren’t as bashful.
“I’d have to say Jacy (Sheldon) because I know Jacy does not cook,” said Harris. “She could do it. She could read the instructions but I would say Jacy because I know she doesn’t cook.”
Even if baking isn’t Sheldon’s forte, Powell knows that the guard loves sweets and will eat a cookie at 8 o’clock in the morning if one was given to her. JP knows it because she knows her players, and also happens to bring in sweets.
“Yesterday I brought him pumpkin muffins because they love pumpkin, chocolate chip, pumpkin muffins,” said Powell.
It’s not only the beautiful chaos of 15 basketball players in Powell’s kitchen but one-on-one time with the team’s best baker, junior Taylor Thierry.
The soft-spoken rising star for the Buckeyes out of Cleveland, Ohio comes to Powell’s place often, giving Thierry a place to spend time with someone who off the court carries similar traits to a best friend than a coach.
There could be issues with a coach-as-a-friend relationship if all the coach wants to do is be a friend, but the respect built off the court means players also respect Powell on the court, when its time for the team to get to work.
“She’s also a big ball of energy. Her personality is contagious,” said Cambridge. “She’s going to laugh, she’s going to dance with you but when it comes time for business she’s going to get serious.”
“She’s going to be on you,” said Harris. “JP is down to play with you but when it is time to focus and you’re messing around she’ll let you know you’re messing around and I like that about her.”
Coming In At The Right Time
When Powell joined the Buckeyes, the program was in a time of transition. McGuff hired Powell soon after bringing in fellow assistant coach Wesley Brooks, and at the same time promoted coach Morrow to associate head coach. It was following Ohio State’s final year of sanctions due to past recruiting violations. Violations where former assistant Patrick Klein paid for players' manicures, textbooks for non-scholarship players, and more.
For a player like Harris who joined the Buckeyes in 2019, Powell’s inclusion in the team was a breath of fresh air.
“She does everything for us. She wants to see us thrive off the court, on the court, at home,” said Harris. “She’s not much older than some of us, so she understands a lot of what we do, what we go through at this age because she’s been through it recently but we also respect her as a coach, even though she’s younger.”
Now it’s not all Powell, but since the coaching staff changed, Ohio State’s gone from a team losing starters in the transfer portal to winning a share of the Big Ten regular season championship in 2022 and making it to the Elite Eight in 2023.
Powell tells the team that this isn’t only a personal legacy but creating the legacy of the Ohio State Buckeyes. For years it was the 1993 team that made it to the NCAA National Championship game with legend Katie Smith. Then there are individual standout stars over the years like Kelsey Mitchell and Jantel Lavender, even if the team overall wasn’t performing at the top of the NCAA.
Today, McGuff, Powell, and the staff are about creating a new history.
“Everyone talks about UConn. Everyone talks about South Carolina and what they’ve developed over the years and two great programs, you know, super historic,” said Powell. “You know, they had to go through this to get to that and it’s like we’re kind of on that same brink as far as a culture piece.”
The culture of the Buckeyes is welcoming. Taylor’s already become a leader on the team and transfers like Cambridge could tell a difference right away. A difference between a program that focuses on winning and a program that’s focused on building relationships while winning.
When recruits pick up the Ohio State hat live on Instagram these days, it’s partly because of Powell. When recruits become successful players and, more importantly, humans in the program, it’s because of the legacy Powell is helping create.
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LGHL Grumpy Old Buckeye: Ohio State vs. Maryland
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Grumpy Old Buckeye: Ohio State vs. Maryland
Michael Citro via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images
Here’s what had me writing angry comment cards to the manager on Saturday.
The Buckeyes returned from their off week and took care of the Maryland Terrapins in a 37-17 Big Ten victory. However, it took Ohio State a long time to wake up and get into this game, as the team looked to still be on a bye week in the first half — especially on the offensive side of the football. Ultimately, the Buckeyes woke up, figured it out, and started making plays to pull away from the Terps to get to five wins without a loss on the year.
Here are the things from the game that had me writing angry letters to the manager on comment cards.
The Buckeyes sputtered out of the gate on offense, which was a theme throughout much of the game. Despite getting some decent early runs from Chip Trayanum, the Buckeyes struggled to pick up first downs or sustain drives. It began on the first series, when a bad throw — on what seemed like the millionth wide receiver screen of the season already — put the offense behind the chains. A good chunk run by Trayanum on second down made the third-down play manageable, but a pass fell incomplete, bringing the punt team on early.
Ohio State’s punt unit couldn’t even execute the fourth snap of the game properly. A poor snap was fielded by blocking back Cody Simon, who scooped it up and tried his best to reach the first down line to make. But the Terrapins’ special teams unit stuffed Simon and took over on downs in great field position. It was a bad way to start the game.
In the end, Kyle McCord’s stats on the day were pretty good. He finished 19-of-29 for a career-high 320 yards and two touchdowns without throwing an interception, although he did take three sacks. After that ballsy winning drive at Notre Dame two weeks ago, most were expecting McCord to build on that performance, but despite his good numbers, it wasn’t a complete success for the young signal caller.
He made some poor reads, put the ball into some dangerous areas, completed only one of his first seven passes, and severely underthrew two passes that should have been long touchdowns. The first of those was a pass Marvin Harrison Jr. had to wait on, which cost him a touchdown, and Ohio State ultimately settled for a field goal on that drive. Later in the game, McCord underthrew Julian Fleming on what should have been a touchdown, although the Buckeyes punched in on that possession at the end.
Fans have grown impatient by the number of times wide receiver screens have been called this season, relative to how often they’ve been successful. It’s perfectly logical to make those an extension of the run game, especially when the offensive line hasn’t been getting to the second level and linebackers have had a free run at Buckeye ball carriers.
However, the Buckeyes haven’t been any better at those wideout screens than they’ve been at rushing. It’s often a blocking issue. Emeka Egbuka took a penalty early in the game for holding on a one-yard pass to Harrison. The play went nowhere, so the hold obviously wasn’t effective, and once again Ohio State put itself behind the chains.
I mentioned it earlier, but the lack of Ohio State linemen climbing to the second level and getting linebackers blocked has been a problem early in the season and it was noticeable against Maryland. It wasn’t isolated to one individual or position. Guards, tackles, and the center continued to allow linebackers free runs at both McCord and Ohio State’s running backs. In the passing game, the line gave up three sacks.
It was not a good enough performance from the group, and it also included some penalties. A false start on Matthew Jones, for example, helped derail one drive and led to an Ohio State punt.
Steele Chambers has struggled against the run this season, and it seems as though the OSU coaching staff has settled on playing Simon more. The problem is that for all those extra plays he’s on the field, the veteran linebacker continues to run into blocks and gets walled off, creating big holes for opposing running backs to run through.
Sonny Styles and C.J. Hicks may not have the experience, but both have flashed in their snaps, and perhaps it’s time to let them play more and see if they’re better at filling holes rather than allowing them.
Michael Hall Jr. made one of Ohio State’s biggest blunders when he was called for roughing Taulia Tagovailoa, negating a third-down stop and giving Maryland a first down late in the first half with the game tied at 10-10. Hall got away with the mistake when the Terps mismanaged the clock and time expired before they could stop the clock and kick a field goal. However, in today’s game, when quarterbacks have protections in place, defensive players have to avoid hitting them out of frustration.
Ohio State scored on a touchdown pass to Harrison, but it was called back for an illegal motion penalty on Xavier Johnson. The veteran receiver did what he and others do on so many plays, he came inside and shuffled sideways to wait for the snap. Did he have some forward movement? Minimally, but no more than others that weren’t called on both sides.
It was an exceedingly picky call. Harrison scored anyway because ball don’t lie, but it was a maddening flag for something that happens regularly and is never called.
These were some of the things (but not all of the things) that aggravated me during Saturday’s win. Obviously in a 20-point win over an undefeated team, plenty of things went well. McCord did well to bounce back from a bad start. Harrison had a big day. The defense played well after they too had a slow start, getting some takeaways, and scoring a touchdown through Josh Proctor’s pick-six.
The Buckeyes head back on the road next week to perhaps the most annoying destination in the entire Big Ten — West Lafayette, Indiana — where they’ll take on Purdue on Saturday.
Continue reading...
Michael Citro via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images
Here’s what had me writing angry comment cards to the manager on Saturday.
The Buckeyes returned from their off week and took care of the Maryland Terrapins in a 37-17 Big Ten victory. However, it took Ohio State a long time to wake up and get into this game, as the team looked to still be on a bye week in the first half — especially on the offensive side of the football. Ultimately, the Buckeyes woke up, figured it out, and started making plays to pull away from the Terps to get to five wins without a loss on the year.
Here are the things from the game that had me writing angry letters to the manager on comment cards.
Three-and-Out Start
The Buckeyes sputtered out of the gate on offense, which was a theme throughout much of the game. Despite getting some decent early runs from Chip Trayanum, the Buckeyes struggled to pick up first downs or sustain drives. It began on the first series, when a bad throw — on what seemed like the millionth wide receiver screen of the season already — put the offense behind the chains. A good chunk run by Trayanum on second down made the third-down play manageable, but a pass fell incomplete, bringing the punt team on early.
Things Got Worse
Ohio State’s punt unit couldn’t even execute the fourth snap of the game properly. A poor snap was fielded by blocking back Cody Simon, who scooped it up and tried his best to reach the first down line to make. But the Terrapins’ special teams unit stuffed Simon and took over on downs in great field position. It was a bad way to start the game.
McCord’s Struggles
In the end, Kyle McCord’s stats on the day were pretty good. He finished 19-of-29 for a career-high 320 yards and two touchdowns without throwing an interception, although he did take three sacks. After that ballsy winning drive at Notre Dame two weeks ago, most were expecting McCord to build on that performance, but despite his good numbers, it wasn’t a complete success for the young signal caller.
He made some poor reads, put the ball into some dangerous areas, completed only one of his first seven passes, and severely underthrew two passes that should have been long touchdowns. The first of those was a pass Marvin Harrison Jr. had to wait on, which cost him a touchdown, and Ohio State ultimately settled for a field goal on that drive. Later in the game, McCord underthrew Julian Fleming on what should have been a touchdown, although the Buckeyes punched in on that possession at the end.
I Keep Holdin’ On
Fans have grown impatient by the number of times wide receiver screens have been called this season, relative to how often they’ve been successful. It’s perfectly logical to make those an extension of the run game, especially when the offensive line hasn’t been getting to the second level and linebackers have had a free run at Buckeye ball carriers.
However, the Buckeyes haven’t been any better at those wideout screens than they’ve been at rushing. It’s often a blocking issue. Emeka Egbuka took a penalty early in the game for holding on a one-yard pass to Harrison. The play went nowhere, so the hold obviously wasn’t effective, and once again Ohio State put itself behind the chains.
Offensive Line Woes
I mentioned it earlier, but the lack of Ohio State linemen climbing to the second level and getting linebackers blocked has been a problem early in the season and it was noticeable against Maryland. It wasn’t isolated to one individual or position. Guards, tackles, and the center continued to allow linebackers free runs at both McCord and Ohio State’s running backs. In the passing game, the line gave up three sacks.
It was not a good enough performance from the group, and it also included some penalties. A false start on Matthew Jones, for example, helped derail one drive and led to an Ohio State punt.
Too Much, Too Little Cody Simon
Steele Chambers has struggled against the run this season, and it seems as though the OSU coaching staff has settled on playing Simon more. The problem is that for all those extra plays he’s on the field, the veteran linebacker continues to run into blocks and gets walled off, creating big holes for opposing running backs to run through.
Sonny Styles and C.J. Hicks may not have the experience, but both have flashed in their snaps, and perhaps it’s time to let them play more and see if they’re better at filling holes rather than allowing them.
Not So Rough!
Michael Hall Jr. made one of Ohio State’s biggest blunders when he was called for roughing Taulia Tagovailoa, negating a third-down stop and giving Maryland a first down late in the first half with the game tied at 10-10. Hall got away with the mistake when the Terps mismanaged the clock and time expired before they could stop the clock and kick a field goal. However, in today’s game, when quarterbacks have protections in place, defensive players have to avoid hitting them out of frustration.
Illegal Motion?
Ohio State scored on a touchdown pass to Harrison, but it was called back for an illegal motion penalty on Xavier Johnson. The veteran receiver did what he and others do on so many plays, he came inside and shuffled sideways to wait for the snap. Did he have some forward movement? Minimally, but no more than others that weren’t called on both sides.
It was an exceedingly picky call. Harrison scored anyway because ball don’t lie, but it was a maddening flag for something that happens regularly and is never called.
These were some of the things (but not all of the things) that aggravated me during Saturday’s win. Obviously in a 20-point win over an undefeated team, plenty of things went well. McCord did well to bounce back from a bad start. Harrison had a big day. The defense played well after they too had a slow start, getting some takeaways, and scoring a touchdown through Josh Proctor’s pick-six.
The Buckeyes head back on the road next week to perhaps the most annoying destination in the entire Big Ten — West Lafayette, Indiana — where they’ll take on Purdue on Saturday.
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LGHL Hangout in the Holy Land Podcast: Zombie Buckeyes come to life, but questions and issues remain
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Hangout in the Holy Land Podcast: Zombie Buckeyes come to life, but questions and issues remain
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Despite a win and a cover against previously undefeated Maryland, Josh and Chuck are both feeling a bit uneasy about Ohio State’s recent performance(s).
The latest episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s flagship podcast is here! Join LGHL’s Josh Dooley and Chuck Holmes as they discuss Ohio State football, recruiting, and much, much more! Come for the hot takes, stay for the warm ones.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
On this episode of ‘Hangout in the Holy Land,’ Josh and Chuck try to keep it positive following their Buckeyes’ 37-17 victory over previously undefeated Maryland. But despite a win and a cover, Ohio State showed real regression on offense, as well as on the sideline. So how concerned should fans be moving forward?
While Jim Knowles’ defense continued to impress on Saturday, Ryan Day’s offense did anything but... for the better part of three quarters. Problems along the offensive line were only exacerbated by the absence of TreVeyon Henderson, but both Day and Kyle McCord have to be better if OSU has hopes of winning the Big Ten or a national championship.
That likely starts with better first halves. But the sky is not falling yet, as Ohio State does own a spotless 5-0 record. However, these hosts agree that Day’s squad must get better in a hurry with Penn State, Wisconsin, and of course TTUN on the schedule.
Please make sure to like, rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast! And as always, Go Bucks!
Connect with the pod
Twitter: @HolyLandPod
Connect with Josh Dooley
Twitter: @jdooleybuckeye
Connect with Chuck Holmes
Twitter: @ctholmes3
Continue reading...
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Despite a win and a cover against previously undefeated Maryland, Josh and Chuck are both feeling a bit uneasy about Ohio State’s recent performance(s).
The latest episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s flagship podcast is here! Join LGHL’s Josh Dooley and Chuck Holmes as they discuss Ohio State football, recruiting, and much, much more! Come for the hot takes, stay for the warm ones.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
On this episode of ‘Hangout in the Holy Land,’ Josh and Chuck try to keep it positive following their Buckeyes’ 37-17 victory over previously undefeated Maryland. But despite a win and a cover, Ohio State showed real regression on offense, as well as on the sideline. So how concerned should fans be moving forward?
While Jim Knowles’ defense continued to impress on Saturday, Ryan Day’s offense did anything but... for the better part of three quarters. Problems along the offensive line were only exacerbated by the absence of TreVeyon Henderson, but both Day and Kyle McCord have to be better if OSU has hopes of winning the Big Ten or a national championship.
That likely starts with better first halves. But the sky is not falling yet, as Ohio State does own a spotless 5-0 record. However, these hosts agree that Day’s squad must get better in a hurry with Penn State, Wisconsin, and of course TTUN on the schedule.
Please make sure to like, rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast! And as always, Go Bucks!
Connect with the pod
Twitter: @HolyLandPod
Connect with Josh Dooley
Twitter: @jdooleybuckeye
Connect with Chuck Holmes
Twitter: @ctholmes3
Continue reading...
LGHL Ohio State offers Bryce James, son of LeBron
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Ohio State offers Bryce James, son of LeBron
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
2025 SG Bryce James | via @@SLAM_HS on Twitter
The Buckeyes had a busy weekend on the field and on the recruiting trail.
Ohio State was back in the friendly confines of Columbus on Saturday afternoon, which meant another opportunity to host some key targets on the recruiting trail. While most of the attention is paid to the football team, and rightfully so, the 37-17 win for the Buckeyes over the Terrapins provided an avenue for Chris Holtmann to get some big names on campus as well.
One of those guys happened to be 2025 shooting guard Bryce James, who is of course the son of NBA superstar LeBron James and the younger brother of 2023 USC commit, Bronny James. Bryce took an unofficial visit to Ohio State, and was on the sidelines for the football team’s game against Maryland. Things must have gone well, as he left OSU with an offer from the Buckeyes — just his second in the early goings of his recruiting process.
At 6-foot-4, 180 pounds, Bryce played his freshman and sophomore seasons with his older brother at Sierra Canyon, but transferred to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame – one of the top high school athletic programs in the Southland. Not as highly-touted a prospect as Bronny, Bryce did look good on Nike’s EYBL Circuit with the Strive for Greatness program. He is currently ranked has the No. 20 SG and No. 129 player overall in the 2025 class, per the 247Sports Composite.
James wasn’t the only hooper in attendance on Saturday, as 2026 point guard Dezhon Hall also made the trip to Columbus for an unofficial visit. Hall does not yet have a ranking as a result of his class status, but the 6-foot-3 guard is expected to be one of the top prospects in a talent-rich state of Indiana. With his recruitment really starting to take off, Hall transferred this summer to Pike High School, where he will be coached by NBA veteran Jeff Teague.
James also wasn’t the only son of a legend at Ohio State on Saturday, as 2025 running back Noah Sanders, son of NFL Hall of Famer Barry Sanders, visited the Buckeyes on the football side of things. Sanders has just one offer to his name thus far — from Toledo — but the 5-foot-11 Michigan native’s recruitment is very much just getting started. With Ryan Day’s group already having tremendous success with the son of an NFL Hall of Famer in Marvin Harrison Jr., not to say Sanders will be a prospect of quite that caliber, Tony Alford would certainly love to replicate something like that within his position group.
One player that didn’t get to make the trip to see the Buckeyes on Saturday was 2025 cornerback Mark Zackery IV. Despite needing to stay home to get treatment for an ankle injury, the Indiana native had nothing but good things to say about Ohio State, naming them among six schools out of his nearly 30 offers that are currently ahead of the pack.
That’s one of my favorite schools,” Zackery said of Ohio State. “I’ve liked them since I was little... Coach (Tim) Walton I talk to him every week. He’s a key guy in my recruitment. We talk every week about how things are going there and how things are going for me. He feels like I’m a great fit for that kind of program playing under Coach [Ryan] Day showing toughness and I feel I showed that [Friday].”
Alongside the Buckeyes, Zackery mentioned Cincinnati, Michigan, Notre Dame, Purdue and Tennessee as schools that are currently catching his attention. The 6-foot DB has been to Columbus a handful of times, and received his official offer from Ohio State this past summer. Zackery ranks as the No. 16 CB, No. 117 overall prospect and the No. 1 player out of Indiana in the 2025 class, per the 247Sports Composite.
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2025 SG Bryce James | via @@SLAM_HS on Twitter
The Buckeyes had a busy weekend on the field and on the recruiting trail.
Ohio State was back in the friendly confines of Columbus on Saturday afternoon, which meant another opportunity to host some key targets on the recruiting trail. While most of the attention is paid to the football team, and rightfully so, the 37-17 win for the Buckeyes over the Terrapins provided an avenue for Chris Holtmann to get some big names on campus as well.
One of those guys happened to be 2025 shooting guard Bryce James, who is of course the son of NBA superstar LeBron James and the younger brother of 2023 USC commit, Bronny James. Bryce took an unofficial visit to Ohio State, and was on the sidelines for the football team’s game against Maryland. Things must have gone well, as he left OSU with an offer from the Buckeyes — just his second in the early goings of his recruiting process.
At 6-foot-4, 180 pounds, Bryce played his freshman and sophomore seasons with his older brother at Sierra Canyon, but transferred to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame – one of the top high school athletic programs in the Southland. Not as highly-touted a prospect as Bronny, Bryce did look good on Nike’s EYBL Circuit with the Strive for Greatness program. He is currently ranked has the No. 20 SG and No. 129 player overall in the 2025 class, per the 247Sports Composite.
James wasn’t the only hooper in attendance on Saturday, as 2026 point guard Dezhon Hall also made the trip to Columbus for an unofficial visit. Hall does not yet have a ranking as a result of his class status, but the 6-foot-3 guard is expected to be one of the top prospects in a talent-rich state of Indiana. With his recruitment really starting to take off, Hall transferred this summer to Pike High School, where he will be coached by NBA veteran Jeff Teague.
Had a wonderful unoffical visit! #GoBuckeyes #notcommitted️ pic.twitter.com/2p45hy0Ti7
— DeZhon Hall (@HallDezhon) October 7, 2023
James also wasn’t the only son of a legend at Ohio State on Saturday, as 2025 running back Noah Sanders, son of NFL Hall of Famer Barry Sanders, visited the Buckeyes on the football side of things. Sanders has just one offer to his name thus far — from Toledo — but the 5-foot-11 Michigan native’s recruitment is very much just getting started. With Ryan Day’s group already having tremendous success with the son of an NFL Hall of Famer in Marvin Harrison Jr., not to say Sanders will be a prospect of quite that caliber, Tony Alford would certainly love to replicate something like that within his position group.
One player that didn’t get to make the trip to see the Buckeyes on Saturday was 2025 cornerback Mark Zackery IV. Despite needing to stay home to get treatment for an ankle injury, the Indiana native had nothing but good things to say about Ohio State, naming them among six schools out of his nearly 30 offers that are currently ahead of the pack.
That’s one of my favorite schools,” Zackery said of Ohio State. “I’ve liked them since I was little... Coach (Tim) Walton I talk to him every week. He’s a key guy in my recruitment. We talk every week about how things are going there and how things are going for me. He feels like I’m a great fit for that kind of program playing under Coach [Ryan] Day showing toughness and I feel I showed that [Friday].”
Alongside the Buckeyes, Zackery mentioned Cincinnati, Michigan, Notre Dame, Purdue and Tennessee as schools that are currently catching his attention. The 6-foot DB has been to Columbus a handful of times, and received his official offer from Ohio State this past summer. Zackery ranks as the No. 16 CB, No. 117 overall prospect and the No. 1 player out of Indiana in the 2025 class, per the 247Sports Composite.
Quick Hits
- A handful of other recruits posted on social media about their Ohio State game day visits this past weekend. Among those in attendance included 2026 defensive lineman Ben Nichols, 2025 offensive tackle Avery Gach, 2026 wide receiver Justen Hodge, and on the basketball side 2025 power forward Aleks Alston as well as 2025 center Dezmon Briscoe.
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