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LGHL Denzel Burke has impressed Ohio State fans through two games of 2023 season
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Denzel Burke has impressed Ohio State fans through two games of 2023 season
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
And with Notre Dame looming, fans would like to see improvement from the offensive line.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
Buckeye Nation has been a bit split on how the first two games have gone for the Ohio State football team. While the results have been wins, which is positive, neither victory has looked exactly how anyone expected. However, whether that is enough to sound the alarm or not, depends on the person.
So, we wanted to check in with Ohio State fans and play both sides of the fence. In our weekly fan survey, we asked fans what player has been a bright spot for them this season and what area of concern they would like to see addressed against Western Kentucky today with an eye on Notre Dame next weekend.
Check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.
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I truly love to see this. After an All-American campaign as a freshman in 2021, Denzel Burke had a tough sophomore season and a lot of Buckeye fans were less than pleased with his play. So, it has been really wonderful to see him bounce back and finally look like the BIA corner that we all thought he could be following his rookie campaign.
Coming into the season, I might have guessed that Sonny Styles might be the one to earn this honor — and he still might be by year’s end — but coming in a respectable second is pretty strong for the 18-year-old first-time starter.
But, I do think that the fact that the top two vote-getters play in the secondary goes a long way to explain why the OSU defense has looked so much better this year against the pass. The unit comes into Week 3 as the fifth-best pass defense allowing only 108.5 yards per game through the air.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24925817/OhioState_2_091323.png)
The offensive line continues to be the top concern for Ohio State fans in our weekly survey, but it does make sense given how much better many of the other position groups have looked through two games.
I don’t think that Day is ever going to turn his team into a pure run-first team, but if he did want to try and work some things out on the ground, this week would be a good opportunity. In WKU’s season opener against South Florida, the Bulls ran the ball 61 times for a total of 374 yards (6.13 yards per carry) and 2 touchdowns. USF had a pair of backs go for over 100 yards. Even last week against FCS Houston Christian University, the Hilltoppers allowed 155 rushing yards on 35 carries for a 4.42 ypc average.
The Buckeyes are only going for 4.6 ypc themselves, much of that attributable to an offensive line that is still getting things figured out. However, offensive line coach and run game coordinator Justin Frye thinks that his position group is fixing the communication and scheme issues seen in the first two weeks and that the next step would be for them to play “violently.”
Will they do that against Western Kentucky today? Only time will tell, but I think Buckeye Nation would be quite happy if they did.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
And with Notre Dame looming, fans would like to see improvement from the offensive line.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
Buckeye Nation has been a bit split on how the first two games have gone for the Ohio State football team. While the results have been wins, which is positive, neither victory has looked exactly how anyone expected. However, whether that is enough to sound the alarm or not, depends on the person.
So, we wanted to check in with Ohio State fans and play both sides of the fence. In our weekly fan survey, we asked fans what player has been a bright spot for them this season and what area of concern they would like to see addressed against Western Kentucky today with an eye on Notre Dame next weekend.
Check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.
Question 1: What player has most impressed you through two games?
I truly love to see this. After an All-American campaign as a freshman in 2021, Denzel Burke had a tough sophomore season and a lot of Buckeye fans were less than pleased with his play. So, it has been really wonderful to see him bounce back and finally look like the BIA corner that we all thought he could be following his rookie campaign.
Coming into the season, I might have guessed that Sonny Styles might be the one to earn this honor — and he still might be by year’s end — but coming in a respectable second is pretty strong for the 18-year-old first-time starter.
But, I do think that the fact that the top two vote-getters play in the secondary goes a long way to explain why the OSU defense has looked so much better this year against the pass. The unit comes into Week 3 as the fifth-best pass defense allowing only 108.5 yards per game through the air.
Question 2: What is the one thing you want to see most against Western Kentucky?
The offensive line continues to be the top concern for Ohio State fans in our weekly survey, but it does make sense given how much better many of the other position groups have looked through two games.
I don’t think that Day is ever going to turn his team into a pure run-first team, but if he did want to try and work some things out on the ground, this week would be a good opportunity. In WKU’s season opener against South Florida, the Bulls ran the ball 61 times for a total of 374 yards (6.13 yards per carry) and 2 touchdowns. USF had a pair of backs go for over 100 yards. Even last week against FCS Houston Christian University, the Hilltoppers allowed 155 rushing yards on 35 carries for a 4.42 ypc average.
The Buckeyes are only going for 4.6 ypc themselves, much of that attributable to an offensive line that is still getting things figured out. However, offensive line coach and run game coordinator Justin Frye thinks that his position group is fixing the communication and scheme issues seen in the first two weeks and that the next step would be for them to play “violently.”
Will they do that against Western Kentucky today? Only time will tell, but I think Buckeye Nation would be quite happy if they did.
Continue reading...
LGHL OHIO STATE GAMEDAY: It’s a bad day to be a Western Kentucky Hilltopper
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OHIO STATE GAMEDAY: It’s a bad day to be a Western Kentucky Hilltopper
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Buckeyes have one final game to get ready for a road trip to Notre Dame in Week 4.
Wake up, everyone. It’s Ohio State game day!
The Buckeyes have one final contest to prepare themselves for a marquee matchup against Notre Dame next weekend, but this week’s opponent will provide a unique challenge. Western Kentucky brings to Columbus one of the nation’s best passing attacks, led by quarterback Austin Reed and wide receiver Malachi Corley. Ohio State’s defense has looked good to start the season, but the Hilltoppers will look different than anything Jim Knowles’ unit has seen thus far. On the other side, Ryan Day will be looking to get newly established QB1 Kyle McCord ready to go for a road trip to South Bend in Week 4.
Over the past week, our talented group of writers and podcasters have put together preview pieces, analytical breakdowns, and everything in-between.
If you missed out on any of the coverage, we have you... well, covered. Below, each type of story is categorized. If you’re looking for podcasts and previews we’ve done, you can find them; if you’re looking for the betting lines and non-football topics, they are there, too.
Enjoy the day everyone. As always, Go Bucks!
Continue reading...
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Buckeyes have one final game to get ready for a road trip to Notre Dame in Week 4.
Wake up, everyone. It’s Ohio State game day!
The Buckeyes have one final contest to prepare themselves for a marquee matchup against Notre Dame next weekend, but this week’s opponent will provide a unique challenge. Western Kentucky brings to Columbus one of the nation’s best passing attacks, led by quarterback Austin Reed and wide receiver Malachi Corley. Ohio State’s defense has looked good to start the season, but the Hilltoppers will look different than anything Jim Knowles’ unit has seen thus far. On the other side, Ryan Day will be looking to get newly established QB1 Kyle McCord ready to go for a road trip to South Bend in Week 4.
Over the past week, our talented group of writers and podcasters have put together preview pieces, analytical breakdowns, and everything in-between.
If you missed out on any of the coverage, we have you... well, covered. Below, each type of story is categorized. If you’re looking for podcasts and previews we’ve done, you can find them; if you’re looking for the betting lines and non-football topics, they are there, too.
Enjoy the day everyone. As always, Go Bucks!
Football Podcasts
- Know the Reason Why: Western Kentucky is perfect prep game for Ohio State
- Hangout in the Holy Land: Preparing for a track meet against WKU in The Shoe
- Uncut: Justin Frye on the good and bad he’s seen from the offensive line this fall
- Uncut: Day says Ohio State officially has a QB, but also has third-down issues
- Silver Bullets: Youngstown State rewind, Western Kentucky preview
Previews
- Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky: 2023 game preview and prediction
- Three Things To Watch from Western Kentucky
Sports Betting
- Ohio State opens as 27.5-point favorites over Western Kentucky
- Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky prop bets
- Week 3 national games
- Week 3 Big Ten games
Basketball
- Big Ten Men’s Basketball Team Previews: Illinois Fighting Illini
- Should Ohio State men’s basketball take another player in the 2024 class?
Recruiting
- Ohio State offers latest prospect in the 2025 class with Texas linebacker
- In-state 2026 DB set to see OSU, 2025 TE target breaks down top schools
- Ohio State commit lands in top 5 of 2026 recruiting class
- Ohio State offers a pair of in-state prospects in 2025, 2026
Ask LGHL
Other Podcasts
Other Columns
- Ohio State has a talent advantage over every team it plays; it’s time Ryan Day coaches like it
- Cover Six: Is Denzel Burke back to All-American status?
- It is actually healthy to criticize your favorite team
- B1G Thoughts: Kyle McCord is Ohio State’s QB1, Iowa still can’t hit 25
- Chris Olave shows out, Denzel Ward shuts down Ja’Marr Chase
- Which player you have never heard of will be a Heisman finalist?
- What Ohio State can learn from Deion Sanders and Colorado
- College football needs to adopt professional soccer’s system of player movement
- Should TreVeyon Henderson or Chip Trayanum be Ohio State’s RB1?
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LGHL What prop bets can you make on the Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky game?
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What prop bets can you make on the Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky game?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
The first two Buckeye games of the season have been less than thrilling, so might as well put some action on this one to spicy things up!
The first two games of the Ohio State football season have been less than thrilling. No matter what you think of the Buckeyes’ performance, neither the season opener against Indiana nor last week’s game against Youngstown State have been exactly aesthetically pleasing.
So, if you want to ensure that tomorrow’s contest has a little extra juice on it, then might I interest you in some prop bets? The Buckeyes opened as 27.5-point favorites, but as of publishing time, that has risen to 29.5 points, according to DraftKings SportsBook.
But any simpleton can bet the spread or the over/under (65.5), so let’s take a look at some of the more exotic options that our friends at DraftKings are offering.
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
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In a matchup that will feature two teams that like to throw the ball, the race is on to see who can score first. If you decide that you want to put some money down on the home team, the Buckeyes are at -270 while the Hilltoppers are +200.
What that means is that if you want to win $100 by betting the Buckeyes, you would need to bet $270. But, if you put $100 on WKU, you will profit $200. So, the implied odds are that OSU has a 2:1 chance of scoring first.
But, if you want to go a little further on the first score betting, DraftKings has options that could pay you a bit more. Of the six options, five of them would pay significantly more than just betting just a Buckeyes’ score, with one — OSU getting a TD — being only a relatively small increase at -190.
However, if you really want to get creative, I might go ahead and put $10 on each team scoring a safety, because if it hits, I would walk with $780 in profit.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24925299/Screenshot_2023_09_15_at_3.56.45_PM.png)
As I said before, both WKU and OSU are teams that like to sling it. In 2022, the Hilltoppers had the No. 2 passing offense averaging 352.1 yards through the air per game; the Buckeyes were 14th with 298.3. Through two games, Western Kentucky is 12th nationally with 327 yards per game, while Ohio State is down at 30th with 298 yards per.
So, both teams have the potential to hit big bombs, but what’s interesting is that WKU tends to stick to quick passes allowing the receivers to make the most of open space, while the Buckeyes — under C.J. Stroud and Justin Field — were far more likely to take deep shots. So, you would think that OSU would have the better likelihood to hit big plays, but last year, the Hilltoppers were tied for third nationally with 47 plays of 30 yards are more, while the Bucks were fifth with 42.
When you push that to 40 yards, Ohio State was sixth with 22, while WKU had 20, which was good for ninth. At 50+? Ohio State and Western Kentucky were tied for 34th nationally with eight. Through two weeks of the 2023 season, the teams are tied at 58th with four plays of 30+ yards.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24925305/Screenshot_2023_09_15_at_3.58.49_PM.png)
I like this bet, not because I think it is one that can be used for making a ton of money, but just because it’s fun and is nearly impossible to predict. Ohio State has allowed two scores all season, so on average, there is only a 25% chance of their opponents holding up their end of the bargain for this to get home. But given the new clock rules and Ryan Day switching things up so that he took the ball to start the game last week, how do you pick when to bet that both will hang a crooked number?
The Buckeyes have scored in every quarter of the season except for the fourth quarter against YSU when they actually had a TD called back, so I would feel comfortable betting on OSU’s offense to score in any quarter, but determining whether or not the defense will continue its lights out play, or if (and when) it will give up points is a fascinating crap shoot that only degenerates should be putting money on.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
The first two Buckeye games of the season have been less than thrilling, so might as well put some action on this one to spicy things up!
The first two games of the Ohio State football season have been less than thrilling. No matter what you think of the Buckeyes’ performance, neither the season opener against Indiana nor last week’s game against Youngstown State have been exactly aesthetically pleasing.
So, if you want to ensure that tomorrow’s contest has a little extra juice on it, then might I interest you in some prop bets? The Buckeyes opened as 27.5-point favorites, but as of publishing time, that has risen to 29.5 points, according to DraftKings SportsBook.
But any simpleton can bet the spread or the over/under (65.5), so let’s take a look at some of the more exotic options that our friends at DraftKings are offering.
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
First Score
In a matchup that will feature two teams that like to throw the ball, the race is on to see who can score first. If you decide that you want to put some money down on the home team, the Buckeyes are at -270 while the Hilltoppers are +200.
What that means is that if you want to win $100 by betting the Buckeyes, you would need to bet $270. But, if you put $100 on WKU, you will profit $200. So, the implied odds are that OSU has a 2:1 chance of scoring first.
But, if you want to go a little further on the first score betting, DraftKings has options that could pay you a bit more. Of the six options, five of them would pay significantly more than just betting just a Buckeyes’ score, with one — OSU getting a TD — being only a relatively small increase at -190.
However, if you really want to get creative, I might go ahead and put $10 on each team scoring a safety, because if it hits, I would walk with $780 in profit.
Longest Touchdown
As I said before, both WKU and OSU are teams that like to sling it. In 2022, the Hilltoppers had the No. 2 passing offense averaging 352.1 yards through the air per game; the Buckeyes were 14th with 298.3. Through two games, Western Kentucky is 12th nationally with 327 yards per game, while Ohio State is down at 30th with 298 yards per.
So, both teams have the potential to hit big bombs, but what’s interesting is that WKU tends to stick to quick passes allowing the receivers to make the most of open space, while the Buckeyes — under C.J. Stroud and Justin Field — were far more likely to take deep shots. So, you would think that OSU would have the better likelihood to hit big plays, but last year, the Hilltoppers were tied for third nationally with 47 plays of 30 yards are more, while the Bucks were fifth with 42.
When you push that to 40 yards, Ohio State was sixth with 22, while WKU had 20, which was good for ninth. At 50+? Ohio State and Western Kentucky were tied for 34th nationally with eight. Through two weeks of the 2023 season, the teams are tied at 58th with four plays of 30+ yards.
Quarter Scoring
I like this bet, not because I think it is one that can be used for making a ton of money, but just because it’s fun and is nearly impossible to predict. Ohio State has allowed two scores all season, so on average, there is only a 25% chance of their opponents holding up their end of the bargain for this to get home. But given the new clock rules and Ryan Day switching things up so that he took the ball to start the game last week, how do you pick when to bet that both will hang a crooked number?
The Buckeyes have scored in every quarter of the season except for the fourth quarter against YSU when they actually had a TD called back, so I would feel comfortable betting on OSU’s offense to score in any quarter, but determining whether or not the defense will continue its lights out play, or if (and when) it will give up points is a fascinating crap shoot that only degenerates should be putting money on.
Continue reading...
LGHL Our streaming expert has the best ways to watch Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky for free without cable
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Our streaming expert has the best ways to watch Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky for free without cable
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
You’ve got a number of free trials you can choose from of various lengths and breadths.
No. 6 Ohio State is taking on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Fox today, but not in the Big Noon slot that fans are used to. So, if you are a little confused about how to watch the game, you’ve come to the right place.
As cord-cutting has become far more the norm than the exception across the United States, it would not be a surprise if you gave up cable or a live-streaming service following last year’s season only to realize that it’s the day of the game and you have no way to watch it.
Millions of cable customers across the country are dealing with blacked-out channels thanks to a retransmission dispute between DIRECTV and Nexstar, the largest local station owner in the country, impacting over 200 channels across the country, including dozens of FOX affiliates.
All of that can make finding the best way to watch a game incredibly confusing. Fortunately for you, I am something of a streaming expert... no really, I write about streaming services for a living. So, I am going to walk you through the best — and cheapest — ways for you to stream today’s game.
Also, if you want to put a little money on the game over at DraftKings Sportsbook, not only would it make what could be a blowout even more exciting, but you could make enough cash to pay for a full month of cable or streaming!
Game Date/Time: Saturday, Sept. 16 at 4 p.m. ET
TV: Fox
Broadcasters: Jason Benetti, Brock Huard, Allison Williams
Betting Line: Ohio State -29.5 | 65 o/u
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
If you just realized that you didn’t have a way to watch this afternoon’s game on the FOX, then DIRECTV STREAM is your best option. The live TV streaming service has the only guaranteed multi-day free trial in the industry and provides the most top cable channels of all of its competitors. The basic, Entertainment package comes with all of the major network channels — all of which have college football — ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. It also has ESPN, ESPN2, and FS1. Then, if you want to upgrade, other packages include the ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPNU, SEC Network, CBS Sports Network, Longhorn Network, and more.
What’s great about DIRECTV STREAM’s free trial is that you are able to sign up for whatever package you want for free. You don’t have to worry about being charged for upgraded plans. So, you can simply sign up for the top-tier Premier package — which normally costs $154.99 per month — enjoy all 140 channels for five days and then cancel.
The only issue with DIRECTV STREAM is that the provider is currently locked in a carriage dispute with station owner Nexstar. So, there are a number of channels across the country that are blacked out on DIRECTV’s satellite and streaming services. So, if you are going to go with DIRECTV STREAM, make sure that you check here to see if the game(s) you want to watch are blacked out in your area.
Big Ten Network won’t be impacted by the blackout, but a lot of the other games today — and NFL opening weekend — will be.
If you are unable to watch a game this weekend because of the DIRECTV/Nexstar dispute, Fubo is another good alternative. Currently, the service is only guaranteeing a one-day trial — as it is trying to discourage people from watching an entire weekend of football for free — but depending on the day and circumstances, it could be longer.
Either way, if you sign up here, you will at least be able to watch all of today’s games for free.
Below is your Ohio State vs. Youngstown State 2023 game thread. Be respectful, be kind and — as always — keep it classy, BuckeyeNation. If you like GIFs, lay ‘em on us. In all, be good fans, cheer for your teams, be cool to each other (even if somebody else isn’t) and everyone wins. Let’s finish the season strong!
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
You’ve got a number of free trials you can choose from of various lengths and breadths.
No. 6 Ohio State is taking on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Fox today, but not in the Big Noon slot that fans are used to. So, if you are a little confused about how to watch the game, you’ve come to the right place.
As cord-cutting has become far more the norm than the exception across the United States, it would not be a surprise if you gave up cable or a live-streaming service following last year’s season only to realize that it’s the day of the game and you have no way to watch it.
Millions of cable customers across the country are dealing with blacked-out channels thanks to a retransmission dispute between DIRECTV and Nexstar, the largest local station owner in the country, impacting over 200 channels across the country, including dozens of FOX affiliates.
All of that can make finding the best way to watch a game incredibly confusing. Fortunately for you, I am something of a streaming expert... no really, I write about streaming services for a living. So, I am going to walk you through the best — and cheapest — ways for you to stream today’s game.
Also, if you want to put a little money on the game over at DraftKings Sportsbook, not only would it make what could be a blowout even more exciting, but you could make enough cash to pay for a full month of cable or streaming!
How can I watch the Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky college football game?
Game Date/Time: Saturday, Sept. 16 at 4 p.m. ET
TV: Fox
Broadcasters: Jason Benetti, Brock Huard, Allison Williams
Betting Line: Ohio State -29.5 | 65 o/u
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
Best Streaming Option for All Week 2 College Football Games: DIRECTV STREAM | 5-Day Free Trial
If you just realized that you didn’t have a way to watch this afternoon’s game on the FOX, then DIRECTV STREAM is your best option. The live TV streaming service has the only guaranteed multi-day free trial in the industry and provides the most top cable channels of all of its competitors. The basic, Entertainment package comes with all of the major network channels — all of which have college football — ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. It also has ESPN, ESPN2, and FS1. Then, if you want to upgrade, other packages include the ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPNU, SEC Network, CBS Sports Network, Longhorn Network, and more.
What’s great about DIRECTV STREAM’s free trial is that you are able to sign up for whatever package you want for free. You don’t have to worry about being charged for upgraded plans. So, you can simply sign up for the top-tier Premier package — which normally costs $154.99 per month — enjoy all 140 channels for five days and then cancel.
The only issue with DIRECTV STREAM is that the provider is currently locked in a carriage dispute with station owner Nexstar. So, there are a number of channels across the country that are blacked out on DIRECTV’s satellite and streaming services. So, if you are going to go with DIRECTV STREAM, make sure that you check here to see if the game(s) you want to watch are blacked out in your area.
Big Ten Network won’t be impacted by the blackout, but a lot of the other games today — and NFL opening weekend — will be.
Best Streaming Option for Week 2 College Football Games If You Have Local Blackouts: Fubo | At Least a 1-Day Free Trial
If you are unable to watch a game this weekend because of the DIRECTV/Nexstar dispute, Fubo is another good alternative. Currently, the service is only guaranteeing a one-day trial — as it is trying to discourage people from watching an entire weekend of football for free — but depending on the day and circumstances, it could be longer.
Either way, if you sign up here, you will at least be able to watch all of today’s games for free.
Join the conversation
Below is your Ohio State vs. Youngstown State 2023 game thread. Be respectful, be kind and — as always — keep it classy, BuckeyeNation. If you like GIFs, lay ‘em on us. In all, be good fans, cheer for your teams, be cool to each other (even if somebody else isn’t) and everyone wins. Let’s finish the season strong!
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
Continue reading...
LGHL You’re Nuts: Should Ohio State men’s basketball take another player in the 2024 class?
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You’re Nuts: Should Ohio State men’s basketball take another player in the 2024 class?
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Roster construction in the year 2023 is a nearly impossible task, but we’ve got the answers.
Roster building. In videogames, it’s easy. But in real life — in the year of our Lord, 2023, putting together a college basketball roster is like pulling teeth while getting allergy tested right after stubbing your toe on a bedframe.
Name, image, and likeness compensation looms large — how much dos a player value the program vs how much money do they know they can get at a certain school? Roster and fit matter — is there a clear path for them to play right away? And if they don’t play right away, the one-time immediate transfer rule means a core player that you were expecting to help mold your program for four years could move on just like that.
This week, we’re looking at the 2024 class for Ohio State that currently has two commits. Should they seek out a third or fourth? We’ll talk about it.
Last week, the guys talked about charges. They’re annoying as heck, and are called incorrectly more often than not. But should we just get rid of them? Connor said no, Justin said yes. 67% of the readers sided with Connor.
Connor- 52
This week, we’re crunching the numbers and trying to decide if Ohio State should take another player in their 2024 class. The 2025 and 2026 classes are looking more talented than 2024, so should they leave roster spots for those classes?
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24923564/1246280675.jpg "HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL: JAN 16 Hoophall Classic")
Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The roster is getting crowded with freshmen and sophomores. I can do the math. Including 2024 commits Juni Mobley and Colin White, there are 13 players with eligibility that could return next season for Ohio State. For those who weren’t aware, that is a full roster.
Which means that if Ohio State was to take one additional 2024 commit, they would be putting themselves over the scholarship for next season. But the thing is, that’s not how it’s going to play out. Chris Holtmann even told us himself a few weeks ago — you always have to prepare assuming there will be at least one or two departures. For this roster in particular, Bowen Hardman and Kalen Etzler stand out as guys who could potentially be on the move next spring if they don’t crack the rotation this season.
Etzler is going into his third season, and Hardman his second. Each of them have only seen a handful of game minutes to this point in their careers. And with the younger guys rolling in year after year after year, it is getting tougher and tougher to see where these two guys fit in long-term with the program.
Now I’m not trying to boot those players, they’re just the two most obvious candidates. It also wouldn’t shock me if one of Ohio State’s centers — Felix Okpara, Zed Key, and Austin Parks — transferred after this season. We know for a fact that Key and Okpara both believe they should be in the starting lineup. Parks has some work to do, but if he knew he’d be stuck behind Okpara for the forseeable future, maybe it’s different.
The point is even if there isn’t obvious space right this second, there will be come spring time. That means Ohio State can try to add some size and strength in Jayden Quaintance (2024 No. 9) or Chris Nwuli (2024 No. 29). Either of these recruits would become one of the best, if not the best, recruit of the Chris Holtmann era at Ohio State. Quaintance is a 6-foot-9, athletic center who would have an immediate impact and would likely be a one-and-done type of talent. Nwuli is listed at 6-foot-7 and 200 pounds. The Buckeyes are losing a large presence with their forwards when Jamison Battle moves on. Nwuli also makes sense, roster-wise.
All of this is just to say that there are still some elite talents left in the 2024, and two of them have a particularly close eye on the Buckeyes. If Holtmann has the chance to get Quaintance or Nwuli, he should do it, and allow the roster changes to fix themsleves in the spring.
Plus, with nearly a half dozen guys on the team who could potentially put their name in the 2024 NBA Draft, I have very little doubt that there wouldn’t be safe space for another 2024 recruit come June next year. Stacking strong classes is the same of the game, and Chris Holtmann has the opportunity to do just that.
I think this one is pretty simple. If you can get Jayden Quaintance, you obviously do it. That opportunity does not come along often to add a five-star center to a class, and they would jump at that opportunity, no doubt.
However, it is looking unlikely that they will be able to add Quaintance when looking at the schools he is visiting and the way his recruitment has been talked about. But, his official visit apparently went very well last Saturday, so anything is possible.
What you have to do if you are Ohio State, though, is look at the future. The 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes are looking like two of the best Ohio classes in a while, and the Buckeyes need to make sure they will have room to add some of those guys.
After the 2023-24 season, it is only guaranteed that they will lose two guys due to eligibility — Dale Bonner and Jamison Battle — and even though it is likely they will lose one or two more to the transfer portal with the way, it is not a guarantee.
In the 2025 class, Darryn Peterson, the No. 2 recruit in the country, plus Dorian Jones and Jerry Easter, are top 50 guards in the country. In 2026, Marcus Johnson and Niko Bundalo are top 20 recruits in the country, according to ESPN 25. These guys are game changers. If you get Quaintance in the 2024 class, he is a game-changer as well, but you can’t just add a player to add a player with the two classes you have coming up. Plus, in the 2022 and 2023 classes total, they added nine players.
It is okay if you only have a two-person class, especially with two solid players.
Continue reading...
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Roster construction in the year 2023 is a nearly impossible task, but we’ve got the answers.
Roster building. In videogames, it’s easy. But in real life — in the year of our Lord, 2023, putting together a college basketball roster is like pulling teeth while getting allergy tested right after stubbing your toe on a bedframe.
Name, image, and likeness compensation looms large — how much dos a player value the program vs how much money do they know they can get at a certain school? Roster and fit matter — is there a clear path for them to play right away? And if they don’t play right away, the one-time immediate transfer rule means a core player that you were expecting to help mold your program for four years could move on just like that.
This week, we’re looking at the 2024 class for Ohio State that currently has two commits. Should they seek out a third or fourth? We’ll talk about it.
Last week, the guys talked about charges. They’re annoying as heck, and are called incorrectly more often than not. But should we just get rid of them? Connor said no, Justin said yes. 67% of the readers sided with Connor.
After 117 weeks:
Connor- 52
Justin- 48
Other- 13
(There have been four ties)
This week, we’re crunching the numbers and trying to decide if Ohio State should take another player in their 2024 class. The 2025 and 2026 classes are looking more talented than 2024, so should they leave roster spots for those classes?
Today’s Question: Should Ohio State men’s basketball take another player in the 2024 class?
Connor: Yes
The roster is getting crowded with freshmen and sophomores. I can do the math. Including 2024 commits Juni Mobley and Colin White, there are 13 players with eligibility that could return next season for Ohio State. For those who weren’t aware, that is a full roster.
Which means that if Ohio State was to take one additional 2024 commit, they would be putting themselves over the scholarship for next season. But the thing is, that’s not how it’s going to play out. Chris Holtmann even told us himself a few weeks ago — you always have to prepare assuming there will be at least one or two departures. For this roster in particular, Bowen Hardman and Kalen Etzler stand out as guys who could potentially be on the move next spring if they don’t crack the rotation this season.
Etzler is going into his third season, and Hardman his second. Each of them have only seen a handful of game minutes to this point in their careers. And with the younger guys rolling in year after year after year, it is getting tougher and tougher to see where these two guys fit in long-term with the program.
Now I’m not trying to boot those players, they’re just the two most obvious candidates. It also wouldn’t shock me if one of Ohio State’s centers — Felix Okpara, Zed Key, and Austin Parks — transferred after this season. We know for a fact that Key and Okpara both believe they should be in the starting lineup. Parks has some work to do, but if he knew he’d be stuck behind Okpara for the forseeable future, maybe it’s different.
The point is even if there isn’t obvious space right this second, there will be come spring time. That means Ohio State can try to add some size and strength in Jayden Quaintance (2024 No. 9) or Chris Nwuli (2024 No. 29). Either of these recruits would become one of the best, if not the best, recruit of the Chris Holtmann era at Ohio State. Quaintance is a 6-foot-9, athletic center who would have an immediate impact and would likely be a one-and-done type of talent. Nwuli is listed at 6-foot-7 and 200 pounds. The Buckeyes are losing a large presence with their forwards when Jamison Battle moves on. Nwuli also makes sense, roster-wise.
All of this is just to say that there are still some elite talents left in the 2024, and two of them have a particularly close eye on the Buckeyes. If Holtmann has the chance to get Quaintance or Nwuli, he should do it, and allow the roster changes to fix themsleves in the spring.
Plus, with nearly a half dozen guys on the team who could potentially put their name in the 2024 NBA Draft, I have very little doubt that there wouldn’t be safe space for another 2024 recruit come June next year. Stacking strong classes is the same of the game, and Chris Holtmann has the opportunity to do just that.
Justin: No
I think this one is pretty simple. If you can get Jayden Quaintance, you obviously do it. That opportunity does not come along often to add a five-star center to a class, and they would jump at that opportunity, no doubt.
However, it is looking unlikely that they will be able to add Quaintance when looking at the schools he is visiting and the way his recruitment has been talked about. But, his official visit apparently went very well last Saturday, so anything is possible.
What you have to do if you are Ohio State, though, is look at the future. The 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes are looking like two of the best Ohio classes in a while, and the Buckeyes need to make sure they will have room to add some of those guys.
After the 2023-24 season, it is only guaranteed that they will lose two guys due to eligibility — Dale Bonner and Jamison Battle — and even though it is likely they will lose one or two more to the transfer portal with the way, it is not a guarantee.
In the 2025 class, Darryn Peterson, the No. 2 recruit in the country, plus Dorian Jones and Jerry Easter, are top 50 guards in the country. In 2026, Marcus Johnson and Niko Bundalo are top 20 recruits in the country, according to ESPN 25. These guys are game changers. If you get Quaintance in the 2024 class, he is a game-changer as well, but you can’t just add a player to add a player with the two classes you have coming up. Plus, in the 2022 and 2023 classes total, they added nine players.
It is okay if you only have a two-person class, especially with two solid players.
Continue reading...
LGHL While some fans can be psychotic, it is actually healthy to criticize your favorite team
- News
- 0 Replies
While some fans can be psychotic, it is actually healthy to criticize your favorite team
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images
Just because you have questions about your favorite team doesn’t mean that you don’t still love your favorite team.
Following Ohio State’s Week 1 win over Indiana, former Buckeye and long-time ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit was a guest on “The Pat McAfee Show” and discussed what he believes to be a problem in his alma mater’s fan base.
Herbie believes that a vocal minority of fans have such unreasonable expectations for the team that when the goals aren’t met, the fan response can be detrimental to the long-term health of the program.
“There’s a standard and then there’s a psychotic standard,” Herbstreit said. “And I would say that the 15% that represent Ohio State on social media fall into that category of psychotic. They’re out of their minds, and what they do is they make high school players not want to play for that program because they’re just such jackasses. They drive me crazy with everything that they do.”
While I might be a bit biased, I am a fan of Kirk’s and think he is as good as there is in college football. Not only has he been a guest on the Land-Grant Podcast Network on three different occasions, but when I was a student at Ohio State, I was an intern for his radio show on 1460 The Fan in Columbus over 20 years ago. So, while I would never say that I know Kirk, I do feel like I generally understand where he is coming from on many major issues.
No matter the topic, no matter the fanbase, there will always be a lunatic fringe. That is why every National Signing Day, we — along with many other outlets — remind people never to tweet at teenagers, especially if they spurn your school of choice. I might be going out on a limb, but I believe that these types of folks — the people who verbally attack players and coaches, threaten them with violence, and hurl internet obscenities at them — are the people that Herbstreit is referring to.
So, if that assumption is correct, then I wholeheartedly agree with him. Those individuals, regardless of perspective or fanbase, do nothing but damage the experience and community for players, coaches, other fans, and, ultimately, themselves. Their toxic, bad behavior needs to be called out and held up as an example of how not to behave as a fan or as a human.
However, I have witnessed many people on social media through the first two weeks of the season — before and after Kirk’s comment — equating criticism of the Ohio State football team with something bordering on hate speech or outright blasphemy. While I understand the desire to immediately leap to the defense of a program that you love when someone is openly discussing its flaws and shortcomings, not all fault-finding is unwarranted, nor does it equate to personal attacks.
It is inarguable that the first two games of Ohio State’s season have not gone according to plan, the team’s own players and coaches have essentially said as much. Some of the problems thus far can be attributed to typical early-season bumps in the road that will naturally be smoothed out as the latest configuration of the team gets more snaps under its collective belt, but others are — in my opinion — the latest example of ongoing issues that the program and coaching staff inherently find themselves in.
From criticism of how the staff handled the quarterback battle to concerns over offensive playcalling to confusion with the lack of a pass rush to questions about the offensive line’s struggles in run blocking, there have been a lot of legitimate critiques to come out of OSU’s first two outings this season, and bringing them up is neither objectionable nor offensive.
Of course, while anyone is obviously welcome to disagree with the substance and veracity of those critiques, as long as they are not delivered with malice and venom, then there is nothing wrong with fans calling out faults in the teams that they love. While I think that in college sports criticism should be more often directed at coaches, if couched correctly, calling out onfield missteps by players is also perfectly acceptable. If it is admissible to point out issues with teams that you don’t actively root for, then why is it inherently bad to do so for a team that you build your entire weekend around?
In fact, I would say that being able to acknowledge the shortcomings of your favorite team is actually healthy. We all know people — sometimes it's ourselves — that make loving a specific team their entire personality, to the point where every win results in atmospheric highs and every loss leads to cavernous lows; and we don’t even need to get into the depression of back-to-back rivalry losses or coming up a field goal short of a national title.
Obviously, every fan is going to feel their favorite team’s wins and losses to some degree, but when the investment in the outcome of a team’s games becomes so all-encompassing that it consumes every available moment and emotion, that is not healthy. In the recent stages of social media, there has been a lot of discussion about the formation of parasocial relationships between fans and celebrities. Because of the exposure of — and access to — these famous figures, fans can feel like they know them and have a personal connection to them as if they were actual members of their circle of friends.
While it is not the exact same thing, an over-investment in a favorite team can lead to the same type of obsessive behavior that is so problematic in stan culture. That’s why keeping a bit of a critical distance between your heart and the teams that you follow can not only be good for your mental health but also your enjoyment of your team’s games. This extreme attachment can manifest itself in both positive and negative ways.
Some fans can get incredibly defensive about a team leading them to respond to every perceived slight with insults and accusations, no matter how valid the original statement might be. Of course, the converse can be true as well. Some people can get so caught up in the need for perfection that they almost instinctively hate-watch the teams that they claim to care about. This often leads to not seeing the forest through the trees and nit-picking every single little thing that doesn’t live up to their lofty expectations.
Both approaches are bad, both for the individual fans and the larger fandom. Now, I try to make it a rule not to tell other people how they should do anything (as long as it doesn’t harm anybody), especially how to be a fan. If you want to so intertwine your happiness with the on-field/court/ice success of a team that you willingly ride the wave between inconsolable and manic based solely on the bounce of the ball, go for it, but I think that there are better ways.
One of those ways is being realistic about your teams, their strengths and weaknesses, and what they need to do to improve. If we can acknowledge that our favorite team is not perfect, or that the head coach is not infallible, or that the players are not all future first-ballot Hall of Famers, I believe that this alleviates some of the pressure for them to perform flawlessly; it doesn’t remove the pressure from the players, of course, because they generally don’t have any insight to the thought processes of individual fans (aside from via social media) and they have plenty of their own internal and institutional pressure to contend with, but it does eliminate the pressure on you, the viewer, the fan.
This mindset can allow you to appreciate what the team does well without getting overwhelmed by the negativity of what they don’t. And here is where we get to the crux of the argument; once you no longer feel as if your personal identity and happiness are tied directly to the on-field results of your favorite teams, you are able to more objectively assess what is and isn’t working for them and what potentially should be done to address shortcomings.
Earlier this week, we asked our followers on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, what their expectations were for the OSU football team following the first two weeks of the season. Of course, the four options that we provided do not cover the entire spectrum of potential outcomings for the season, but they were chosen strategically.
If we had included “Lose 1-2 games, make NY6 bowl,” I think that would have been the safe answer in between the extremes of making the College Football Playoff and losing three or more games. The middle ground we went with was the far less likely scenario of winning the Big Ten, but not making the CFP, which would likely have to involve losing to Notre Dame on Sept. 23, losing one Big Ten game, but winning the conference title game as a two-loss team. We also threw in one never-gonna-happen, tongue-in-cheek option that was there mostly to give the extremely angry fans somewhere to vent.
As expected, the majority of fans were split across the two most realistic options, and to be honest, I think this is a fairly good distribution. About 40% are still riding with the glass-half-full option, while 45% are rocking the glass-half-empty choice; and practically nobody is going with the glass-completely-empty-and-broken-into-tiny-shards-on-the-floor-because-I-threw-it-against-the-wall alternative.
I personally don’t know that I am going to change my official, on-the-record predictions for the season following just two games, because I do think that the talent is there both on the field and amongst the coaching ranks to address the team’s issues large and small. But, I am far less confident about those predictions now than I was when I made them, and even then, I was admittedly typing through scarlet and gray-colored glasses.
I have serious concerns about Ryan Day retaining the offensive play-calling duties — as I have for nearly two years — I also am worried that on both offense and defense, the Buckeyes are struggling on third down. However, my biggest concern, as it was to start the season, is the still seemingly disjointed offensive line and how it will perform against the better defensive fronts it will face later in the season.
But you know what? Having these doubts about the team does nothing to lessen my love for Ohio State as an institution of higher education or the football team that I actively and passionately root for. While the Buckeyes are my favorite real-life football team, my favorite fictional team — the Dillon Panthers — had a saying that I think applies perfectly to this discussion, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” (are you already tearing up like I am?).
While, again, I’m not going to tell you how to be a fan, I fully believe that if you approach your fandom with the clear eyes necessary to accurately and objectively assess your favorite team, but still maintain the full heart of love and excitement that you feel for them, you can never lose. Yes, your team is going to lose from time to time, and that will suck, but keeping a tender distance will help save your heart and psyche from the full weight of the pain that you would otherwise feel, while still allowing you to fully experience the joys when they win.
When you are part of a fandom as large as Ohio State’s, you are bound to see both of the extreme approaches to watching football — the “Everything My Team Does Is Perfect and Brilliant” approach and the “Everything My Team Does Is Terrible and Stupid” approach; both should be avoided, in my opinion, but that doesn’t mean that pulling elements from each is inherently wrong. Both will be correct eventually, in the same way that a broken clock is, but by dispassionately maintaining the excitement of the former and the critical eye of the latter, I think this allows you to have the best football-watching experience.
People who criticize playcalling, player rotation, and even on-field play with thoughtfulness and objectivity are not trolls or idiots, nor are they psychotic. If that’s not how you approach watching your favorite team, that’s okay, but it doesn’t make you a better or worse fan; Buckeye Nation is wide enough for all types of level-headed supporters. So the next time that you see an OSU fan (or OSU fan blog) legitimately questioning the team and its coaches and it starts to make your blood boil, consider that being overly defensive of a team is not really all that different than being overly critical.
Ultimately, we all want to see the Buckeyes lifting large trophies at the end of the season, and whether you choose to focus primarily on the bright spots or dark spots along the way, as long as you are doing so in moderation, there’s no reason why we can’t all cheer the team on together.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images
Just because you have questions about your favorite team doesn’t mean that you don’t still love your favorite team.
Following Ohio State’s Week 1 win over Indiana, former Buckeye and long-time ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit was a guest on “The Pat McAfee Show” and discussed what he believes to be a problem in his alma mater’s fan base.
Herbie believes that a vocal minority of fans have such unreasonable expectations for the team that when the goals aren’t met, the fan response can be detrimental to the long-term health of the program.
“There’s a standard and then there’s a psychotic standard,” Herbstreit said. “And I would say that the 15% that represent Ohio State on social media fall into that category of psychotic. They’re out of their minds, and what they do is they make high school players not want to play for that program because they’re just such jackasses. They drive me crazy with everything that they do.”
While I might be a bit biased, I am a fan of Kirk’s and think he is as good as there is in college football. Not only has he been a guest on the Land-Grant Podcast Network on three different occasions, but when I was a student at Ohio State, I was an intern for his radio show on 1460 The Fan in Columbus over 20 years ago. So, while I would never say that I know Kirk, I do feel like I generally understand where he is coming from on many major issues.
No matter the topic, no matter the fanbase, there will always be a lunatic fringe. That is why every National Signing Day, we — along with many other outlets — remind people never to tweet at teenagers, especially if they spurn your school of choice. I might be going out on a limb, but I believe that these types of folks — the people who verbally attack players and coaches, threaten them with violence, and hurl internet obscenities at them — are the people that Herbstreit is referring to.
So, if that assumption is correct, then I wholeheartedly agree with him. Those individuals, regardless of perspective or fanbase, do nothing but damage the experience and community for players, coaches, other fans, and, ultimately, themselves. Their toxic, bad behavior needs to be called out and held up as an example of how not to behave as a fan or as a human.
However, I have witnessed many people on social media through the first two weeks of the season — before and after Kirk’s comment — equating criticism of the Ohio State football team with something bordering on hate speech or outright blasphemy. While I understand the desire to immediately leap to the defense of a program that you love when someone is openly discussing its flaws and shortcomings, not all fault-finding is unwarranted, nor does it equate to personal attacks.
It is inarguable that the first two games of Ohio State’s season have not gone according to plan, the team’s own players and coaches have essentially said as much. Some of the problems thus far can be attributed to typical early-season bumps in the road that will naturally be smoothed out as the latest configuration of the team gets more snaps under its collective belt, but others are — in my opinion — the latest example of ongoing issues that the program and coaching staff inherently find themselves in.
From criticism of how the staff handled the quarterback battle to concerns over offensive playcalling to confusion with the lack of a pass rush to questions about the offensive line’s struggles in run blocking, there have been a lot of legitimate critiques to come out of OSU’s first two outings this season, and bringing them up is neither objectionable nor offensive.
Of course, while anyone is obviously welcome to disagree with the substance and veracity of those critiques, as long as they are not delivered with malice and venom, then there is nothing wrong with fans calling out faults in the teams that they love. While I think that in college sports criticism should be more often directed at coaches, if couched correctly, calling out onfield missteps by players is also perfectly acceptable. If it is admissible to point out issues with teams that you don’t actively root for, then why is it inherently bad to do so for a team that you build your entire weekend around?
In fact, I would say that being able to acknowledge the shortcomings of your favorite team is actually healthy. We all know people — sometimes it's ourselves — that make loving a specific team their entire personality, to the point where every win results in atmospheric highs and every loss leads to cavernous lows; and we don’t even need to get into the depression of back-to-back rivalry losses or coming up a field goal short of a national title.
Obviously, every fan is going to feel their favorite team’s wins and losses to some degree, but when the investment in the outcome of a team’s games becomes so all-encompassing that it consumes every available moment and emotion, that is not healthy. In the recent stages of social media, there has been a lot of discussion about the formation of parasocial relationships between fans and celebrities. Because of the exposure of — and access to — these famous figures, fans can feel like they know them and have a personal connection to them as if they were actual members of their circle of friends.
While it is not the exact same thing, an over-investment in a favorite team can lead to the same type of obsessive behavior that is so problematic in stan culture. That’s why keeping a bit of a critical distance between your heart and the teams that you follow can not only be good for your mental health but also your enjoyment of your team’s games. This extreme attachment can manifest itself in both positive and negative ways.
Some fans can get incredibly defensive about a team leading them to respond to every perceived slight with insults and accusations, no matter how valid the original statement might be. Of course, the converse can be true as well. Some people can get so caught up in the need for perfection that they almost instinctively hate-watch the teams that they claim to care about. This often leads to not seeing the forest through the trees and nit-picking every single little thing that doesn’t live up to their lofty expectations.
Both approaches are bad, both for the individual fans and the larger fandom. Now, I try to make it a rule not to tell other people how they should do anything (as long as it doesn’t harm anybody), especially how to be a fan. If you want to so intertwine your happiness with the on-field/court/ice success of a team that you willingly ride the wave between inconsolable and manic based solely on the bounce of the ball, go for it, but I think that there are better ways.
One of those ways is being realistic about your teams, their strengths and weaknesses, and what they need to do to improve. If we can acknowledge that our favorite team is not perfect, or that the head coach is not infallible, or that the players are not all future first-ballot Hall of Famers, I believe that this alleviates some of the pressure for them to perform flawlessly; it doesn’t remove the pressure from the players, of course, because they generally don’t have any insight to the thought processes of individual fans (aside from via social media) and they have plenty of their own internal and institutional pressure to contend with, but it does eliminate the pressure on you, the viewer, the fan.
This mindset can allow you to appreciate what the team does well without getting overwhelmed by the negativity of what they don’t. And here is where we get to the crux of the argument; once you no longer feel as if your personal identity and happiness are tied directly to the on-field results of your favorite teams, you are able to more objectively assess what is and isn’t working for them and what potentially should be done to address shortcomings.
Earlier this week, we asked our followers on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, what their expectations were for the OSU football team following the first two weeks of the season. Of course, the four options that we provided do not cover the entire spectrum of potential outcomings for the season, but they were chosen strategically.
If we had included “Lose 1-2 games, make NY6 bowl,” I think that would have been the safe answer in between the extremes of making the College Football Playoff and losing three or more games. The middle ground we went with was the far less likely scenario of winning the Big Ten, but not making the CFP, which would likely have to involve losing to Notre Dame on Sept. 23, losing one Big Ten game, but winning the conference title game as a two-loss team. We also threw in one never-gonna-happen, tongue-in-cheek option that was there mostly to give the extremely angry fans somewhere to vent.
As expected, the majority of fans were split across the two most realistic options, and to be honest, I think this is a fairly good distribution. About 40% are still riding with the glass-half-full option, while 45% are rocking the glass-half-empty choice; and practically nobody is going with the glass-completely-empty-and-broken-into-tiny-shards-on-the-floor-because-I-threw-it-against-the-wall alternative.
I personally don’t know that I am going to change my official, on-the-record predictions for the season following just two games, because I do think that the talent is there both on the field and amongst the coaching ranks to address the team’s issues large and small. But, I am far less confident about those predictions now than I was when I made them, and even then, I was admittedly typing through scarlet and gray-colored glasses.
I have serious concerns about Ryan Day retaining the offensive play-calling duties — as I have for nearly two years — I also am worried that on both offense and defense, the Buckeyes are struggling on third down. However, my biggest concern, as it was to start the season, is the still seemingly disjointed offensive line and how it will perform against the better defensive fronts it will face later in the season.
But you know what? Having these doubts about the team does nothing to lessen my love for Ohio State as an institution of higher education or the football team that I actively and passionately root for. While the Buckeyes are my favorite real-life football team, my favorite fictional team — the Dillon Panthers — had a saying that I think applies perfectly to this discussion, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” (are you already tearing up like I am?).
While, again, I’m not going to tell you how to be a fan, I fully believe that if you approach your fandom with the clear eyes necessary to accurately and objectively assess your favorite team, but still maintain the full heart of love and excitement that you feel for them, you can never lose. Yes, your team is going to lose from time to time, and that will suck, but keeping a tender distance will help save your heart and psyche from the full weight of the pain that you would otherwise feel, while still allowing you to fully experience the joys when they win.
When you are part of a fandom as large as Ohio State’s, you are bound to see both of the extreme approaches to watching football — the “Everything My Team Does Is Perfect and Brilliant” approach and the “Everything My Team Does Is Terrible and Stupid” approach; both should be avoided, in my opinion, but that doesn’t mean that pulling elements from each is inherently wrong. Both will be correct eventually, in the same way that a broken clock is, but by dispassionately maintaining the excitement of the former and the critical eye of the latter, I think this allows you to have the best football-watching experience.
People who criticize playcalling, player rotation, and even on-field play with thoughtfulness and objectivity are not trolls or idiots, nor are they psychotic. If that’s not how you approach watching your favorite team, that’s okay, but it doesn’t make you a better or worse fan; Buckeye Nation is wide enough for all types of level-headed supporters. So the next time that you see an OSU fan (or OSU fan blog) legitimately questioning the team and its coaches and it starts to make your blood boil, consider that being overly defensive of a team is not really all that different than being overly critical.
Ultimately, we all want to see the Buckeyes lifting large trophies at the end of the season, and whether you choose to focus primarily on the bright spots or dark spots along the way, as long as you are doing so in moderation, there’s no reason why we can’t all cheer the team on together.
Continue reading...
DT Eric Mensah (National Champion)
- By pnuts34
- Buckeye Football
- 29 Replies
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LGHL Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky: 2023 game preview and prediction
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Ohio State vs. Western Kentucky: 2023 game preview and prediction
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Fresh off a 35-7 win over Youngstown State, Ohio State takes on Western Kentucky for the first time.
Following their 23-3 win over Indiana to open the season, Ohio State took care of Youngstown State 35-7 in its home opener last week. Now the Buckeyes will battle Western Kentucky for the first time. The Saturday afternoon contest between the two schools will be Ohio State’s second meeting with a current Conference USA school. The other C-USA foe the Buckeyes came back in 2009, when they shutout New Mexico State 45-0 in Columbus.
Although Ohio State beat Youngstown State by four touchdowns, it was a performance that didn’t feel complete. Much like the Indiana game, there was some frustrations with the new clock rules, which has limited the possessions for the Buckeyes over the first two games. Both the Hoosiers and Penguins chose to run a methodical offense, bleeding as much clock as possible before having to give the football back to Ohio State.
Saturday’s game will be the Buckeyes’ final contest before they head to South Bend next week for a showdown with Notre Dame. Ohio State’s can’t afford to look past Western Kentucky, since the Hilltoppers possess a much more dynamic offense than the Buckeyes have seen in their first two games. One thing Ryan Day won’t have to worry about is his opponent this week trying to milk as much time off the clock as possible, since Western Kentucky plays with tempo when they have the football.
It became obvious that Kyle McCord was the best option at quarterback for Ohio State this season after his performance against Youngstown, and Ryan Day confirmed as much on Tuesday, naming McCord the starter for the Buckeyes going forward. Against Youngstown State, McCord was 14-of-20 for 258 yards and three touchdown passes. Devin Brown did see more playing time on Saturday, but his play was a little more inconsistent than what McCord showed.
Following a quiet game from Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka in the season opener, the dynamic duo exploded in the home opener. Harrison opened up the game with a 71-yard touchdown reception, which was the longest catch of his career. Harrison finished with seven receptions, 160 yards, and two touchdown catches. Egbuka added five catches for 94 yards and a score.
With his output on Saturday, Harrison became the 24th Buckeyes receiver to eclipse 1,500 career receiving yards. Egbuka should join his teammate soon, as he is 48 yards away from the 1,500-yard mark Both receivers are nearing 100 career receptions, with Harrison three grabs away from the century mark, while Egbuka is nine catches shy of triple digits.
Even though his workload was limited on Saturday, TreVeyon Henderson was great when he had the football in his hands. The junior carried the football five times for 56 yards, scoring on two of those carries. Henderson is now 78 yards away from reaching 2,000 yards rushing in his Ohio State career. Through two games, Henderson is the team’s leading rusher, totaling 103 yards. While the total feels low, there are three Buckeye running backs with at least 50 yards rushing.
The area of the Ohio State defense that will be tested the most on Saturday is the secondary. So far this season, Denzel Burke has been the standout of the group. Last week against Youngstown State, Burke nabbed his second career interception, and the team’s first this year. The pick was Ohio State’s first by a cornerback since the 2021 season. Through two games, Burke leads the team with two pass breakups.
Along with Burke, Sonny Styles has been playing at a high level early on in his Buckeye career. Styles has eight tackles so far this year, which ranks fifth on the team. It’s not that Styles is making tackles, it is how he is tackling that is impressing people. Along with being all over the field, Styles has laid the lumber on a number of tackles.
Styles isn’t the only young Buckeye in the secondary who is garnering a lot of attention. With Josh Proctor missing last week’s game due to injury, freshman Malik Hartford started his first game. While Proctor will be back in the starting lineup when healthy, Hartford got a taste of what it was like to be a starter, and it seems like only a matter of time before he is a fixture at safety.
After a quiet first game of the season, Tommy Eichenberg played like what he showed in 2022. Through two games, the linebacker has 10 tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. His 10 tackles are second on the team in stops, one behind his parter at linebacker, Steele Chambers. The linebackers are joined by defensive lineman Tyleik Williams in the double-digit tackle club through two contests.
The concerning area of the defense through two games is the defensive line. Some of the subpar play can be attributed to the plodding offensive styles of the opponents they have played, but there is reason to be worried if the group continues to fail to generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Ohio State has registered three sacks this year, with two of those coming from the defensive line. Michael Hall Jr. has one sack, while Hero Kanu registered the other late in the game against Indiana.
The bottom line is both sides of the trenches aren’t getting the job done. If Ohio State has any hopes of making it back to the College Football Playoff, they’ll have to generate more push on both sides of the line. While some of the woes of the offensive line can be attributed to having three new starters, there is no excuse for the defensive line, which should be playing better with the talent, experience, and depth that they possess.
Western Kentucky enters Saturday’s game with a 2-0 record on the season. The Hilltoppers beat South Florida 41-24 in their season opener, and followed it up with a 52-22 victory over Houston Christian. Tyson Helton is now in his fifth season as the head coach of Western Kentucky, amassing a 34-21 record during that span. Helton has made the most of his first head coaching job, leading the Hilltoppers to nine wins in three of his first four seasons in Bowling Green. Western Kentucky has made bowl games in each of the last four years, winning three of those contests.
Powering the Western Kentucky offense is quarterback Austin Reed. Last year Reed led the nation with 4,744 yards passing, while tossing 40 touchdowns. The senior has gotten off to a fabulous start in 2023, racking up 589 yards passing and six scores through the first two games. Last week against Houston Christian, Reed threw five touchdown passes in the win. Reed is currently first among active FBS quarterbacks with an average of 333.4 passing yards per game, and was named the Conference USA preseason Player of the Year.
One thing that could be tough for Ohio State to defend is the number of targets Reed can throw the football to. The Hilltoppers have 13 players that have caught a pass this year, and Reed has thrown touchdown passes to six different targets. The leading receiver for Western Kentucky is Easton Messer, who has caught 11 passes for 134 yards and a score through the first two games. Dalvin Smith is the team’s other receiver that has cracked 100 yards receiving so far this year.
A name in the Western Kentucky receiving corps that will be familiar to Buckeye fans is L’Christian “Blue” Smith, who committed to Ohio State out of high school. Smith didn’t play in any games for the Buckeyes before transferring to Cincinnati, where he appeared in 21 games over four seasons for the Bearcats. Following last season, Smith transferred to Western Kentucky, and has caught eight passes for 88 yards so far this season.
Don’t expect the Hilltoppers to run the football much, but when they do Davion Ervin-Poindexter and Markese Stepp will see the bulk of the carries. Ervin-Poindexter started his college career at Indiana, spending three seasons with the Hoosiers before transferring. Markese Stepp is also a find in the transfer portal for Western Kentucky, playing at Nebraska and USC before becoming a member of the Hilltoppers. Helton and Western Kentucky have been very active in the transfer portal, with 51 of their 114 players being transfers.
Unlike Ohio State, who has had some issues with their offensive line play, the same can’t be said for Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are one of seven teams in the country that haven’t allowed a sack so far this year. The play of the offensive line has given Reed time to scan the field and find the best possible option throwing the football, which has allowed him to accumulate all those big passing numbers.
Sometimes the issue with the Western Kentucky offense is they can score so quickly that it might put a tired defense back out on the field. Even though sometimes the defense may allow some high point totals, they make up for it with their ability to force turnovers and score on their own. Last year the Hilltoppers forced 32 turnovers and scored six defensive touchdowns. The defense has picked up where they left off last season, scoring a defensive touchdown in each of their first two games in 2023.
Leading the way for the Western Kentucky defense is linebacker JaQues Evans, who was named the Conference USA preseason Defensive Player of the Year after earning All-Conference USA first team honors in 2022. Evans finished last season with 106 tackles in 14 games, with nine sacks, and 14 tackles for loss. The linebacker is filling up the stat sheet already this year, registering 11 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, and a defensive touchdown. Much like Aaron Casey in Ohio State’s first game against Indiana, expect to hear Evans’ name called early and often on Saturday.
Even though he plays in the secondary, the Buckeyes will have to keep an eye on Kendrick Simpkins, who is as dangerous creating pressure as he is defending passes. The junior already has 2.5 sacks this season, and has added another stop behind the line of scrimmage. Along with his sack total, Simpkins has also forced a fumble. As a team, Western Kentucky has six sacks in 2023.
There are a number of other Hilltopper defenders to keep an eye on in Saturday’s game. While Evans deservedly gets a lot of publicity, leading Western Kentucky in tackles is linebacker Talique Allen, who has 12 stops so far this year. Defensive back Upton Stout has a 53-yard interception return for a touchdown and two pass breakups through two games, while Anthony Johnson Jr. leads the team with four PBUs. Linebackers Desmyn Baker and Aaron Key are the other Western Kentucky players that have nabbed an interception this season.
With the offensive firepower they possess, facing Western Kentucky can seem daunting. The one area where the Hilltoppers have struggled mightily over the years is against ranked opponents. Since 2007, Western Kentucky is 1-12 when squaring off with a ranked foe, with their only victory being a 67-66 thriller against Marshall, who was ranked 19th at the time, in 2014. The last ranked team the Hilltoppers played was Michigan State in 2021. The Spartans won 48-31 in East Lansing.
Despite Ohio State not looking all that sharp in their first two games of the year, this is the type of game that plays more into their hands. The Buckeyes have had a hard time establishing much of a rhythm with how slow Indiana and Youngstown State have played on offense. With the increased tempo Western Kentucky will play at, it will get the football in Ohio State’s hands more, and the superior depth of the Buckeyes should start to shine more than it did over the first two games.
With how much Western Kentucky throws the football, some cracks in the secondary will likely show at times. The Hilltoppers are going to put up some points since Reed and the offense are too good to keep off the scoreboard. What will be interesting to see is how the Buckeyes respond when there is some adversity. Honestly, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Ohio State to be forced to respond to some tough moments, especially since they’ll be facing a really good Notre Dame team next week.
The Buckeyes should still win this game, but they’ll face more of a fight than they did over their first two games.
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Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Fresh off a 35-7 win over Youngstown State, Ohio State takes on Western Kentucky for the first time.
Following their 23-3 win over Indiana to open the season, Ohio State took care of Youngstown State 35-7 in its home opener last week. Now the Buckeyes will battle Western Kentucky for the first time. The Saturday afternoon contest between the two schools will be Ohio State’s second meeting with a current Conference USA school. The other C-USA foe the Buckeyes came back in 2009, when they shutout New Mexico State 45-0 in Columbus.
Although Ohio State beat Youngstown State by four touchdowns, it was a performance that didn’t feel complete. Much like the Indiana game, there was some frustrations with the new clock rules, which has limited the possessions for the Buckeyes over the first two games. Both the Hoosiers and Penguins chose to run a methodical offense, bleeding as much clock as possible before having to give the football back to Ohio State.
Saturday’s game will be the Buckeyes’ final contest before they head to South Bend next week for a showdown with Notre Dame. Ohio State’s can’t afford to look past Western Kentucky, since the Hilltoppers possess a much more dynamic offense than the Buckeyes have seen in their first two games. One thing Ryan Day won’t have to worry about is his opponent this week trying to milk as much time off the clock as possible, since Western Kentucky plays with tempo when they have the football.
The Buckeye offense is making strides
It became obvious that Kyle McCord was the best option at quarterback for Ohio State this season after his performance against Youngstown, and Ryan Day confirmed as much on Tuesday, naming McCord the starter for the Buckeyes going forward. Against Youngstown State, McCord was 14-of-20 for 258 yards and three touchdown passes. Devin Brown did see more playing time on Saturday, but his play was a little more inconsistent than what McCord showed.
Following a quiet game from Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka in the season opener, the dynamic duo exploded in the home opener. Harrison opened up the game with a 71-yard touchdown reception, which was the longest catch of his career. Harrison finished with seven receptions, 160 yards, and two touchdown catches. Egbuka added five catches for 94 yards and a score.
With his output on Saturday, Harrison became the 24th Buckeyes receiver to eclipse 1,500 career receiving yards. Egbuka should join his teammate soon, as he is 48 yards away from the 1,500-yard mark Both receivers are nearing 100 career receptions, with Harrison three grabs away from the century mark, while Egbuka is nine catches shy of triple digits.
Even though his workload was limited on Saturday, TreVeyon Henderson was great when he had the football in his hands. The junior carried the football five times for 56 yards, scoring on two of those carries. Henderson is now 78 yards away from reaching 2,000 yards rushing in his Ohio State career. Through two games, Henderson is the team’s leading rusher, totaling 103 yards. While the total feels low, there are three Buckeye running backs with at least 50 yards rushing.
The good and the bad on defense
The area of the Ohio State defense that will be tested the most on Saturday is the secondary. So far this season, Denzel Burke has been the standout of the group. Last week against Youngstown State, Burke nabbed his second career interception, and the team’s first this year. The pick was Ohio State’s first by a cornerback since the 2021 season. Through two games, Burke leads the team with two pass breakups.
Along with Burke, Sonny Styles has been playing at a high level early on in his Buckeye career. Styles has eight tackles so far this year, which ranks fifth on the team. It’s not that Styles is making tackles, it is how he is tackling that is impressing people. Along with being all over the field, Styles has laid the lumber on a number of tackles.
Styles isn’t the only young Buckeye in the secondary who is garnering a lot of attention. With Josh Proctor missing last week’s game due to injury, freshman Malik Hartford started his first game. While Proctor will be back in the starting lineup when healthy, Hartford got a taste of what it was like to be a starter, and it seems like only a matter of time before he is a fixture at safety.
After a quiet first game of the season, Tommy Eichenberg played like what he showed in 2022. Through two games, the linebacker has 10 tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. His 10 tackles are second on the team in stops, one behind his parter at linebacker, Steele Chambers. The linebackers are joined by defensive lineman Tyleik Williams in the double-digit tackle club through two contests.
The concerning area of the defense through two games is the defensive line. Some of the subpar play can be attributed to the plodding offensive styles of the opponents they have played, but there is reason to be worried if the group continues to fail to generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Ohio State has registered three sacks this year, with two of those coming from the defensive line. Michael Hall Jr. has one sack, while Hero Kanu registered the other late in the game against Indiana.
The bottom line is both sides of the trenches aren’t getting the job done. If Ohio State has any hopes of making it back to the College Football Playoff, they’ll have to generate more push on both sides of the line. While some of the woes of the offensive line can be attributed to having three new starters, there is no excuse for the defensive line, which should be playing better with the talent, experience, and depth that they possess.
A strong start to the season
Western Kentucky enters Saturday’s game with a 2-0 record on the season. The Hilltoppers beat South Florida 41-24 in their season opener, and followed it up with a 52-22 victory over Houston Christian. Tyson Helton is now in his fifth season as the head coach of Western Kentucky, amassing a 34-21 record during that span. Helton has made the most of his first head coaching job, leading the Hilltoppers to nine wins in three of his first four seasons in Bowling Green. Western Kentucky has made bowl games in each of the last four years, winning three of those contests.
Western Kentucky on offense
Powering the Western Kentucky offense is quarterback Austin Reed. Last year Reed led the nation with 4,744 yards passing, while tossing 40 touchdowns. The senior has gotten off to a fabulous start in 2023, racking up 589 yards passing and six scores through the first two games. Last week against Houston Christian, Reed threw five touchdown passes in the win. Reed is currently first among active FBS quarterbacks with an average of 333.4 passing yards per game, and was named the Conference USA preseason Player of the Year.
One thing that could be tough for Ohio State to defend is the number of targets Reed can throw the football to. The Hilltoppers have 13 players that have caught a pass this year, and Reed has thrown touchdown passes to six different targets. The leading receiver for Western Kentucky is Easton Messer, who has caught 11 passes for 134 yards and a score through the first two games. Dalvin Smith is the team’s other receiver that has cracked 100 yards receiving so far this year.
A name in the Western Kentucky receiving corps that will be familiar to Buckeye fans is L’Christian “Blue” Smith, who committed to Ohio State out of high school. Smith didn’t play in any games for the Buckeyes before transferring to Cincinnati, where he appeared in 21 games over four seasons for the Bearcats. Following last season, Smith transferred to Western Kentucky, and has caught eight passes for 88 yards so far this season.
Don’t expect the Hilltoppers to run the football much, but when they do Davion Ervin-Poindexter and Markese Stepp will see the bulk of the carries. Ervin-Poindexter started his college career at Indiana, spending three seasons with the Hoosiers before transferring. Markese Stepp is also a find in the transfer portal for Western Kentucky, playing at Nebraska and USC before becoming a member of the Hilltoppers. Helton and Western Kentucky have been very active in the transfer portal, with 51 of their 114 players being transfers.
Unlike Ohio State, who has had some issues with their offensive line play, the same can’t be said for Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are one of seven teams in the country that haven’t allowed a sack so far this year. The play of the offensive line has given Reed time to scan the field and find the best possible option throwing the football, which has allowed him to accumulate all those big passing numbers.
Sometimes the issue with the Western Kentucky offense is they can score so quickly that it might put a tired defense back out on the field. Even though sometimes the defense may allow some high point totals, they make up for it with their ability to force turnovers and score on their own. Last year the Hilltoppers forced 32 turnovers and scored six defensive touchdowns. The defense has picked up where they left off last season, scoring a defensive touchdown in each of their first two games in 2023.
The defense of the Hilltoppers
Leading the way for the Western Kentucky defense is linebacker JaQues Evans, who was named the Conference USA preseason Defensive Player of the Year after earning All-Conference USA first team honors in 2022. Evans finished last season with 106 tackles in 14 games, with nine sacks, and 14 tackles for loss. The linebacker is filling up the stat sheet already this year, registering 11 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, and a defensive touchdown. Much like Aaron Casey in Ohio State’s first game against Indiana, expect to hear Evans’ name called early and often on Saturday.
Even though he plays in the secondary, the Buckeyes will have to keep an eye on Kendrick Simpkins, who is as dangerous creating pressure as he is defending passes. The junior already has 2.5 sacks this season, and has added another stop behind the line of scrimmage. Along with his sack total, Simpkins has also forced a fumble. As a team, Western Kentucky has six sacks in 2023.
There are a number of other Hilltopper defenders to keep an eye on in Saturday’s game. While Evans deservedly gets a lot of publicity, leading Western Kentucky in tackles is linebacker Talique Allen, who has 12 stops so far this year. Defensive back Upton Stout has a 53-yard interception return for a touchdown and two pass breakups through two games, while Anthony Johnson Jr. leads the team with four PBUs. Linebackers Desmyn Baker and Aaron Key are the other Western Kentucky players that have nabbed an interception this season.
With the offensive firepower they possess, facing Western Kentucky can seem daunting. The one area where the Hilltoppers have struggled mightily over the years is against ranked opponents. Since 2007, Western Kentucky is 1-12 when squaring off with a ranked foe, with their only victory being a 67-66 thriller against Marshall, who was ranked 19th at the time, in 2014. The last ranked team the Hilltoppers played was Michigan State in 2021. The Spartans won 48-31 in East Lansing.
Summary
Despite Ohio State not looking all that sharp in their first two games of the year, this is the type of game that plays more into their hands. The Buckeyes have had a hard time establishing much of a rhythm with how slow Indiana and Youngstown State have played on offense. With the increased tempo Western Kentucky will play at, it will get the football in Ohio State’s hands more, and the superior depth of the Buckeyes should start to shine more than it did over the first two games.
With how much Western Kentucky throws the football, some cracks in the secondary will likely show at times. The Hilltoppers are going to put up some points since Reed and the offense are too good to keep off the scoreboard. What will be interesting to see is how the Buckeyes respond when there is some adversity. Honestly, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Ohio State to be forced to respond to some tough moments, especially since they’ll be facing a really good Notre Dame team next week.
The Buckeyes should still win this game, but they’ll face more of a fight than they did over their first two games.
LGHL prediction: Ohio State 45, Western Kentucky 24
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