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LGHL Power Two Podcast: Alabama-Georgia will go down as a timeless classic

Power Two Podcast: Alabama-Georgia will go down as a timeless classic
JordanW330
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


COLLEGE FOOTBALL: SEP 28 Georgia at Alabama

Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

An epic battle between two powerhouse programs that will be etched in college football history.

Welcome to a new episode of Land-Grant Podcast Network’s Power Two Podcast. On this show, we talk about Big Ten and SEC football… and everyone else. This show is for the die-hard fans and the casual college football fans.

After every week of action, we will catch you up on all the major matchups of the previous weekend and look ahead at the games, storylines, and players you should be paying attention to for the next week. My name is Jordan Williams, and I am joined by my co-host DaNaysia Jones. Lock in as we run a power sweep through the college football landscape.



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Jordan and DJ start today’s show with a general conversation about Roc Nation athletes and DJs’ connections with the NFL. Jordan dives into his boomer opinions about conference realignment and gives the latest update regarding the Mountain West.

This week’s two-minute drill starts with the controversial call that ended the Miami-Virginia Tech game. Mario Cristobal is still a loser, so we anticipate that even with this bailout, there will be a game where it happens.

Jordan shares his thoughts on the dissolution of the Big Ten East and how Maryland, Rutgers, and Indiana stand to benefit from it. They then relish in the beauty that was the Alabama-Georgia game, and wrap up with a lively discussion about Ashton Jeanty and Travis Hunter’s Heisman contention.

For once, we were not completely irritated by the AP Rankings. They could be reordered, but the addition of Indiana and UNLV gives us hope that we are finally rewarding teams for their efforts not just for their conference or previous season.

We are really on a roll in our Pregame Power Sweep, having projected five of the top games from Week 5. For Week 6, we suggested these games:

  • Friday: Syracuse-UNLV
  • Saturday, Noon: Mizzou-A&M or SMU-Louisville
  • Mid-Day: Iowa-Ohio State
  • Primetime: Michigan-Washington\
  • After Dark: Miami-Cal
  • Honorable Mentions: Ole Miss-South Carolina (mid-day), Rutgers-Nebraska (mid-day), and Indiana-Northwestern (mid-day).

In the two-minute warning, Jordan shares his excitement for the New York Yankees being the No. 1 seed. DJ shares an update about the WNBA Playoffs — Round Two starts this week and the matchups will be great basketball to watch.



If you like the show, please share it with friends and family and leave a five-star review. If you want to keep up with the show, subscribe to the Land-Grant Podcast Network Feed where new episodes drop every Monday.

You can also find Jordan’s article ‘B1G Thoughts’ on Land-Grant Holy Land.

Follow the show on YouTube: @JordanW330

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @PowerTwoPodcast

Connect with us on Twitter: Jordan: @JordanW330 and DJ:@dj_danaysia

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WR David Adolph (National Champion)

Ohio State Bio

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David Adolph, #82​

  • Position: Wide Receiver
  • Height: 6-5
  • Weight: 209
  • Hometown: Dublin, Ohio
  • Last School: Jerome
  • Year: Junior
Ohio State Overview
• David is in his third season with the Buckeyes after initially walking on to the team in June of 2022
• He is a talented receiver and special teams player who played in 12 of 13 games in 2023 to earn his first Varsity O letter
• He is a two-time OSU Scholar-Athlete and an Academic All-Big Ten honoree who is majoring in marketing

Honors & Awards
2023:
OSU Scholar-Athlete, Academic All-Big Ten Conference
2022: OSU Scholar-Athlete

More on David
• Played at near-by Dublin Jerome High School where he earned first team all-league honors
• A versatile performer who also played quarterback at Jerome in addition to wide receiver
• Was also first team All-Central District and All-Metro by the Columbus Dispatch
• Named the Dispatch.com Player of the Week on Oct. 22 for his six-catch, 80-yard performance vs. Olentangy, which included the game-winning TD on a hail mary
• Grandson of longtime NFL coach and Ohio State (1977-78) assistant Dave Adolph, who loved the phrase “Do you love football?”

Ohio State adds two walk-on wide receivers

Ohio State's wide receiver room is loaded and may seem a little crowded, but it's rarely a bad thing to have extra bodies for certain situations. The Buckeyes added two more​

Adolph also announced his commitment on Twitter on Tuesday with a tweet that simply read "Committed!!" with the "Go Bucks" hashtag. Along with his commitment graphic, Adolph posted the following message:

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The 6-foot-5, 200 pound Adolph played both quarterback and wide receiver in high school. He helped the Celtics go 7-5 last season, although they were just 4-3 in their conference, finishing in fourth place.

Ohio State wide receiver now on scholarship


USATSI_23015930.jpg


It is always fun to see walk-ons earn their way to a full scholarship, and a name most Ohio State football fans will remember from the spring game just earned his. David Adolph is a third-year wide receiver from local Jerome High School in Dublin, Ohio, and after walking on his first two seasons, will now enter the 2024 season on scholarship.

I know the spring game is just a glorified practice, but we still saw Adolph look extremely good and he has great size at six-foot, five-inches. It is unlikely he gets significant playing time, but we have seen walk-ons in the past make an impact.

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LGHL Irrational Overreactions: Smith is ‘best’ WR in OSU history, 2nd team d-line needs to play more

Irrational Overreactions: Smith is ‘best’ WR in OSU history, 2nd team d-line needs to play more
Matt Tamanini
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


NCAA Football: Ohio State at Michigan State

Dale Young-Imagn Images

Also, I love me some Chip Kelly offense.

Take that, Danny Kanell. Last night, the Ohio State Buckeyes beat somebody with a pulse as they overcame a little early-game rockiness to blast past the Michigan State Spartans 38-7. OSU pulled its starters early in the fourth quarter, so that score very well could have been much more if Ryan Day and company had wanted to.

I continue to be thoroughly impressed with this team; while not a finished product, it is fun, exciting, and insanely multifaceted on both sides of the ball. There are things that obviously need improving, but nearly doubling a good Big Ten team in terms of total yardage is never a bad thing.

Being a fan is a fickle proposition. We allow our emotions to rob us of reason; instead, we ride the wave of emotions that percolate with every first down, missed tackle, penalty, or bone-headed play. So, I am here shortly after the game to get my unreasonable overreactions out so that I can instead focus on more productive ways to break down the game.


Jeremiah Smith is the best wide receiver in Ohio State history


Following last night’s game, I wrote a quick column about the ridiculousness that is Jeremiah Smith. By now you have seen both of his insane one-handed catches in the last minute of the first half (if not, enjoy the touchdown grab below), but is it too early to wonder aloud if he is already the best receiver in Ohio State history?


It probably — almost certainly — is, but let me clarify a little bit. When discussing “best” and “greatest” in sports terms, I don’t view those words as wholly synonymous. To me, “best” refers to physical talent; the things someone can do. While “greatest” combines a heaping helping of “best,” but also factors in things like importance, accomplishments, longevity, history, and more.

That’s why I continue to argue with my dad that LeBron James is the best basketball player in NBA history, while Michael Jordan is the greatest.

So, while I am not yet stacking Smith’s career up against those of Cris Carter, David Boston, Joey Galloway, Ted Ginn Jr., Terry Glenn, Marvin Harrison Jr., Santonio Holmes, Michael Jenkins, Terry McLaurin, Chris Olave, Michael Thomas, Garrett Wilson, or any of the other all-time greats that I certainly forgot (and yes, those are in alphabetical order as to not show favoritism), but I do think that we can ask the question about whether J.J. Smith is the best when it comes to our physical gifts and abilities.

Before the season, we were told that Smith had been clocked at 23.18 mph. For reference, According to NBC, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver D.K. Metcalf (who is thrown the ball by Jeremiah’s cousin Geno) is the fastest player in the NFL, clocking in at 22.23 mph. Now, to get a like-for-like comparison, you’d want Smith’s time to be independently verified, but if it was, that means that he’s almost a full mile per hour faster than the fastest guy in the National Football League... despite being just 18 years old.

And when you throw in the fact that he can do things like this:


JEREMIAH SMITH IS SPECIAL.@OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/ZMxZb3IqLI

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 29, 2024

you realize that he has truly been gifted with prodigious skills far beyond that of even the most freakish athletes in the world. In just four collegiate games, Smith has shown a preternatural ability to make plays no matter the circumstance. While the play highlighted above might be the prettier of the two from last night, the first of his one-handed grabs might be even more impressive.

While being double-covered, Smith turned his body while in mid-air, quietly skying up between two DBs. Once he had squared his shoulders to the ball, it is clear on the replay that he was initially planning to catch it with two hands, but, for whatever reason — perhaps he mistimed the jump, the ball sailed a bit more than he anticipated, he momentarily lost it in the lights, whatever — he realized at the last second that his only chance of making the catch was with his right hand alone. So, he calmly did just that, plucking the ball out of the air as if what he had just done was your ordinary, routine, everyday catch. Seriously, check out his face after the play. No excitement, no celebration, not even any intense focus, since time was running down on the half. Just, a guy who did something extraordinary who does extraordinary things every day.


JEREMIAH SMITH ARE YOU KIDDING?!

Peacock | @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/wbhzKFPfWu

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 29, 2024

So, J.J. has a ways to go before being the “greatest” Buckeye wide receiver ever, but through just four games, I think that there is a legitimate argument to be made that he is already the ”best.”


Ohio State’s offense is unstoppable


The saying is that variety is the spice of life, but when it comes to college football, it might be the thing that makes a team unstoppable. I have long maintained that Ryan Day was once an elite play-caller — and could continue to be if it wasn't for that pesky head coaching thing. However, the fact that Chip Kelly is now the man coordinating the offense should make every Buckeye (and unbiased college football) fan giddy with excitement.

I am not an Xs and Os expert when it comes to football, but with a layman’s eye, it is obvious that the types of things that this offense is being asked to are so much more diverse than they had been in the latter part of Day’s tenure calling plays.

Smith got his first rushing touchdown (and attempt) last night on a reverse, which was fun, but to my untrained eye, I think you can see it most of all in the traditional run game. We all know that in terms of talent, the Buckeye offensive line is probably at the bottom of the pecking order, however, I do think that they have done incredibly well in pass protection this season. So, Chip is using his years of schematic creativity to put them in positions in the run game to open up holes for the best backfield duo in college football.

Rather than simply lining up and hoping that the o-line’s size alone will allow them to open holes, Kelly is using misdirection, pulls, and traps (great “Star Wars” reference in the tweet from Eleven Warriors’ Kyle Jones below) to get the most out of the run game.


Yet another fun, new wrinkle we saw from Chip Kelly and the Ohio State run game last night:

(Cue the Admiral Ackbar meme) pic.twitter.com/BLNnlcmtKD

— Kyle (@Jones) September 29, 2024

But it’s more than that; this offense has proven that it can do just about anything it wants. They have proven the ability to move the ball with short, quick passes, as it did to open the game last night. They have proven the ability to hit home runs deep downfield in the passing game, as it has done throughout the season. The running backs have proven capable of matching the receivers in turning in massive chunk plays while also running incredibly physically when they need to get through contact to pick up first downs.

Last night, Will Howard also walked into the end zone on a designed quarterback keeper — after he said last week that he was looking forward to showing more of his running ability. There is just so much that this offense has already shown that it is capable of, that it can’t help but get you excited for what else you know that Chip Kelly has up his sleeves waiting to be pulled out at the most opportune moment.


Is OSUs’ backup defensive line better than the first team (other than Tyleik)?


Last night against Michigan State, the defensive linemen who had the best pressure grades from Pro Football Focus were Caden Curry and Kayden McDonald; and if you want to lump Mitchell Melton into the defensive line (though he’s technically a linebacker), those are your top three.

Of course, there are obvious caveats about who they were lined up against and when they were on the field, but it is difficult to watch the Ohio State defense and not notice an extra spark when those guys are on the field. When you throw in guys like Jason Moore, Hero Kanu, and Tywone Malone (although PFF was not kind to him last night), there just seems to be something both intangible, but palpable when they get playing time. I should say that I feel something similar when Tyleik Williams is in the game, but Ohio State’s best defensive lineman (at least in my opinion) was out for the second consecutive game. Even though he was active and dressed for the game, with four consecutive games against the toughest four teams on your schedule outside of Michigan, I’m fine not risking him against Michigan State.

Jack Sawyer graded out well, and I think he continues to deserve a lot of the attention he carried over from the end of last season, but it just feels like him, J.T. Tuimoloau, and Ty Hamilton are collectively fine most of the time, with moments of brilliance and incompetence sprinkled in.

Now, I understand that the design of this defense is often to have the defensive line eat up blockers so that the linebackers and safeties can make plays, and that’s all well and good, but it seems to me that the backups have a lot more flash, explosion, and tenacity while doing it.

Maybe in my schematic ignorance, this is just me falling in love with the backups — which is a favorite college football pastime the nation over — but I think that there is tremendous upside to allowing these guys to take more snaps. At this point, we know what both the floor and ceiling are for the first team line, and while the floor might be lower (though I’m not sure about that) for Hero, Caden, Kayden, Tywone, Jason, Mitchell, et. al, the ceiling has to be higher, right? So why not throw them in a bit more — either individually or together — against top opponents over the next four weeks and see if both the ceiling and floor are much higher up than we even imagined.


One bonus one that I will not be elaborating on at this time...


Ohio State is the best and most complete team in the country.

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