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LGHL BOOOM! Five-star 2027 QB Brady Edmunds commits to Ohio State

BOOOM! Five-star 2027 QB Brady Edmunds commits to Ohio State
Dan Hessler
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


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2027 five-star quarterback Brady Edmunds | via @bradyedmunds9 on X

Ohio State found its quarterback of the future on Monday, and the Buckeyes offered another one in the 2028 class.

Ohio State is now 10-2 following last weekend’s nightmare and will not be playing football for a couple weeks. For those in Buckeye Nation looking for a distraction this week, you are in luck. National Signing Day for the 2025 recruiting class is Wednesday, and with this, Ohio State will be making many recruiting headlines.

While some may be bad news, the majority will be positive, and this began on Monday as the Buckeyes kicked off the week finding it quarterback of the future.

2027 five-star QB Brady Edmunds (Huntington Beach, CA / Huntington Beach) committed to Ohio State on Monday following a weekend visit to Columbus, and made it official that he has “always been a buckeye.”


always been a buckeye. #gobucks pic.twitter.com/7HFcGWbSGY

— Brady Edmunds 2027 (@bradyedmunds9) December 2, 2024​

Edmunds chose Ohio State over a final four that also featured Michigan, Penn State and Texas, but Ohio State always felt like the leader. The Buckeyes offered Edmunds in June of this year, and by late summer predictions were already being cast in Ohio State’s favor.

Edmunds made visits with his other three finalists, as well as with the local schools USC and UCLA, but he also made multiple visits with Ohio State. His first visit gameday visit with the Buckeyes was Oct. 5 for the Iowa game. The visit went as well as possible and some thought he may have been on commitment watch then.

The California signal caller then made a return visit to Ohio State this past weekend for the Michigan game, and despite the results on the field felt like it was time to commit to the Buckeyes.

Ohio State has a commitment from 2025 five-star QB Tavien St. Clair (Bellefontaine, OH / Bellefontaine) and he is expected to make that pledge official soon. The Buckeyes do not yet hold a commitment in its 2026 class, but with Edmunds now committed to the Buckeyes in 2027, Ohio State may opt to not make the position one of great importance in the 2026 class. Especially considering the current roster featuring two young former five-star recruits in Air Noland and Julian Sayin.

That being said, Ohio State is not done at recruiting the position. The Buckeyes are looking even further into the future and on Monday the team offered 2028 quarterback Christopher Vargas (Danvers, MA / St. John’s Prep).


#AGTG I’m blessed to receive an offer from @OhioStateFB Thank you @ryandaytime @CoachRLarkin @StJohnsPrepFB @M2_QBacademy pic.twitter.com/fFEuZTor4g

— Christopher Vargas 2028 QB (@chris_vargas2) December 1, 2024​

Vargas does not yet have a recruiting ranking from 247Sports, but he does hold offers from Boston College, UConn, UMass, Penn State and Syracuse.

Edmunds is the No. 2 QB in the 247Sports Composite Rankings and is the No. 10 overall prospect. He is also the No. 3 recruit from the talent-rich state of California.

For a better look at what Edmunds will be bringing to Ohio State, check out the below highlights from Hudl.

Quick Hits​

  • Former Ohio State 2025 four-star edge commit Zahir Mathis (Philadelphia, PA / Imhotep Institute) announced on Monday that he will not be making a decision this week when the Early Signing Period opens up.

Mathis de-committed from the Buckeyes in November, but said that the Buckeyes will remain a top school for him. It remains to be seen how much Ohio State and Mathis will remain in contact with one another, and the announcement of him delaying his recruitment should come as no surprise.


I will not be signing the first signing period !!!!

— Zahir Mathis (@ZahirMathis5) December 2, 2024​

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LGHL Stock Market Report: For the first time ever, there is no stock to take

Stock Market Report: For the first time ever, there is no stock to take
justingolba
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After the worst loss the Buckeyes have suffered in a long time, the whole program has to look in the mirror.

Normally, after every Ohio State game no matter the results, we do a Stock Market Report, focusing on players and other things that have raised or lowered its stock depending on how they played and how the game played out. But it doesn’t feel right to do that this week.

I was born on June 25, 1996, which makes me 28, plus some change. I remember all the games I have watched since I was about six or so, and that was the worst loss I have ever seen for Ohio State. It’s not the worst team I have seen them lose to. It is not the biggest loss I have seen, and this isn’t the worst season I have seen, but it is the worst individual loss I have seen.

For this Ohio State team to lose at home to that Michigan team in the manner that they did with all of the conversations that have surrounded it — Ryan Day saying how much losing this game haunts him, the seniors that came back for this game specifically, and the predictions that Ohio State would use this game to get three years of losses out of their system.

When a loss like this happens, there are no positives to be taken away. There is nothing to take stock of. You have to sit in the suck, and then figure out how you move on.

For the Buckeyes, moving on will have to have to happen with a quick turnaround, because the season is not over. They will be in the College Football Playoff and maybe even still host a first-round game. That look in the mirror is going to have to come very quickly.

Also, normally, the Stock Market Report is more positive than negative. There is more buy than sell. I don’t know what the positive takeaway from this game is.

Carnell Tate dropped a pass in a key situation, maybe the first drop of his career. Jayden Felding, who had never missed a kick inside 40 yards in his career, missed two. Kaleel Mullings was seemingly tackled behind the line of scrimmage to stall a drive in the fourth quarter, and he ended up getting 30 yards to set up the game-winning field goal.

There were about 10 plays that, if they had gone differently, Ohio State would have won this game. But they didn’t, and it set up for the worst loss in a long, long time.

Those aren’t excuses, but it is just more examples of a team that can’t execute against Michigan, no matter how the rest of the season goes.

That is why it is impossible to accurately do a Stock Market Report. This is The Game, and things work differently in The Game. Ryan Day is 47-1 against Big Ten teams that aren’t named Michigan, and 1-4 against teams that are named Michigan.

The 1-4 record is much more important than the 47-1 record.

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LGHL Grumpy Old Buckeye: Examining the remains of Ohio State’s 13-10 loss to Michigan

Grumpy Old Buckeye: Examining the remains of Ohio State’s 13-10 loss to Michigan
Michael Citro
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Everything about Saturday was questionable, from the coaching to whether the team’s quarterback seemed healthy enough to be out there.

To say Saturday didn’t go as planned for Ohio State fans is an understatement of epic proportions. The Buckeyes’ 13-10 loss was shocking in many ways, including the failures of special teams, offense, and coaching on a combined scale not seen in Columbus in years.

This column typically accentuates the negative, because there are generally so few. This week, the column could conceivably fill all available space on the internet. As such, I’ll try to keep it broad to make for a manageable reading experience.

The following had me yelling The Expletive at The TV during The Game.

Do Things that Work; Don’t Do Things that Don’t Work

The obvious thing that most OSU fans are upset about is whatever that game plan was on offense. There was no discernible logic to a scheme that seemed to involve more running straight at Michigan’s large future NFL defensive tackles at the same time it became more and more obvious that it wouldn’t work.

Ohio State’s first scoring drive included six passes and only three runs, ending in a short field goal. The Buckeyes’ only touchdown drive of the day consisted of eight passes and one run. Both of those scoring drives — the only two on the day — started with a pass play. Every single drive of the second half started with a running play until the final drive with less than a minute remaining and no timeouts left.

Will Howard attempted 33 passes on Saturday, and 18 of those came on the two scoring drives plus the futile final possession.

Will Howard

Howard’s first interception turned out to be a backbreaker, although at the time, with so much clock left, it didn’t seem like it. There was no reason not to sail that ball high, where it would have gone out of play if Carnell Tate couldn’t reach it. That was a bad throw. The second pick was worse, because it took away a scoring opportunity, his man (Emeka Egbuka) wasn’t open, and the throw was well behind the receiver.

However, there was a bigger issue with Howard. The shot that he took that sent him to the medical tent looked bad. He took a shoulder hit to the head, which may have glanced off the top of his shoulder pad first, but it didn’t negate the violence of the collision. The quarterback was off the field a shockingly short amount of time to get checked for a concussion.

Once he came back on, he didn’t play the same way. This was exacerbated when the coaching staff inexplicably called another quarterback run and he took a helmet-to-helmet shot in the earhole. From that point in the game, Howard only threw two passes that looked anything like his usual form — a key completion to Egbuka for a first down and a dropped pass by Tate that could have gotten Ohio State’s second-to-last drive started on the right foot.

I’m not saying Howard played concussed, but he didn’t look at all the same after the second hit to the head, and the offensive play calling was even more conservative afterwards (notably, a middle run on third-and-long prior to Jayden Fielding’s second missed field goal on the day by a team that includes Jeremiah Smith).

What I will say, however, is that if Howard was playing while concussed, everyone involved in letting him back on the field must answer for it. I don’t have an explanation for his performance after the second helmet shot, but it was noticeably worse.

After the game, Ryan Day said part of the reason they ran so often was that there was a lot of pressure on the quarterback. To that remark, I will point out that Howard was not sacked on Saturday.

Bringing Field Goals to a Touchdown Fight

Big games require big decisions, including trying to score touchdowns. Caleb Downs made a huge play to pick off Davis Warren, setting the Buckeyes up at the Michigan 16. After a(nother) first-down rush for no gain, a pass to Gee Scott also netted zero yards.

The handoff to TreVeyon Henderson on third down was a cowardly white flag with little chance of success, which was almost certainly always going to result in a field-goal attempt. Fielding missed for the second time, which is about what teams deserve for playing like that.

Speaking of Fielding…

Ohio State’s kicker entered The Game having missed only one field goal in 2024 and having never missed a try from less than 40 yards. In this one game, one in which he hit an early attempt to put Ohio State on top, he tripled his miss total for the season and failed from inside 40 for the first two times in his career.

Making both short kicks would have forced a different end game out of the Wolverines. Missing two of three was fatal.

Befuddlement and Wasteful Confusion

College coaches haven’t had the two-minute timeout (sorry, just call it the two-minute warning — it’s what we’re used to and it sounds weird not to call it that) very long, so it may take some adjusting, but Day is a former NFL assistant coach. Chip Kelly is a former NFL head coach. They have no excuse not to understand how taking timeouts before the two-minute mark can save additional time.

However, Ohio State did not opt to use a timeout before that point in the game. To make matters worse, when the Buckeyes did call timeout, they failed to get the correct personnel out there and lineup up properly, taking a costly penalty by trying to take a second timeout in succession. That allowed Michigan to use more clock.

The timeout you took is for getting your house in order. Not doing so is wasting the resource you just used. It was yet another gaffe on a day filled with them.

Catch It

A key moment in the game was a 68-yard punt that seemingly didn’t have to go that far. Ohio State had just missed a field goal, with Michigan starting at its own 20. The defense held and forced a quick punt. Caleb Downs appeared to be in position to catch the line drive effort and even perhaps make a big return out of it. At worst, the Buckeyes would have been near midfield to start their drive.

However, Downs let it go, and it rolled deep into OSU territory. I can’t blame Downs much, as punt returners are supposed to let it go if there is any doubt in their mind about whether they can come up with it cleanly. In other words, he did the right thing as instructed, but I wish he hadn’t.

If he did catch it, it would likely have been a big play and wouldn’t have flipped the field, helping the Wolverines, who held on the ensuing defensive series, took over in great field position, and kicked a 54-yard field goal on their next possession as a result of flipping the field.

It did not help that Ohio State’s coaching staff turtled on the possession, which started at the OSU 7-yard line. That possession consisted of a 2-yard run by Henderson, an incomplete pass, and a Henderson run for a loss of yardage.

More Field Position Woes

Henderson erred on the second-half kickoff, scrambling to cover the ball at his own 6-yard line, putting Ohio State in a bad spot again after regaining momentum late in the first half. That drive was somewhat successful anyway, due to calling seven pass plays out of 10 total, as the Buckeyes drove it down to the Michigan 38-yard line.

If you’re keeping score, I have now accounted for 25 of Howard’s 33 pass attempts on just four drives, including three of the team’s most successful ones on the day. I guess I just see a pattern that somehow escaped the notice of both Day and Kelly.

The drive bogged down at that point, as it was a choice between a 55-yard field goal or going for it on fourth-and-7. Day would go for that first down against Purdue. He would go for it against Northwestern. He would go for it against Michigan State. To summarize, he would go for that first down in most cases.

He did not go for it against Michigan. Scared money don’t make money.



Those are the things that made me want to stomp off into the woods and fight a real wolverine on Saturday (disclaimer: never do this). What stood out to you?

Normally, I would put a whole slew of good things that the Buckeyes did in this section, but there weren’t many you could point to on Saturday. The defense basically did its job. Even when they gave up a few too many yards, they made a fourth-down stop inside their own 5-yard line and got a Jack Sawyer interception in the end zone.

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. There were not many positives, and in five decades of watching Ohio State football, this is the most perplexed I’ve ever been after a game about what I saw.



Next up is a mystery for the time being. Ohio State will play at least one more game this season, but it won’t be in the Big Ten title game, meaning it’ll be the second failed accomplishment for the Buckeyes who returned to complete “unfinished business.”

All that’s left is a national championship (yeah, that’s all), but it’s understandable if no one in Buckeye Nation has the confidence that a team that just lost to the most mediocre Michigan team in years can pull off that kind of run.

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