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LGHL Ohio State Football Countdown: 33
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Ohio State Football Countdown: 33
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
One play or big moment per day as we count down to the start of Ohio State’s 2023 football season.
As we count down to the start of the 2023 season, we will be looking back at one play or big moment in Ohio State history over the past decade or so that corresponds to the remaining days left until Buckeyes take the field against Indiana on Sept. 2. There are 34 days remaining.
Despite spending four years in Columbus, Rod Smith’s Ohio State career never quite got off the ground, but he did still manage this impressive 33-yard touchdown run against Nebraska, breaking several tackles en route to the end zone. For Smith, it was one of eight career rushing TDs with the Buckeyes, compiling 549 yards on 107 carries during his time in scarlet and gray. Ohio State won this game with ease, 63-38, on the back of four rushing TDs by Carlos Hyde and two more scores from Braxton Miller — one passing, one rushing. Bradley Roby picked off two passes on the other end, taking one back for six.
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Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
One play or big moment per day as we count down to the start of Ohio State’s 2023 football season.
As we count down to the start of the 2023 season, we will be looking back at one play or big moment in Ohio State history over the past decade or so that corresponds to the remaining days left until Buckeyes take the field against Indiana on Sept. 2. There are 34 days remaining.
Play of the Day: Rod Smith’s 33-yard TD vs. Nebraska (2012)
Despite spending four years in Columbus, Rod Smith’s Ohio State career never quite got off the ground, but he did still manage this impressive 33-yard touchdown run against Nebraska, breaking several tackles en route to the end zone. For Smith, it was one of eight career rushing TDs with the Buckeyes, compiling 549 yards on 107 carries during his time in scarlet and gray. Ohio State won this game with ease, 63-38, on the back of four rushing TDs by Carlos Hyde and two more scores from Braxton Miller — one passing, one rushing. Bradley Roby picked off two passes on the other end, taking one back for six.
Players to Wear the #33 (since 2010):
- David Durham (2010-11)
- Nic Sarac (2011-13)
- Frank Epitropoulos (2012-13)
- Dante Booker (2014-18)
- Master Teague III (2017-21)
- Chase Brecht (2022)
- Jack Sawyer (2021-present)
- Devin Brown (2022-present)
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LGHL Conspiracy Corner: Did Aaron Scott just pull off the longest troll job in recruiting history?
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Conspiracy Corner: Did Aaron Scott just pull off the longest troll job in recruiting history?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Masters of the long con Aaron Scott and Andy Kaufman | Left image: Aaron Scott’s Instagram | Right image: Images Press/IMAGES/Getty Images
Andy Kaufman — who is obviously not really dead — is probably very impressed with Scott’s performance.
Look, I am not a natural conspiracy theorist. I believe that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. I believe that the Earth is round. I believe Elvis has been dead since 1977 and Tupac was murdered in 1996. I do not believe that the Holy Grail is actually the sacred bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I do not believe that we are all actually living in a simulation. And I believe that the Denver International Airport is just an airport and not a secret bunker for the highest-ranking members of the New World Order to retreat to when they begin to rain down a fiery apocalypse on an unsuspecting global population.
But nonetheless, here I am, sitting at home on a late-July Sunday evening contemplating the fact that a newly committed Ohio State football prospect might have just pulled off the biggest long-term con job in the history of recruiting. As you almost certainly know by now, Springfield, Ohio native Aaron Scott chose the Buckeyes over Michigan and Oregon on Sunday. The No. 52 player in the country, No. 5 cornerback, and No. 2 player from Ohio according to 247Sports’ Composite Ratings, all of the crystal balls and recruiting prediction machines had Scott going to Ohio State, but the vibe around his recruitment was a fraught one for Buckeye fans.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, even though the experts were all focused on OSU as the destination for the talented corner (although no one felt super confident about it), his words and actions made everyone in Buckeye Nation understandably anxious. Earlier this month, when announcing his commitment day, Scott tweeted “shock da world,” and what would be more shocking for a top prospect from 45 minutes outside of Columbus than committing to Michigan? Then, two days later, he was spotted wearing Wolverine cleats at a 7-on-7 event in Dayton, adding more fuel to the fandom’s fears.
Scott was one of the toughest prospects in recent memory to get a bead on because other than narrowing down his finalists to the Buckeyes, Wolverines, and Oregon Ducks, he gave precious few indications about where he was leaning, even up until the week of his commitment (more on that in a second).
However, one of the first signs that Scott was bound to be a Buckeye was the choice of commitment day. You could assume that the rising senior just wanted to make his pledge on July 30 so that he could focus his attention on his last season as a high school football player, and that would be completely valid. But, July 30 also happens to be his father’s birthday, and his father is a huge Ohio State fan.
If Scott was seriously going to commit to Michigan, would he do it on his Buckeye-loving dad’s birthday? While I am sure that Mr. Scott would have eventually accepted the Wolverines into his heart if Aaron decided to go there — at least for as long as he was on the team — it would be a pretty brutal birthday gift to make your dad sit at the table next to you while you chose to play for his hated rival.
To be fair, we here at LGHL have been secretly suspecting a troll job for well over a month. Our recruiting analyst (and Michigan state-champion high school football coach) Caleb Houser raised the possibility in our Slack channel before Scott’s June 23 official visit to Columbus.
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Following his commitment, Scott said that it was that visit and being on hand when Ohio’s No. 1 prospect, fellow cornerback Bryce West, committed to the Buckeyes that moved OSU ahead of TTUN. And while that might be true, Scott’s comments to reporters don’t always line up, even after his decision was revealed.
In the same media availability Sunday night, the cornerback said that he didn’t make his decision until Sunday morning, backing up tweets from earlier in the week that indicated that he wasn’t yet ready to make a decision, and yet, on Friday — two days before his announcement — he sat down with Rival’s Jeremy Birmingham to detail his decision to become a Buckeye.
Was he just trying to keep the secret under wraps or was it part of a months-long troll job against Michigan? Why would he tell reporters that he made the decision on Sunday if days earlier he gave an interview explaining why he made the decision? The only thing I can think is that either he is so caught up in the con that he forgot that he could now drop the act, or he just wanted to twist the knife into Michigan one more time.
In fairness, we weren’t the only people who thought that Scott could be trolling the Wolverine fans and coaches. Last week, a Michigan YouTuber rightly said that there was nearly no chance that Aaron picked the Maize and Blue, saying it was 98% for Ohio State and just 2% for Michigan.
He even asked his viewers to provide any explanation for Scott’s actions other than the fact that he was trolling, and nobody could do it. So, while it is against my nature to give credit to any Michigan Man, it does seem like Mark Rogers got this one exactly right. Even a blind muskrat finds a nut every once in a while.
But, if his months of misdirects, misleading comments, and mind games aren’t enough for you to believe that Scott has been trolling Michigan this whole time, I give you my final piece of inculpatory evidence: Aaron Scott’s actual commitment event.
Scott, flanked by his parents, sat at the center of a table with an Oregon hat and bookbag on his right, a Michigan hat and bag in front of him, and an OSU hat and bag to his left. Now, if you are a disciple of Hat Science
, you know that the hat in the middle is never chosen, meaning that Buckeye fans should have felt pretty good about their options on Sunday evening.
Nevertheless, Scott went through with his pre-planned charade. First, he eliminated the Oregon gear — despite the fact that he said this week that he grew up a Ducks fan — then, he picked up the Ohio State stuff and went to don the hat, only to discard that as well, leaving only the Michigan merch. But friends, if you have watched these commitment announcements over the years, surely you knew this was not the end. In fact, as soon as the props were placed on the table, you should have been asking yourself, “Self, why does Aaron Scott have bookbags on the table in addition to hats?”
That would have been a very good question, because — with only the maize and blue hat and bag remaining on the table — instead of putting on the Block M hat and declaring his intention to play for the next three or four years in Ann Arbor, Scott picked up the Michigan bag, opened the pocket, and pulled out an Ohio State jersey that he promptly put it on to complete his commitment and the trolling of his new team’s biggest rival.
Look, I am not one to question a 17-year-old’s honesty, so if Scott says that he was truly considering Michigan throughout this process even up until Sunday morning, who am I to call him a liar (even if his public statements about when he made his decision were demonstrably false)? But, if Kyrie Irving, RFK Jr., or Ye asked me for my honest opinion, I would tell them that I think this was nothing more than a lifelong Buckeye fan sticking it to his favorite team’s bitter rivals.
”Ohio State showed me a whole lot of love,” Scott told Bucknuts’ Bill Kurelic. “Ryan Day reminded me how I love Ohio State. It’s family there, it’s all love.”
Could the OSU head coach have reminded Scott of that love during his official visit last month? Last week? Sunday morning? Perhaps, but look at the prospect’s recruitment graphic. In addition to the recruiting images wearing official Buckeye team gear, there are photos of a young Aaron Scott decked out in scarlet and gray.
Growing up less than an hour away from Ohio Stadium with a dad who loves the Buckeyes, in retrospect, it’s hard to imagine Aaron Scott going anywhere else, but for a good long while, he had a lot of people convinced — or at least concerned — that he was bound for Ann Arbor.
In fairness, in the video above, Scott told Birm that he did — in fact — make his decision at some point last week and that it was his late-June visit to Columbus that flipped him from the Dark Side to the light. In the super-secret Friday interview, Scott explained his thought process in coming to his ultimate conclusion, so perhaps Occam’s razor holds true here and if I take off the tinfoil hat and stop my own little bit of trolling, I can concede that Scott probably did have a really tough time picking between OSU and TTUN… but you never know, maybe he didn’t.
In the end, whether this was as difficult of a decision as Scott has said it was or it was all an elaborate Andy Kaufman-style ruse designed to embarrass the Michigan program, frustrate their fans, and force them to waste time and resources on a prospect they never had a real chance at landing, we might never know, but either way, it’s nice to finally be able to officially welcome Aaron Scott into the 2024 Ohio State recruiting class.
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Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Masters of the long con Aaron Scott and Andy Kaufman | Left image: Aaron Scott’s Instagram | Right image: Images Press/IMAGES/Getty Images
Andy Kaufman — who is obviously not really dead — is probably very impressed with Scott’s performance.
Look, I am not a natural conspiracy theorist. I believe that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. I believe that the Earth is round. I believe Elvis has been dead since 1977 and Tupac was murdered in 1996. I do not believe that the Holy Grail is actually the sacred bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I do not believe that we are all actually living in a simulation. And I believe that the Denver International Airport is just an airport and not a secret bunker for the highest-ranking members of the New World Order to retreat to when they begin to rain down a fiery apocalypse on an unsuspecting global population.
But nonetheless, here I am, sitting at home on a late-July Sunday evening contemplating the fact that a newly committed Ohio State football prospect might have just pulled off the biggest long-term con job in the history of recruiting. As you almost certainly know by now, Springfield, Ohio native Aaron Scott chose the Buckeyes over Michigan and Oregon on Sunday. The No. 52 player in the country, No. 5 cornerback, and No. 2 player from Ohio according to 247Sports’ Composite Ratings, all of the crystal balls and recruiting prediction machines had Scott going to Ohio State, but the vibe around his recruitment was a fraught one for Buckeye fans.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, even though the experts were all focused on OSU as the destination for the talented corner (although no one felt super confident about it), his words and actions made everyone in Buckeye Nation understandably anxious. Earlier this month, when announcing his commitment day, Scott tweeted “shock da world,” and what would be more shocking for a top prospect from 45 minutes outside of Columbus than committing to Michigan? Then, two days later, he was spotted wearing Wolverine cleats at a 7-on-7 event in Dayton, adding more fuel to the fandom’s fears.
Scott was one of the toughest prospects in recent memory to get a bead on because other than narrowing down his finalists to the Buckeyes, Wolverines, and Oregon Ducks, he gave precious few indications about where he was leaning, even up until the week of his commitment (more on that in a second).
However, one of the first signs that Scott was bound to be a Buckeye was the choice of commitment day. You could assume that the rising senior just wanted to make his pledge on July 30 so that he could focus his attention on his last season as a high school football player, and that would be completely valid. But, July 30 also happens to be his father’s birthday, and his father is a huge Ohio State fan.
If Scott was seriously going to commit to Michigan, would he do it on his Buckeye-loving dad’s birthday? While I am sure that Mr. Scott would have eventually accepted the Wolverines into his heart if Aaron decided to go there — at least for as long as he was on the team — it would be a pretty brutal birthday gift to make your dad sit at the table next to you while you chose to play for his hated rival.
To be fair, we here at LGHL have been secretly suspecting a troll job for well over a month. Our recruiting analyst (and Michigan state-champion high school football coach) Caleb Houser raised the possibility in our Slack channel before Scott’s June 23 official visit to Columbus.
Following his commitment, Scott said that it was that visit and being on hand when Ohio’s No. 1 prospect, fellow cornerback Bryce West, committed to the Buckeyes that moved OSU ahead of TTUN. And while that might be true, Scott’s comments to reporters don’t always line up, even after his decision was revealed.
In the same media availability Sunday night, the cornerback said that he didn’t make his decision until Sunday morning, backing up tweets from earlier in the week that indicated that he wasn’t yet ready to make a decision, and yet, on Friday — two days before his announcement — he sat down with Rival’s Jeremy Birmingham to detail his decision to become a Buckeye.
Was he just trying to keep the secret under wraps or was it part of a months-long troll job against Michigan? Why would he tell reporters that he made the decision on Sunday if days earlier he gave an interview explaining why he made the decision? The only thing I can think is that either he is so caught up in the con that he forgot that he could now drop the act, or he just wanted to twist the knife into Michigan one more time.
In fairness, we weren’t the only people who thought that Scott could be trolling the Wolverine fans and coaches. Last week, a Michigan YouTuber rightly said that there was nearly no chance that Aaron picked the Maize and Blue, saying it was 98% for Ohio State and just 2% for Michigan.
He even asked his viewers to provide any explanation for Scott’s actions other than the fact that he was trolling, and nobody could do it. So, while it is against my nature to give credit to any Michigan Man, it does seem like Mark Rogers got this one exactly right. Even a blind muskrat finds a nut every once in a while.
But, if his months of misdirects, misleading comments, and mind games aren’t enough for you to believe that Scott has been trolling Michigan this whole time, I give you my final piece of inculpatory evidence: Aaron Scott’s actual commitment event.
Scott, flanked by his parents, sat at the center of a table with an Oregon hat and bookbag on his right, a Michigan hat and bag in front of him, and an OSU hat and bag to his left. Now, if you are a disciple of Hat Science
, you know that the hat in the middle is never chosen, meaning that Buckeye fans should have felt pretty good about their options on Sunday evening.Nevertheless, Scott went through with his pre-planned charade. First, he eliminated the Oregon gear — despite the fact that he said this week that he grew up a Ducks fan — then, he picked up the Ohio State stuff and went to don the hat, only to discard that as well, leaving only the Michigan merch. But friends, if you have watched these commitment announcements over the years, surely you knew this was not the end. In fact, as soon as the props were placed on the table, you should have been asking yourself, “Self, why does Aaron Scott have bookbags on the table in addition to hats?”
That would have been a very good question, because — with only the maize and blue hat and bag remaining on the table — instead of putting on the Block M hat and declaring his intention to play for the next three or four years in Ann Arbor, Scott picked up the Michigan bag, opened the pocket, and pulled out an Ohio State jersey that he promptly put it on to complete his commitment and the trolling of his new team’s biggest rival.
Look, I am not one to question a 17-year-old’s honesty, so if Scott says that he was truly considering Michigan throughout this process even up until Sunday morning, who am I to call him a liar (even if his public statements about when he made his decision were demonstrably false)? But, if Kyrie Irving, RFK Jr., or Ye asked me for my honest opinion, I would tell them that I think this was nothing more than a lifelong Buckeye fan sticking it to his favorite team’s bitter rivals.
”Ohio State showed me a whole lot of love,” Scott told Bucknuts’ Bill Kurelic. “Ryan Day reminded me how I love Ohio State. It’s family there, it’s all love.”
Could the OSU head coach have reminded Scott of that love during his official visit last month? Last week? Sunday morning? Perhaps, but look at the prospect’s recruitment graphic. In addition to the recruiting images wearing official Buckeye team gear, there are photos of a young Aaron Scott decked out in scarlet and gray.
Growing up less than an hour away from Ohio Stadium with a dad who loves the Buckeyes, in retrospect, it’s hard to imagine Aaron Scott going anywhere else, but for a good long while, he had a lot of people convinced — or at least concerned — that he was bound for Ann Arbor.
In fairness, in the video above, Scott told Birm that he did — in fact — make his decision at some point last week and that it was his late-June visit to Columbus that flipped him from the Dark Side to the light. In the super-secret Friday interview, Scott explained his thought process in coming to his ultimate conclusion, so perhaps Occam’s razor holds true here and if I take off the tinfoil hat and stop my own little bit of trolling, I can concede that Scott probably did have a really tough time picking between OSU and TTUN… but you never know, maybe he didn’t.
In the end, whether this was as difficult of a decision as Scott has said it was or it was all an elaborate Andy Kaufman-style ruse designed to embarrass the Michigan program, frustrate their fans, and force them to waste time and resources on a prospect they never had a real chance at landing, we might never know, but either way, it’s nice to finally be able to officially welcome Aaron Scott into the 2024 Ohio State recruiting class.
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LGHL You’re Nuts: After landing Scott, where should Ohio State shift its focus next?
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You’re Nuts: After landing Scott, where should Ohio State shift its focus next?
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
2024 Ohio State commit Aaron Scott Jr. | via @SpencerHolbrook on Twitter
What should the Buckeyes’ recruiting focus be moving forward in 2024?
Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.
In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.
This week’s topic: Where should Ohio State focus next in the 2024 class?
Ohio State scored a sizable recruiting victory yesterday evening when they landed the commitment of high four-star cornerback Aaron Scott. Scott, an Ohio native, became the Buckeyes’ 19th verbal commit in their 2024 class, joining the likes of WR Jeremiah Smith, QB Air Noland, DL Justin Scott, and fellow CBs Bryce West and Miles Lockhart. All current OSU commitments make up the No. 2 class in the 2024 team rankings, with potential to reach No. 1 if Ryan Day and company can add a few more five-stars.
Sounds great, right? Well yeah, that’s because this 2024 class is absolutely shaping up to be a special one. But there are still a few holes or gaps left to fill. And that is where Gene and I come in. Not to fill any holes, but to debate them...
I feel l am veering off course with the “holes” talk, so let me just clarify that Gene and I are going to look at biggest remaining need in Ohio State’s 2024 recruiting class. And while it is difficult to pick apart the No. 2 class, I would argue that there are actually a few significant needs remaining. Because I feel that the current group of commits is somewhat top-heavy and being carried by multiple players at certain positions. Allow me to explain:
The Buckeyes have two five-star WRs (Smith and Mylan Graham) ranked as their top two prospects — nothing new with Brian Hartline carrying the load. They also have a QB (Noland) and a RB (James Peoples) ranked among their top six, meaning that four of OSU’s top six 2024 commits are offensive skill players. Joining those offensive skill players (in the top six) are DL Justin Scott and CB Aaron Scott, the latter of which is part of a nice positional trio for Tim Walton. So there is at least an argument to be made that skill players and corners are carrying this ’24 class.
However, said argument would definitely be of the nit-picking variety. Because it is still very early in this (2024) process and Ohio State seems to be in good standing with several prospects at several positions. So we are not going to overreact. I mean, who loses their mind over recruiting, right Gene? Instead, let’s just calmly debate what the OSU coaching staff needs to address before next Signing Day.
I was temped to go with the position (LB) that Jim Knowles has just repeatedly whiffed at since arriving in Columbus, but I really like Payton Pierce, and the Buckeyes were granted some leeway when C.J. Hicks and Gabe Powerswere born in Ohio joined the program in 2022. So I am going to say that offensive line is the biggest remaining need in this 2024 class, despite Ohio State already having four OL committed. My concerns are versatility, upside, and program depth.
Of the four OL currently committed to OSU, three are listed as interior blockers by 247Sports. Deontae Armstrong is the only ‘true’ tackle prospect, and he is the No. 416 ranked player in the country. Ian Moore out of Indiana has also played tackle, but his best future position is TBD. Regardless, the Buckeyes do not currently have a pledge from a ‘franchise’ left tackle and most 2024 commits appear to be destined for guard or even center.
To make matters worse, Ohio State only signed one tackle last year! And he was outside the national top-500. Going back even further, the program did sign two tackles in 2022, but one did not lose his black stripe and become an official Buckeye until spring of this year (2023)... Not great, Bob. And my intent here is not to dump on any of these guys, but rather to point out that Greg Studrawa did not exactly stock the pantry for Justin Frye, who is now trying his best is trying to replenish the groceries (talent).
The good news is that OSU appears to be in good standing with Brandon Baker, the top-ranked OT in the 2024 class. Frye has also been in contact with Guerby Lambert, 247’s No. 2 OT. The latter has multiple crystal balls to Notre Dame, but you never know what is going to happen in this recruiting game.
What I do know is that I would feel much, much better if Ohio State could land at least one commitment from a blue chip OT. Sure, these players are few and far between, but we’re talking about the Ohio State Buckeyes! Did Studrawa diminish the program’s reputation that bad? If so, can Frye rebuild it?
When it comes the latter (question), I absolutely believe that he can and will. Frye helped turn Paris Johnson Jr. into a top-6 NFL Draft pick, Dawand Jones into a first round prospect (before he stopped working out for teams), and Luke Wypler into an early entrant for said draft. Nobody believed Wypler was destined for the NFL after the 2021 season, but Frye helped make it happen — in just one year. So I am willing to bet on both his eye for talent and ability to develop.
If the results come, so will the blue chippers and high end talents. Until then, offensive line will remain an area of need.
Josh set the stage, and so I’m going to keep my side of things a bit shorter. Since my counterpart went with the offensive line, which is a sentiment I do agree with, I will gladly take the softball and go with linebacker.
As Josh already outlined, Ohio State has whiffed on several of their top linebacker targets in each of these last two classes — a concerning trend given that Jim Knowles is a linebacker guy at his core. It seemed all but assured that Tackett Curtis was going to end up a Buckeye in 2023, but he instead spurned Ohio State in favor for USC. A defensive player preferring to go play in Alex Grinch’s system in general is concerning, but that was a tough loss on a Louisiana kid going all the way across the country.
This year, the big loss was Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who appeared to be an Ohio State lean before a religious retreat changed his mind in favor of Notre Dame. It’s a little bit tougher to blame the OSU coaching staff on this one in light of the circumstances, but a quick look at the Buckeyes’ 2024 recruiting at the linebacker spot makes this even more significant than losing Curtis.
Ohio State does have Payton Pierce in the fold in this cycle, and as a top-20 linebacker nationally, the Texas kid seems like a very good get. They also brought in Arvell Reese in 2023, who was the No. 5 player in the state of Ohio and also a top-20 player at the position nationally. These are two talent players, but the problem is that landing only two linebackers across two consecutive classes — when both of this year’s starting LBs are in their final seasons — isn’t exactly an ideal situation.
Now, the Buckeyes do have some leeway from prior recruiting wins, with former five-star C.J. Hicks ready to contribute and both Gabe Powers and Reid Carrico also in the mix for a starting job in 2024. But this many recruiting misses at a position of need is concerning, and becomes even more so when you look at the remaining options in this 2024 class.
At this point in time, Ohio State has sent out offers to 12 linebackers in this cycle. Of that dozen, 10 are already committed elsewhere and one is Pierce. The only remaining uncommitted player at the position with a Buckeye offer is Devin Smith, a three-star linebacker who did not include OSU among his top five schools back at the beginning of the month. This late in the game, if Ohio State was going to add another linebacker to this class, they would have to either find a real diamond in the rough or convince someone to flip — neither of which seem all that likely.
Knowles’ recruiting obviously isn't where it’s needed to be, but that is why Ryan Day brought in James Laurinaitis to potentially aid in that area. The problem there is that Laurinaitis can’t go on the road to recruit as a grad assistant, and so if the Buckeyes want to actually get serious about linebacker recruiting, they should finally dump that bum Parker Fleming, stop employing a full-time special teams coordinator (and a really bad one at that), and make Laurinaitis your full-time linebackers coach.
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Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
2024 Ohio State commit Aaron Scott Jr. | via @SpencerHolbrook on Twitter
What should the Buckeyes’ recruiting focus be moving forward in 2024?
Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.
In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.
This week’s topic: Where should Ohio State focus next in the 2024 class?
Josh’s Take
Ohio State scored a sizable recruiting victory yesterday evening when they landed the commitment of high four-star cornerback Aaron Scott. Scott, an Ohio native, became the Buckeyes’ 19th verbal commit in their 2024 class, joining the likes of WR Jeremiah Smith, QB Air Noland, DL Justin Scott, and fellow CBs Bryce West and Miles Lockhart. All current OSU commitments make up the No. 2 class in the 2024 team rankings, with potential to reach No. 1 if Ryan Day and company can add a few more five-stars.
Sounds great, right? Well yeah, that’s because this 2024 class is absolutely shaping up to be a special one. But there are still a few holes or gaps left to fill. And that is where Gene and I come in. Not to fill any holes, but to debate them...
I feel l am veering off course with the “holes” talk, so let me just clarify that Gene and I are going to look at biggest remaining need in Ohio State’s 2024 recruiting class. And while it is difficult to pick apart the No. 2 class, I would argue that there are actually a few significant needs remaining. Because I feel that the current group of commits is somewhat top-heavy and being carried by multiple players at certain positions. Allow me to explain:
The Buckeyes have two five-star WRs (Smith and Mylan Graham) ranked as their top two prospects — nothing new with Brian Hartline carrying the load. They also have a QB (Noland) and a RB (James Peoples) ranked among their top six, meaning that four of OSU’s top six 2024 commits are offensive skill players. Joining those offensive skill players (in the top six) are DL Justin Scott and CB Aaron Scott, the latter of which is part of a nice positional trio for Tim Walton. So there is at least an argument to be made that skill players and corners are carrying this ’24 class.
However, said argument would definitely be of the nit-picking variety. Because it is still very early in this (2024) process and Ohio State seems to be in good standing with several prospects at several positions. So we are not going to overreact. I mean, who loses their mind over recruiting, right Gene? Instead, let’s just calmly debate what the OSU coaching staff needs to address before next Signing Day.
I was temped to go with the position (LB) that Jim Knowles has just repeatedly whiffed at since arriving in Columbus, but I really like Payton Pierce, and the Buckeyes were granted some leeway when C.J. Hicks and Gabe Powers
Of the four OL currently committed to OSU, three are listed as interior blockers by 247Sports. Deontae Armstrong is the only ‘true’ tackle prospect, and he is the No. 416 ranked player in the country. Ian Moore out of Indiana has also played tackle, but his best future position is TBD. Regardless, the Buckeyes do not currently have a pledge from a ‘franchise’ left tackle and most 2024 commits appear to be destined for guard or even center.
To make matters worse, Ohio State only signed one tackle last year! And he was outside the national top-500. Going back even further, the program did sign two tackles in 2022, but one did not lose his black stripe and become an official Buckeye until spring of this year (2023)... Not great, Bob. And my intent here is not to dump on any of these guys, but rather to point out that Greg Studrawa did not exactly stock the pantry for Justin Frye, who is now trying his best is trying to replenish the groceries (talent).
The good news is that OSU appears to be in good standing with Brandon Baker, the top-ranked OT in the 2024 class. Frye has also been in contact with Guerby Lambert, 247’s No. 2 OT. The latter has multiple crystal balls to Notre Dame, but you never know what is going to happen in this recruiting game.
What I do know is that I would feel much, much better if Ohio State could land at least one commitment from a blue chip OT. Sure, these players are few and far between, but we’re talking about the Ohio State Buckeyes! Did Studrawa diminish the program’s reputation that bad? If so, can Frye rebuild it?
When it comes the latter (question), I absolutely believe that he can and will. Frye helped turn Paris Johnson Jr. into a top-6 NFL Draft pick, Dawand Jones into a first round prospect (before he stopped working out for teams), and Luke Wypler into an early entrant for said draft. Nobody believed Wypler was destined for the NFL after the 2021 season, but Frye helped make it happen — in just one year. So I am willing to bet on both his eye for talent and ability to develop.
If the results come, so will the blue chippers and high end talents. Until then, offensive line will remain an area of need.
Gene’s Take
Josh set the stage, and so I’m going to keep my side of things a bit shorter. Since my counterpart went with the offensive line, which is a sentiment I do agree with, I will gladly take the softball and go with linebacker.
As Josh already outlined, Ohio State has whiffed on several of their top linebacker targets in each of these last two classes — a concerning trend given that Jim Knowles is a linebacker guy at his core. It seemed all but assured that Tackett Curtis was going to end up a Buckeye in 2023, but he instead spurned Ohio State in favor for USC. A defensive player preferring to go play in Alex Grinch’s system in general is concerning, but that was a tough loss on a Louisiana kid going all the way across the country.
This year, the big loss was Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who appeared to be an Ohio State lean before a religious retreat changed his mind in favor of Notre Dame. It’s a little bit tougher to blame the OSU coaching staff on this one in light of the circumstances, but a quick look at the Buckeyes’ 2024 recruiting at the linebacker spot makes this even more significant than losing Curtis.
Ohio State does have Payton Pierce in the fold in this cycle, and as a top-20 linebacker nationally, the Texas kid seems like a very good get. They also brought in Arvell Reese in 2023, who was the No. 5 player in the state of Ohio and also a top-20 player at the position nationally. These are two talent players, but the problem is that landing only two linebackers across two consecutive classes — when both of this year’s starting LBs are in their final seasons — isn’t exactly an ideal situation.
Now, the Buckeyes do have some leeway from prior recruiting wins, with former five-star C.J. Hicks ready to contribute and both Gabe Powers and Reid Carrico also in the mix for a starting job in 2024. But this many recruiting misses at a position of need is concerning, and becomes even more so when you look at the remaining options in this 2024 class.
At this point in time, Ohio State has sent out offers to 12 linebackers in this cycle. Of that dozen, 10 are already committed elsewhere and one is Pierce. The only remaining uncommitted player at the position with a Buckeye offer is Devin Smith, a three-star linebacker who did not include OSU among his top five schools back at the beginning of the month. This late in the game, if Ohio State was going to add another linebacker to this class, they would have to either find a real diamond in the rough or convince someone to flip — neither of which seem all that likely.
Knowles’ recruiting obviously isn't where it’s needed to be, but that is why Ryan Day brought in James Laurinaitis to potentially aid in that area. The problem there is that Laurinaitis can’t go on the road to recruit as a grad assistant, and so if the Buckeyes want to actually get serious about linebacker recruiting, they should finally dump that bum Parker Fleming, stop employing a full-time special teams coordinator (and a really bad one at that), and make Laurinaitis your full-time linebackers coach.
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LGHL I-80 Football Show: Big Ten Season Preview — Hot Seat Tier
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I-80 Football Show: Big Ten Season Preview — Hot Seat Tier
JordanW330 via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Preview season is here! In this episode, Dante and Jordan discuss the four teams who coaches will most likely be on the hot seat at the end of the season.
Welcome to a new episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s I-80 Football Show. On this show, we talk about all things Big Ten football and basketball from New Jersey to California. With USC and UCLA joining the conference in 2024 we’ll integrate them in the show getting a head start on the 16-team conference. After every week of action, we will catch you up on all the conference’s games and look ahead at the matchups, storylines, and players you should be paying attention to next week. My name is Jordan Williams, and I am joined by my co-host Dante Morgan.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
In the first of four episodes previewing all 16 teams in the Big Ten, Dante and Jordan start with the Hot Seat Tier. The hot seat tier consists of four teams whose coaches are on the hot seat entering the season, will be on the hot seat at the end, or are first-year coaches whose programs will be pretty bad. There isn’t much hope left for these programs besides hoping the grass is greener on the other side of the coaching carousel.
The guys agree that Northwestern, Indiana, and Rutgers should be in this tier but there is some disagreement on who the fourth team is with Jordan Michigan State, and Dante including Nebraska. Northwestern is a given and would have been in this tier regardless of the hazing scandal but without Pat Fitzgerald, they should be even worse. Indiana has been awful the past few seasons and this year shouldn’t be much better. They may have a better team after changing coordinators and getting some power five transfers but their schedule is tough and should result in another year in the bottom of the Big Ten.
While Rutgers is in this tier, Jordan believes this could be their last year hereafter Schiano hired a great defensive coordinator last year and hired Kirk Ciarrocca from Minnesota. Dante is on the fence and thinks it may be time to move on. Nebraska is under first-year head coach Matt Rhule and Michigan State is entering year two of Mel Tucker’s new 10-year contract. Nebraska being in this tier makes sense for year one but if this is another bad year for Michigan State they may pull out the calculator to see how soon they can get out of their albatross of a contract they gave Mel Tucker after winning 11 games in 2021.
Follow the show on YouTube:
Jordan: JordanW330
Land Grant Podcast Network: LandGrantPods
Connect with us on Twitter:
Jordan: @JordanW330
Dante: @DanteM10216
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JordanW330 via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Preview season is here! In this episode, Dante and Jordan discuss the four teams who coaches will most likely be on the hot seat at the end of the season.
Welcome to a new episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s I-80 Football Show. On this show, we talk about all things Big Ten football and basketball from New Jersey to California. With USC and UCLA joining the conference in 2024 we’ll integrate them in the show getting a head start on the 16-team conference. After every week of action, we will catch you up on all the conference’s games and look ahead at the matchups, storylines, and players you should be paying attention to next week. My name is Jordan Williams, and I am joined by my co-host Dante Morgan.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
In the first of four episodes previewing all 16 teams in the Big Ten, Dante and Jordan start with the Hot Seat Tier. The hot seat tier consists of four teams whose coaches are on the hot seat entering the season, will be on the hot seat at the end, or are first-year coaches whose programs will be pretty bad. There isn’t much hope left for these programs besides hoping the grass is greener on the other side of the coaching carousel.
The guys agree that Northwestern, Indiana, and Rutgers should be in this tier but there is some disagreement on who the fourth team is with Jordan Michigan State, and Dante including Nebraska. Northwestern is a given and would have been in this tier regardless of the hazing scandal but without Pat Fitzgerald, they should be even worse. Indiana has been awful the past few seasons and this year shouldn’t be much better. They may have a better team after changing coordinators and getting some power five transfers but their schedule is tough and should result in another year in the bottom of the Big Ten.
While Rutgers is in this tier, Jordan believes this could be their last year hereafter Schiano hired a great defensive coordinator last year and hired Kirk Ciarrocca from Minnesota. Dante is on the fence and thinks it may be time to move on. Nebraska is under first-year head coach Matt Rhule and Michigan State is entering year two of Mel Tucker’s new 10-year contract. Nebraska being in this tier makes sense for year one but if this is another bad year for Michigan State they may pull out the calculator to see how soon they can get out of their albatross of a contract they gave Mel Tucker after winning 11 games in 2021.
Follow the show on YouTube:
Jordan: JordanW330
Land Grant Podcast Network: LandGrantPods
Connect with us on Twitter:
Jordan: @JordanW330
Dante: @DanteM10216
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LGHL Ohio State has BOOOOMing weekend, landing Aaron Scott Jr. and Chris Henry Jr.
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Ohio State has BOOOOMing weekend, landing Aaron Scott Jr. and Chris Henry Jr.
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Ohio State CB commit Aaron Scott Jr. | via @AaronScottJr1 on Twitter
The Buckeyes land two major recruiting targets over the weekend.
Already expected to be a major recruiting weekend for Ohio State, the Buckeyes landed a pair of huge commitments between Friday and Sunday, including their top remaining target at cornerback in the 2024 class and a 2026 wide receiver that could be one of the best in the country.
The highly anticipated commitment of Aaron Scott Jr. was finally announced on Sunday afternoon. While Oregon was technically in the mix, this was really a battle between Ohio State and Michigan for quite some time. For a moment during the announcement, it looked like the Wolverines had snagged the Cincinnati native away from the in-state Buckeyes, as TTUN gear was the last school remaining on the table. Then, with a UM backpack in hand, Scott Jr. opened it to reveal an Ohio State jersey, making his commitment to OSU official.
In Scott, Ohio State adds the No. 5 corner and No. 52 overall player in the 2024 class, per the 247Sports Composite. This was clearly a true neck-and-neck battle between Big Ten rivals, and the Buckeyes winning out in the end is massive for Ryan Day and position coach Tim Walton. Day has continued the Urban Meyer focus on keeping Ohio’s best at home, and landing a player of Scott’s caliber from within your own state borders, especially when your biggest competition was TTUN, is an absolute must.
On top of the important of this recruiting win, the Buckeyes are obviously also adding a tremendous player to their recruiting class. Here is what 247Sports’ Gabe Brooks had to say of Scott’s abilities:
The commitment of Scott gives Ohio State five total defensive back commitments in this cycle, including the top two players in Ohio in Bryce West and Scott — an incredible home grown lockdown combo that fans should be excited to see in Columbus in the near future. Now with 19 total players in the fold, the Buckeyes remain behind only Georgia as the No. 2 class in the country, with the Bulldogs at 310.25 points (25 commits) to OSU’s 289.35.
Cornerbacks coach Tim Walton has caught a lock of flack online for the play of Ohio State’s corners, and rightfully so, but it’s hard to argue about what has been done on the recruiting trail of late. In addition to Scott and West, the Buckeyes also landed a pair of high four-star guys in 2023 in Jermaine Mathews and Calvin Simpson-Hunt, in addition to bringing in transfer Davison Igbinosun from Ole Miss this offseason. The coverage on the field still has to be better, but Walton has at least done a good job of getting talent to Columbus.
On the other side of the ball — and much further down the road — Ohio State picked up a bit of a surprise commitment earlier in the weekend, as 2026 wide receiver Chris Henry Jr. announced he was committing to the Buckeyes on Friday night.
Henry Jr., the son of the late NFL receiver and the adopted son of former NFL corner Adam “Pacman” Jones, hails out of Withrow University High School in Cincinnati. Offered by Brian Hartline back in June of 2022 ahead of his freshman year, the 6-foot-5 pass-catcher was already someone that was going to be on Ohio State’s radar over the next few years, but he has seen enough to pull the trigger this early in the process.
“When I watch Ohio State, and I watch Marv, Jeremiah and stuff like that, I can see myself in that position,” Henry told The Columbus Dispatch in June.
“The atmosphere. It’s the coaches, really. That’s really what it was, the coaches,“ Henry told reporters following his commitment. “I love it here. I love the energy and the atmosphere. I love everything about it. They make me feel like a priority every time I talk to them. And so that just makes me feel special.”
While the 2026 class does not yet have recruiting rankings, many experts believe Henry Jr. will be a five-star prospect when the time comes and likely one of the top players in the class overall. With 24 offers to his name as just a high school sophomore, Ohio State obviously wasn’t the only one to recognize his immense talent, but they are now the beneficiaries of locking him in long in advance.
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Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Ohio State CB commit Aaron Scott Jr. | via @AaronScottJr1 on Twitter
The Buckeyes land two major recruiting targets over the weekend.
Already expected to be a major recruiting weekend for Ohio State, the Buckeyes landed a pair of huge commitments between Friday and Sunday, including their top remaining target at cornerback in the 2024 class and a 2026 wide receiver that could be one of the best in the country.
The highly anticipated commitment of Aaron Scott Jr. was finally announced on Sunday afternoon. While Oregon was technically in the mix, this was really a battle between Ohio State and Michigan for quite some time. For a moment during the announcement, it looked like the Wolverines had snagged the Cincinnati native away from the in-state Buckeyes, as TTUN gear was the last school remaining on the table. Then, with a UM backpack in hand, Scott Jr. opened it to reveal an Ohio State jersey, making his commitment to OSU official.
In Scott, Ohio State adds the No. 5 corner and No. 52 overall player in the 2024 class, per the 247Sports Composite. This was clearly a true neck-and-neck battle between Big Ten rivals, and the Buckeyes winning out in the end is massive for Ryan Day and position coach Tim Walton. Day has continued the Urban Meyer focus on keeping Ohio’s best at home, and landing a player of Scott’s caliber from within your own state borders, especially when your biggest competition was TTUN, is an absolute must.
On top of the important of this recruiting win, the Buckeyes are obviously also adding a tremendous player to their recruiting class. Here is what 247Sports’ Gabe Brooks had to say of Scott’s abilities:
The commitment of Scott gives Ohio State five total defensive back commitments in this cycle, including the top two players in Ohio in Bryce West and Scott — an incredible home grown lockdown combo that fans should be excited to see in Columbus in the near future. Now with 19 total players in the fold, the Buckeyes remain behind only Georgia as the No. 2 class in the country, with the Bulldogs at 310.25 points (25 commits) to OSU’s 289.35.
Cornerbacks coach Tim Walton has caught a lock of flack online for the play of Ohio State’s corners, and rightfully so, but it’s hard to argue about what has been done on the recruiting trail of late. In addition to Scott and West, the Buckeyes also landed a pair of high four-star guys in 2023 in Jermaine Mathews and Calvin Simpson-Hunt, in addition to bringing in transfer Davison Igbinosun from Ole Miss this offseason. The coverage on the field still has to be better, but Walton has at least done a good job of getting talent to Columbus.
On the other side of the ball — and much further down the road — Ohio State picked up a bit of a surprise commitment earlier in the weekend, as 2026 wide receiver Chris Henry Jr. announced he was committing to the Buckeyes on Friday night.
Henry Jr., the son of the late NFL receiver and the adopted son of former NFL corner Adam “Pacman” Jones, hails out of Withrow University High School in Cincinnati. Offered by Brian Hartline back in June of 2022 ahead of his freshman year, the 6-foot-5 pass-catcher was already someone that was going to be on Ohio State’s radar over the next few years, but he has seen enough to pull the trigger this early in the process.
“When I watch Ohio State, and I watch Marv, Jeremiah and stuff like that, I can see myself in that position,” Henry told The Columbus Dispatch in June.
“The atmosphere. It’s the coaches, really. That’s really what it was, the coaches,“ Henry told reporters following his commitment. “I love it here. I love the energy and the atmosphere. I love everything about it. They make me feel like a priority every time I talk to them. And so that just makes me feel special.”
While the 2026 class does not yet have recruiting rankings, many experts believe Henry Jr. will be a five-star prospect when the time comes and likely one of the top players in the class overall. With 24 offers to his name as just a high school sophomore, Ohio State obviously wasn’t the only one to recognize his immense talent, but they are now the beneficiaries of locking him in long in advance.
Quick Hits
- One of the attendees of this past weekend’s SummerFest event, four-star 2025 offensive lineman Rowan Byrne came away with an Ohio State offer. A native of New Rochelle, NY, Byrne is listed as a tackle at 6-foot-6, 290 pounds as a high school junior. The Iona Prep product has 20 total offers to his name thus far, including the likes of Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, Wisconsin and now the Buckeyes, so clearly Byrne will be a prospect ranked rather high when the time comes based on all the interest from major programs.
After a great visit @OhioStateFB and a great conversation with @ryandaytime and @CoachJFrye I’m excited to say I’ve earned an offer to THE Ohio State University!! @Joespags12 @ionafootball @CoachMoffitt @CoachSollenne @RivalsFriedman @adamgorney @EdOBrienCFB @SWiltfong247 pic.twitter.com/aPFAVmjSEA
— Rowan Byrne 4️ (@RowanByrne6) July 28, 2023
- It wasn’t all positive news on the recruiting trail this weekend for Ohio State, as five-star 2025 DB Jontae Gilbert de-committed from the Buckeyes on Saturday. It was a bit of a surprise when the Georgia native first committed to the program, and so it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that this one didn’t stick with so much time left in his recruitment. Gilbert initially committed to Ohio State exactly a year before his de-commitment.
- Ohio State made another addition to its 2023 roster over the weekend, bringing in punter Joe McGuire. The Australian joins the Buckeyes as a preferred walk-on, and will look to be the team’s next starting following Jesse Mirco.
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