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LGHL You’re Nuts: Which Ohio State player impressed the most at Saturday’s spring game?
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You’re Nuts: Which Ohio State player impressed the most at Saturday’s spring game?
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 Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Ohio State held its annual spring game this past Saturday, with just over 40,000 in attendance at Ohio Stadium to not only celebrate last year’s national championship team, but also to get a glimpse into what to expect from this year’s team. Since a number of returning starters either saw limited action or didn’t suit up at all, that gave opportunities for others to make a name for themselves ahead of the start of the 2025 season in late August. Most importantly for the Buckeyes, it doesn’t sound like there were any injuries coming out of Saturday’s event.
Today, we want to know which Ohio State player impressed you the most during Saturday’s spring game. Maybe it was a player you just needed to see more of, like Julian Sayin, since it sounds like he is the heir apparent to Will Howard at quarterback. Or it could be a player who might have gotten lost at a position because the Buckeyes are loaded with talent at that spot. With so many starters from last year’s team now preparing to hear their name called in next week’s NFL Draft, a new crop of Ohio State players is going to quickly become fan favorites, judging by what we saw on Saturday.
There are times we just need to step back and realize how blessed we are to have been able to live through this era of Ohio State wide receivers. The next great Ohio State wideout introduced himself to Buckeye Nation on Saturday. Mylan Graham had an incredible spring game, finishing with four catches for 104 yards and a touchdown. In the same way that Jeremiah Smith set up his phenomenal freshman season with an impressive spring game last year, in a way Graham did that this year.
Although Smith and Graham were in the same recruiting class, there was a big difference when it came to their freshman years, though. The Buckeyes needed an impact player in the passing game last year after Marvin Harrison Jr. and Cade Stover both moved on to the NFL. The need isn’t quite as dire this year since not only are Smith and Carnell Tate back, but Brandon Inniss should take on a bigger role with Emeka Egbuka having exhausted his college eligibility.
Head coach Ryan Day said Graham excels with his route running, athleticism, and attention to detail. The biggest knock on Graham is that he needs to work on finishing catches, but that will likely come over time as he builds a rapport with Julian Sayin. Plus, when Smith took the field in his first collegiate game, there was already a target on him since there was some much hype surrounding him coming out of high school. Graham was a highly touted recruit, but he likely won’t see quite as much usage as Smith since Ohio State has great depth at the position. That just means that when Graham gets on the field this season, he’ll be hungry to make plays.
What’s going to be really scary for opposing defenses is the 2026 wide receiving corps, when Smith is a junior and Graham will likely be ready for an even bigger role in Ohio State’s offense. With Graham not only having Brian Hartline as his position coach, he’ll also have Smith to lean on. Smith is already the best wide receiver in college football, and he hasn’t even taken the field as a sophomore. Graham already has the look as the next man up at wide receiver at Ohio State.
This might be a bit of a cop out, but one of my areas of concern heading into the offseason was how the Buckeyes were going to replace the superhuman talents of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins. While James Peoples looked good in limited duty during OSU’s championship run, at this point, we all know that to be a successful college football offense, you have to have more than one back.
Not only does it behoove you to be able to have different runners for different situations, but given the violent nature of the position, you never know when one of your top guys is going to go down. So having a handful of more-than-competent backs is incredibly important for teams with aspirations in line with the Buckeyes’.
So while Peoples only had two carries for six yards, clearly not looking to tax the guy who should be RB1 come fall, the other options more than proved to me that they were at least capable of rising to the level that Ohio State will need from them this season.
West Virginia RB transfer C.J. Donaldson got a bit more work in his first game as a Buckeye than Peoples did, but still less than some of the younger backs on the roster. The former Mountaineer rushed for 35 yards on just four carries (8.75 yards per carry), including a touchdown.
In addition, after entering the transfer portal before deciding to come back, Sam Williams-Dixon went for 64 yards on 11 carries (5.82 ypc), and true-freshman Bo Jackson (no relation) accumulated 88 yards on 13 carries (6.77 ypc), including a score.
It will be interesting to see how much the offense relies on the ground game now that Brian Hartline is calling plays instead of Chip Kelly. Obviously, new offensive line coach and run game coordinator Tyler Bowen will have a hand in crafting the offensive game plan, but Hartline — and Ryan Day — are throw-first guys. However, having seen a productive trio of backs have impress outings (albeit in a scrimmage against an undermanned defensive line), it does give me hope that the Ohio State offense will continue to be well-balanced in 2025.
Continue reading...
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 Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Ohio State held its annual spring game this past Saturday, with just over 40,000 in attendance at Ohio Stadium to not only celebrate last year’s national championship team, but also to get a glimpse into what to expect from this year’s team. Since a number of returning starters either saw limited action or didn’t suit up at all, that gave opportunities for others to make a name for themselves ahead of the start of the 2025 season in late August. Most importantly for the Buckeyes, it doesn’t sound like there were any injuries coming out of Saturday’s event.
Today, we want to know which Ohio State player impressed you the most during Saturday’s spring game. Maybe it was a player you just needed to see more of, like Julian Sayin, since it sounds like he is the heir apparent to Will Howard at quarterback. Or it could be a player who might have gotten lost at a position because the Buckeyes are loaded with talent at that spot. With so many starters from last year’s team now preparing to hear their name called in next week’s NFL Draft, a new crop of Ohio State players is going to quickly become fan favorites, judging by what we saw on Saturday.
Today’s question: Which Ohio State player impressed the most in Saturday’s spring game?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: Mylan Graham
There are times we just need to step back and realize how blessed we are to have been able to live through this era of Ohio State wide receivers. The next great Ohio State wideout introduced himself to Buckeye Nation on Saturday. Mylan Graham had an incredible spring game, finishing with four catches for 104 yards and a touchdown. In the same way that Jeremiah Smith set up his phenomenal freshman season with an impressive spring game last year, in a way Graham did that this year.
Although Smith and Graham were in the same recruiting class, there was a big difference when it came to their freshman years, though. The Buckeyes needed an impact player in the passing game last year after Marvin Harrison Jr. and Cade Stover both moved on to the NFL. The need isn’t quite as dire this year since not only are Smith and Carnell Tate back, but Brandon Inniss should take on a bigger role with Emeka Egbuka having exhausted his college eligibility.
Head coach Ryan Day said Graham excels with his route running, athleticism, and attention to detail. The biggest knock on Graham is that he needs to work on finishing catches, but that will likely come over time as he builds a rapport with Julian Sayin. Plus, when Smith took the field in his first collegiate game, there was already a target on him since there was some much hype surrounding him coming out of high school. Graham was a highly touted recruit, but he likely won’t see quite as much usage as Smith since Ohio State has great depth at the position. That just means that when Graham gets on the field this season, he’ll be hungry to make plays.
What’s going to be really scary for opposing defenses is the 2026 wide receiving corps, when Smith is a junior and Graham will likely be ready for an even bigger role in Ohio State’s offense. With Graham not only having Brian Hartline as his position coach, he’ll also have Smith to lean on. Smith is already the best wide receiver in college football, and he hasn’t even taken the field as a sophomore. Graham already has the look as the next man up at wide receiver at Ohio State.
Matt’s answer: The running backs
This might be a bit of a cop out, but one of my areas of concern heading into the offseason was how the Buckeyes were going to replace the superhuman talents of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins. While James Peoples looked good in limited duty during OSU’s championship run, at this point, we all know that to be a successful college football offense, you have to have more than one back.
Not only does it behoove you to be able to have different runners for different situations, but given the violent nature of the position, you never know when one of your top guys is going to go down. So having a handful of more-than-competent backs is incredibly important for teams with aspirations in line with the Buckeyes’.
So while Peoples only had two carries for six yards, clearly not looking to tax the guy who should be RB1 come fall, the other options more than proved to me that they were at least capable of rising to the level that Ohio State will need from them this season.
West Virginia RB transfer C.J. Donaldson got a bit more work in his first game as a Buckeye than Peoples did, but still less than some of the younger backs on the roster. The former Mountaineer rushed for 35 yards on just four carries (8.75 yards per carry), including a touchdown.
In addition, after entering the transfer portal before deciding to come back, Sam Williams-Dixon went for 64 yards on 11 carries (5.82 ypc), and true-freshman Bo Jackson (no relation) accumulated 88 yards on 13 carries (6.77 ypc), including a score.
It will be interesting to see how much the offense relies on the ground game now that Brian Hartline is calling plays instead of Chip Kelly. Obviously, new offensive line coach and run game coordinator Tyler Bowen will have a hand in crafting the offensive game plan, but Hartline — and Ryan Day — are throw-first guys. However, having seen a productive trio of backs have impress outings (albeit in a scrimmage against an undermanned defensive line), it does give me hope that the Ohio State offense will continue to be well-balanced in 2025.
Continue reading...
LGHL You’re Nuts: How would you grade the Ohio State men’s basketball offseason so far?
- News
- 0 Replies
You’re Nuts: How would you grade the Ohio State men’s basketball offseason so far?
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Buckeyes have added three players and made a noteworthy change to the 2025-2026 schedule.
The college basketball offseason is starting to slow down a bit, as high-major teams are putting the finishing touches on their roster as their allotted NIL budgets begin to dwindle. Ohio State is included in that, as Jake Diebler and his staff are nearly – but not completely – done adding to the 2025-2026 roster.
The Buckeyes are expected to add one more player to the team via the transfer portal this summer, and it will likely be someone who can play shooting guard or small forward and can provide some perimeter shooting to the team (think the Jamison Battle/Micah Parrish role). Former Southern Illinois guard Kennard Davis Jr. visited Ohio State last weekend, but is also considering DePaul, Ole Miss, Miami, and others.
Last week, Connor and Justin debated who Diebler should hire to replace outgoing assistant coach Talor Battle, who made a lateral move to join the Penn State coaching staff this spring. Battle was the least experienced on the Ohio State staff last year, and his main responsibility was pre-game video and scout prep. His salary was $300,000.
As does happen from time to time, the readers rebuked both Connor and Justin’s picks, with 43% of them saying that neither Seth Towns nor CJ Walker would be smart choices to replace Battle. 35% of readers agreed with Connor that Towns would be a good choice, while the remaining 22% liked Justin’s nomination of Walker.
Connor- 89
As stated above, Ohio State isn’t done revamping its roster, and there’s still five months to go until the Buckeyes can even start practicing for next season. But to this point, here is how we feel about OSU’s offseason:
Ohio State has made incremental improvements this spring – enough to (I think) push this team over the finish line and get them into the NCAA Tournament next season. Between Christoph Tilly and Brandon Noel, Diebler and his staff have added nearly 32 points per game of scoring, although it would be shocking if either of those players come close to their per-game stats from last year at Ohio State next season.
I’m expecting Noel to come off the bench for Ohio State, and if he can average 8-9 points per game that would be a success. Tilly is going to quickly learn that the Big Ten and the WCC are two very different levels of play, but I still think that if the big man can score close to 10 points per game as the starting center, that’s a success, too.
The frontcourt was a big weakness for Ohio State this year, and although they didn’t grab an elite player to reinforce it, they did hit a couple of “singles” that feel like pretty safe, high-floor additions.
Not to be overlooked, Ohio State also brought in former Indiana guard Gabe Cupps, who played at Centerville in high school. Maybe it’s because he committed to Ohio State so quickly, but the addition never made a ton of sense to me. Cupps will be competing with Bruce Thornton, John Mobley, and Taison Chatman for minutes at guard, and the redshirt sophomore only played in four games last year due to a meniscus injury.
Not that it’s not going to work out, I just didn’t think adding a non-scoring guard with an injury history was going to be one of Diebler’s first moves of the summer.
Ohio State also withdrew from the Battle 4 Atlantis for this fall – one of the biggest multi-team events of the season. I think this move is much to do about nothing, as the field had folded, and the remaining teams/replacement teams weren’t great. There weren’t going to be opportunities for great wins there, and there will be better opportunities elsewhere to also raise money for NIL. We’ll wait and see how the schedule pans out, but I don’t think Ohio State is losing any marquee games because of this.
Overall, Ohio State’s offseason is not worth standing up and applauding, but they definitely get a passing grade.
The important term to remember this offseason is retention. While the Buckeyes have only brought in three players as of now, they are returning over 44 points per game between Bruce Thornton, John Mobley Jr., and Devin Royal.
Thornton will be a top-five or top-10 point guard in the country, Mobley will be a popular candidate for the biggest freshman-to-sophomore jump in the conference, and Royal took a huge jump last season and is poised to take an even bigger one this year. These are a big three that you can build around, and you just have to put the correct pieces around them.
Last year, they did not, mainly in the frontcourt, where the production at times was literally nothing. To answer that, Sean Stewart will move to the bench where he can be more effective as the elite rebounder he is, while not getting in early foul trouble, and transfers Brandon Noel and Christoph Tilly will help with that lack of frontcourt production.
Instead of last year, where they went for young guys with high ceilings but are unproven (Bradshaw, Stewart), the coaching staff has so far brought in proven, experienced players. Noel and Tilly averaged 32 points and 13 rebounds last year.
It is a B for now, but if they bring in a starting caliber wing (Kennard Davis) to fill out the roster, it will be an A to me because every box was checked.
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
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Buckeyes have added three players and made a noteworthy change to the 2025-2026 schedule.
The college basketball offseason is starting to slow down a bit, as high-major teams are putting the finishing touches on their roster as their allotted NIL budgets begin to dwindle. Ohio State is included in that, as Jake Diebler and his staff are nearly – but not completely – done adding to the 2025-2026 roster.
The Buckeyes are expected to add one more player to the team via the transfer portal this summer, and it will likely be someone who can play shooting guard or small forward and can provide some perimeter shooting to the team (think the Jamison Battle/Micah Parrish role). Former Southern Illinois guard Kennard Davis Jr. visited Ohio State last weekend, but is also considering DePaul, Ole Miss, Miami, and others.
Last week, Connor and Justin debated who Diebler should hire to replace outgoing assistant coach Talor Battle, who made a lateral move to join the Penn State coaching staff this spring. Battle was the least experienced on the Ohio State staff last year, and his main responsibility was pre-game video and scout prep. His salary was $300,000.
As does happen from time to time, the readers rebuked both Connor and Justin’s picks, with 43% of them saying that neither Seth Towns nor CJ Walker would be smart choices to replace Battle. 35% of readers agreed with Connor that Towns would be a good choice, while the remaining 22% liked Justin’s nomination of Walker.
After 200 weeks:
Connor- 89
Justin- 85
Other- 20
(There have been six ties)
As stated above, Ohio State isn’t done revamping its roster, and there’s still five months to go until the Buckeyes can even start practicing for next season. But to this point, here is how we feel about OSU’s offseason:
This week’s question: How would you grade Ohio State men’s basketball’s off-season?
Connor: C
Ohio State has made incremental improvements this spring – enough to (I think) push this team over the finish line and get them into the NCAA Tournament next season. Between Christoph Tilly and Brandon Noel, Diebler and his staff have added nearly 32 points per game of scoring, although it would be shocking if either of those players come close to their per-game stats from last year at Ohio State next season.
I’m expecting Noel to come off the bench for Ohio State, and if he can average 8-9 points per game that would be a success. Tilly is going to quickly learn that the Big Ten and the WCC are two very different levels of play, but I still think that if the big man can score close to 10 points per game as the starting center, that’s a success, too.
The frontcourt was a big weakness for Ohio State this year, and although they didn’t grab an elite player to reinforce it, they did hit a couple of “singles” that feel like pretty safe, high-floor additions.
Not to be overlooked, Ohio State also brought in former Indiana guard Gabe Cupps, who played at Centerville in high school. Maybe it’s because he committed to Ohio State so quickly, but the addition never made a ton of sense to me. Cupps will be competing with Bruce Thornton, John Mobley, and Taison Chatman for minutes at guard, and the redshirt sophomore only played in four games last year due to a meniscus injury.
Not that it’s not going to work out, I just didn’t think adding a non-scoring guard with an injury history was going to be one of Diebler’s first moves of the summer.
Ohio State also withdrew from the Battle 4 Atlantis for this fall – one of the biggest multi-team events of the season. I think this move is much to do about nothing, as the field had folded, and the remaining teams/replacement teams weren’t great. There weren’t going to be opportunities for great wins there, and there will be better opportunities elsewhere to also raise money for NIL. We’ll wait and see how the schedule pans out, but I don’t think Ohio State is losing any marquee games because of this.
Overall, Ohio State’s offseason is not worth standing up and applauding, but they definitely get a passing grade.
Justin: B
The important term to remember this offseason is retention. While the Buckeyes have only brought in three players as of now, they are returning over 44 points per game between Bruce Thornton, John Mobley Jr., and Devin Royal.
Thornton will be a top-five or top-10 point guard in the country, Mobley will be a popular candidate for the biggest freshman-to-sophomore jump in the conference, and Royal took a huge jump last season and is poised to take an even bigger one this year. These are a big three that you can build around, and you just have to put the correct pieces around them.
Last year, they did not, mainly in the frontcourt, where the production at times was literally nothing. To answer that, Sean Stewart will move to the bench where he can be more effective as the elite rebounder he is, while not getting in early foul trouble, and transfers Brandon Noel and Christoph Tilly will help with that lack of frontcourt production.
Instead of last year, where they went for young guys with high ceilings but are unproven (Bradshaw, Stewart), the coaching staff has so far brought in proven, experienced players. Noel and Tilly averaged 32 points and 13 rebounds last year.
It is a B for now, but if they bring in a starting caliber wing (Kennard Davis) to fill out the roster, it will be an A to me because every box was checked.
Continue reading...