ScriptOhio said:

Skull Session: Orlando Pace, Paris Johnson Jr. and Frani Washington Inducted into the OHSAA Circle of Champions; Kyle Whittingham Wants to Revolutionize Bryce Underwood’s Game

Orlando Pace and Paris Johnson Jr. are being inducted into the OSHAA Circle of Champions, and Kyle Whittingham is looking to revolutionize “mega-talent” Bryce Underwood.

www.elevenwarriors.com

A MUCH BETTER BRUCE. I don’t think we talked enough about Bruce Thornton’s reaction to Ohio State being selected as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The video the Buckeyes’ X account posted on Sunday was so good.

Login to view embedded media
Also on Sunday, CBS Sports’ Mackenzie Brooks called Ohio State her “Cinderella” pick in the East Region.

“This is a team with a really high ceiling but a really low floor,” Brooks said. “They could be out of there in the Round of 32, but again, they do have a chance to make it to the Elite Eight, give the matchups they have.”

Those matchups include No. 9 seed TCU, No. 1 seed Duke and either No. 4 seed Kansas or No. 5 seed St. John’s.

“Duke is a really vulnerable team right now,” Brooks said. “It is not impossible to think that (Ohio State could beat Duke), and we have (the Buckeyes) favored against St. John’s, so take that for what you will.”

According to CBS Sports, Ohio State has an 11% chance to reach the Elite Eight this year. According to me, that 11% depends entirely on which version of Thornton shows up in Greenville, South Carolina, this weekend.

Click to expand...

Nah, Thornton is extremely consistent. He will score 30 if the opponent gives him a chance, if not then he will facilitate for his teammates & it will be up to them to take advantage of favorable opportunities.

TCU star David Punch is confident:
“I think at the end of the day we win this nine times out of 10 because of how physically gifted we are as a team and athletically gifted,” David Punch told me.
Login to view embedded media

I am in

iambrutus said:

i get it was a lefty starter, but after what Gunnar has done this WBC, how does bregman start over him, poor managing from derosa

Click to expand...

Bregman is washed AND overrated at this point. You lose nothing with defense by putting Gunnar at 3rd and he was the hottest bat on the team. Absolute mismanagement.

NFBuck said:

Sabres are tied atop the Eastern Conference with 90 points. WTF is going on?

Click to expand...

Jarmo

Ohio State football team remains squarely in the race for generational CB​

The Ohio State football team is squarely in the race for landing one of the best cornerback recruits in the last few years.

Over the last few years, the Ohio State football program has produced some sensational players in the secondary. They have done a fantastic job of recruiting on the backend over multiple different secondary coaches. Now, Tim Walton is the man who is in charge of the corners.

Since Walton was hired last season, he has shown that he can recruit with the best of them. He was able to land the top corner in the country in Devin Sanchez for the 2025 class. Sanchez might find himself in a starting role heading into the 2026 season. He brought in two four-star corners in the 2026 class, too.
Now, Walton is trying to land the biggest recruit of his young Ohio State coaching career. John Meredith III is rated as the best cornerback in the 2027 class. He's also a top-five recruit overall. The Ohio State Buckeyes are still firmly in the running to land him.

Ohio State football team still in the running for elite cornerback recruit​

Meredith III narrowed his list down to six schools. Other than the Buckeyes, he is still considering Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M, and Miami. Essentially, all of the top programs want him badly, and it makes sense when you see his size and speed on the field.

What makes Meredith III so intriguing is his size. He stands at 6'2 and 175 pounds, so he won't get bullied by bigger receivers. He also has the speed to stay with guys down the field. He is pretty much the perfect corner that Matt Patricia would want to have in his defensive system.

The Buckeyes will get Meredith III on campus in mid-June, and Ohio State is the last school he has scheduled a visit with so far. The Buckeyes will come after Alabama, Texas, and Texas A&M. It will be up to Ryan Day and the rest of his staff to close on him when he is on campus.

Ohio State has a strong start to the 2027 recruiting class. Landing Meredith III would make things even better.

Joel Klatt deems projected top Ohio State draft pick a 'more physical' Micah Parsons​

Joel Klatt sees the world in Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker Arvell Reese. Ahead of the 2026 NFL draft in a little over a month, Klatt described Reese to prospective front offices looking for a future star on the edge.

What he described is one of the most can't-miss linebacker prospects in five years or more, and someone who can acquiesce to any scheme, having adjusted to an "OTTO" role on the strong side the past two years after playing mostly special teams as a freshman and getting into the sport during his high school years.

Klatt predicted a future Defensive Player of the Year award win for Reese, who he essentially implied had an even higher ceiling than the former Penn State Nittany Lion Parsons.

“He’s so inexperienced. See, for quarterbacks, inexperience is a huge red flag, because you gotta have it to succeed. These other positions, like a position where Arvell is playing, inexperience is actually a green flag, ‘cause you’re like ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, there’s so much upside there that you can capture with a guy like Arvell Reese. So he’s gonna continue to get better, he’s just capturing the surface, and I think he’s gonna be a great player," Klatt told Kay Adams on the Up & Adams podcast.

“He’s a longer, more physical Micah Parsons, and he’s just scratching the surface. So, Arvell just started for one year at Ohio State. And during that year, he just scratched the surface of playing on the edge. So he was an off-the-ball linebacker. And then he became kind of a hybrid, off-the-ball, on-the-ball type of player on the edge. And so he can do all the things from a versatility standpoint that Micah can do, and yet he’s just scratching the surface, and he’s bigger than Micah, and he’s longer than Micah."

“Now I think for him, his next step in maturation is becoming like a great first-step pass-rusher. And I think he can do that, ‘cause he’s incredibly explosive. But Arvell is the kind of guy that can have a Micah Parsons impact. I think he can be, at some point in his career, in the discussion for Defensive Player of the Year because of that: the way he can play in space, off-the-ball, on-the-ball, and impact the game, I think, is pretty special.”

Arvell Reese strongly rumored to land with Jets at No. 2. That might not be so bad​

.
.
.
continued

Ohio State football key transfer portal addition has clearly wasted no time in making his presence felt in Columbus​

One of Ohio State’s biggest transfer portal additions is already sticking out.

The Ohio State Buckeyes have a whopping 51 new players on their roster for the 2026 season. It’s an irregularly high number for Ohio State, but that’s the state of college football these days with the transfer portal, especially when you have another large NFL draft class exiting.

Ohio State was semi-aggressive in the transfer portal back in January with several key additions made. The presence of one of those key additions is already being felt in Columbus.

Ohio State’s top transfer portal addition is coming with a serious attitude​

Alabama transfer DT James Smith was a crucial addition for the Buckeyes and he figures to be their starting nose tackle to replace Kayden McDonald. Smith is clearly already leaving his mark on the program.

“Still trying to recover and get my heart rate back down from the intimidation factor of being in close proximity to an angry James Smith,” 97.1 The Fan’s Austin Ward said on Monday. “New guy, number three, interesting number choice for someone playing down there in the nose position.”

“It had already been told to me by multiple people, some on the coaching staff. Some [people] not on the coaching staff, you can figure out who those people are if you want, it’s not that difficult probably. But [they] said he is a very serious human being, said ‘I’ll smile when we start winning’, which sounded like a threat and think [it] might have been.”

Login to view embedded media
Smith is a former five-star recruit who spent the first three seasons and 37 games of his college career with the Crimson Tide. Smith has been a solid force at 6-foot-2 and 313 pounds to the point, but there’s still untapped potential there, and he hasn’t quite lived up to the ranking he has as a recruit.

In 2025, Smith made 28 tackles, 6.5 tackles for a loss, and 2.5 sacks in 13 games played. His serious demeanor he goes about with and his physical presence are exactly what Ohio State will want to throw at teams with the middle of their defensive line.
.
.
.
continued

Ryan Day admitted what made him make an uncharacteristic roster change for Ohio State football this offseason​

Ohio State had to make a change through the transfer portal due to something Ryan Day realized.

The Ohio State Buckeyes lose several players who are high-end talents to the NFL draft each and every season. Ohio State could have upwards of five first-round picks produced alone in the first round of April’s draft.

Ohio State is set to push for double-digit draft picks produced once again. Just a year ago, the Buckeyes saw 14 players get drafted. Due to all of the recent turnover, including more than a couple of dozen players exiting in the transfer portal, Ryan Day knew a change had to be made.

Ryan Day knew Ohio State’s roster had to get older this offseason ​

Ohio State brought well over a dozen players in from the portal to fill various roles. Experience and production were a common theme with many of the players the Buckeyes went out and got.

“When you see guys who are going to be seniors walk out the door, the first thing you have got to do is you’ve got to get some more veteran guys in that room or else you’re just constantly young,” Day stated last week.

“I felt like we were a little young this year, quite honestly. And so when you go through it and you get some more senior guys in there, it’s just a different approach, and we felt like we needed that.”

Ohio State added experienced players like DT James Smith, LB Christian Alliegro, WR Devin McCuinn, S Terry Moore, S Earl Little Jr., and EDGE Qua Russaw to name a few. All of these players played and produced at their previous stops, and they were clear targets for the Buckeyes due to their experience.

There’s normally a good mix of youth and experience. If you’re good enough to play at Ohio State, you will. We’ll see just that this fall when WR Chris Henry Jr. and WR/RB Legend Bey potentially get on the field for the Buckeyes.

Indiana winning a national championship with an experienced team like they did this past season was noted by everyone. The transfer portal is a real avenue to roster success now and Ohio State changed how they put together their roster with it this cycle.

A MUCH BETTER BRUCE. I don’t think we talked enough about Bruce Thornton’s reaction to Ohio State being selected as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The video the Buckeyes’ X account posted on Sunday was so good.

Login to view embedded media
Also on Sunday, CBS Sports’ Mackenzie Brooks called Ohio State her “Cinderella” pick in the East Region.

“This is a team with a really high ceiling but a really low floor,” Brooks said. “They could be out of there in the Round of 32, but again, they do have a chance to make it to the Elite Eight, give the matchups they have.”

Those matchups include No. 9 seed TCU, No. 1 seed Duke and either No. 4 seed Kansas or No. 5 seed St. John’s.

“Duke is a really vulnerable team right now,” Brooks said. “It is not impossible to think that (Ohio State could beat Duke), and we have (the Buckeyes) favored against St. John’s, so take that for what you will.”

According to CBS Sports, Ohio State has an 11% chance to reach the Elite Eight this year. According to me, that 11% depends entirely on which version of Thornton shows up in Greenville, South Carolina, this weekend.

also, fuck Skubal

I just think this guy rocks!

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

calibuck said:

Do so enjoy that tOSU brings back former players to coach, administer, etc. the athletic programs at their alma mater. Has certainly paid dividends with Hartline and Laurinaitis (sp?) as frontline coaches. Coach Mick and Mark Pantoni have been here so long, they should be considered Buckeyes since birth (almost). Wonder if Schlegs is going to sit in JL's LB room on occasion? Go Bucks!

Click to expand...

By 2030, the 05 squad will make up the entirety of the coaching staff