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pnuts34 · Sep 5, 2022

247sports
Rivals
HUDL Highlights
https://twitter.com/BoJackson2025

Class: 2025 (high school)
Position: Running Back
School: Cleveland (OH) Villa Angela St. Joseph
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 180 lbs

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Birm just entered a Futurecast

twister55 · Sep 5, 2022

hope there gonna be torrent for this game.

BB73 · Sep 5, 2022

LordJeffBuck · Sep 4, 2022

Notre Dame Postgame

1. With last night's 21-10 victory, Ohio State now leads the Notre Dame series 5 to 2, with each of the Buckeyes' wins coming by a double-digit margin (average margin of victory of 14.6 points). Ohio State also outgained Notre Dame in yardage (395 yards to 253 yards); first downs (22 to 12); plays (69 to 48); and time of possession (33 minutes to 27 minutes).

2. The first narrative heading into the game was this: Ohio State's high-powered passing attack would generate several big plays against a stout but slow Notre Dame defense. As things turned out, Notre Dame had the three longest pass plays of the game (54, 32, and 31 yards), and averaged far more yards per attempt (9.3 to 6.6) and per completion (17.7 to 9.8) than Ohio State.

3. The second narrative heading into the game was this: Notre Dame would win the battles of the trenches, allowing the Domer offense to run the ball consistently and the Domer defense to shut down the Buckeyes' running game. As things turned out, Ohio State easily outgained Notre Dame on the ground (172 yards to 76 yards) and nearly doubled their yards per carry (4.9 to 2.5).

4. It is unfair to say that Buckeye quarterback CJ Stroud regressed all the way back to the beginning of 2021, but he certainly did not pick up where he left off in last year's Rose Bowl. The numbers look pretty good (24/34, 223 yards, 2 TD, no INT, one sack), but Stroud was slow to make decisions, inaccurate with several passes, and once again displayed a maddening refusal to run the ball even with 10+ yards of open field in front of him. Nobody wants Stroud to be a running quarterback, but he has to learn to take positive yardage when the defense gives it to him, just like any other quarterback would do.

5. Sophomore Emeka Egbuka had his best game as a Buckeye with 9 receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown, while fellow soph Marvin Harrison Jr. had a rather quiet night (5 receptions, 56 yards, no TDs). Heisman favorite Jaxon Smith-Njigba (2 receptions, 3 yards) left the game early with an apparent leg injury. With all the 5-star talent on offense, the play of the game was made by former walk-on RB/WR Xavier Johnson, who scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 24-yard reception at the end of the third quarter. Johnson, who has mostly played on special teams throughout his career, then made the tackle on the ensuing kick-off.

6. In college football, it is usually a sound strategy to establish the run so that your team can: (a) set the attitude, and (b) open up passing lanes. Obviously, it is best to establish the run as early as possible so that your team can maximize the benefits to be derived from (a) and (b). Last night, the Buckeyes employed a rather unconventional strategy in establishing the run. For the first three quarters, Ohio State passed the ball 28 times for 187 yards (6.7 ypa) and ran the ball 21 times for 84 yards (4.0 ypc). Then in the fourth quarter, clinging to a narrow 4-point lead, the Buckeyes decided that now it was time to set the attitude and perhaps even open up a few passing lanes. During the final period, Ohio State ran the ball 14 times for 88 yards and a touchdown (6.3 ypc) and passed the ball only 4 times (all completions) for 36 yards (9.0 ypa).

7. TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams essentially split the running back duties, with Henderson getting 15 carries for 91 yards (6.1 ypc, long of 16 yards) and Williams getting 14 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown (6.0 ypc, long of 15 yards).

8. Let's be honest, Notre Dame's offense does not look like it will be explosive this season. With that being said, the Buckeye defense (for the most part) shut down the opposition in a way that we haven't seen in a few years. Notre Dame scored only 10 points and had just 253 total yards (5.3 per play); the defense was even better in the second half, shutting out the Domers and holding them to just 72 yards on 21 plays (3.4 yards per play), with 32 of those yards coming on an incomplete pass that for some reason was not reviewed by the replay booth. Perhaps most impressive was the defense's performance on third down, holding Notre Dame to 3 conversions on 13 attempts (.231), quite a nice showing for a unit that was one of the worst in FBS last season.

9. After completing his first 8 passes for 128 yards (16.0 ypa), Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner completed just 2 of his final 10 attempts for 49 yards (4.9 ypa).

10. After last year's Rose Bowl, I said....

LordJeffBuck said:
Speaking of linebackers, the oft-maligned Tommy Eichenberg played a borderline great game last night, with 17 total tackles (11 solos) and a TFL. Although the stats are certainly nice, what was even nicer was seeing Eichenberg play with energy and confidence and anticipation that was generally lacking earlier in the season. I doubt that Eichenberg will ever be accounted among the many Buckeye greats at linebacker (Gradishar, Cousineau, Spielman, Hawk, Laurinaitis, Shazier, etc.), but if he can at least evolve into Anthony Schlegel then the 2022 defense should take a huge leap forward. Eichenberg finished the season with 64 tackles (33 solo), 4.5 TFLs, an interception, and a fumble recovery.

Eichenberg continued his excellent play last night with 9 tackles (6 solo), a pair of sacks, and another TFL. While I still don't see Eichenberg ever becoming one of the all-time greats at the Real Linebacker U, his noticeable improvement has made him a valuable member of a much-improved defense.

11. After playing very little as a true freshman in 2021 (4 games, 2 tackles), defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. had a monster game in this season's opener: 4 tackles (3 solo), 1 sack (-11 yards), another TFL, and a QB hurry. While the stat line is impressive enough for an interior lineman, Hall seemed to be in Notre Dame's backfield on every single play and he was a large part of the reason that the Irish couldn't run the football effectively.

12. All American place kicker Noah Ruggles missed a 39-yard field goal attempt, which was the only blemish for the special teams units that otherwise played very well.

JXC · Sep 3, 2022

Hahaha

muffler dragon · Sep 3, 2022

What one do you guys suggest for this year's CFB season?

Hulu + Live
YouTube TV
Fubo
Sling

Been debating for a bit and don't know which route to take. Last 2-3 years has been YT for me, but open to changes.

Thanks all

Sep 2, 2022

Notre Dame Defensive Player to Watch: Safety Brandon Joseph
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Joseph is a ball-hawking safety and former Northwestern Wildcat who has been a thorn in Ohio State’s side in the past.

Notre Dame returns a ton of experience on the defensive side of the ball from a unit which only surrendered 19.7 points per game last season. The Irish finished that 2021 campaign ranked 15th in scoring defense, and did not lose too much in the way of experience.

Kyle Hamilton was an all-world type of player at safety, but he only played in seven games. And Drew White was a steadying presence and fine player at linebacker, but he is the only player among ND’s top five leading tacklers who did not return to South Bend. So the sum of the parts should be solid, despite losing a first-round NFL Draft pick (Hamilton) and a former captain (White).

White’s production should be adequately replaced by some combination of Bo Bauer (13 games, one start in 2021) and Marist Liufau, who missed the 2021 season, but started games in 2020. Hamilton, on the other hand, was arguably ND’s best defensive player – when healthy – during each of the last three seasons. In 31 career games for the Irish, he totaled 138 tackles, 7.5 TFL, 8 INT and 16 passes defended. When he was not directly involved in a play, he was at least a part of the mental equation for opposing offenses.

Hamilton’s presence will be missed. Fortunately for ND, they may have added an even better playmaker at the safety position. His name is Brandon Joseph, and he is 2022’s first Defensive Player to Watch.

If Joseph’s name sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Or at least it should be, to Ohio State fans not living under a rock for the past few years. Then again, I’m not sure I could blame you if chose to do so intentionally. It’s been a wild ride.

Joseph made his mark in the Big Ten, playing three seasons for Pat Fitzgerald and the Northwestern Wildcats. He joined their program in 2019 after a decorated high school career in football-rich Texas. But NU’s academic reputation likely drew him out of the Lone Star State, which is somewhat surprising given that he grew up in the literal backyard of Texas A&M. Joseph attended College Station High School, and helped lead that team to a state championship as a senior.

But Jimbo Fisher’s loss was Fitzgerald’s gain, as the star safety developed into arguably the best Northwestern football player since Fitzgerald himself.

Photo by Daniel Bartel/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
A former Big Ten foe will suit up for the Irish on Saturday night

The now-former Wildcat played sparingly in 2019, appearing in just four games as a true freshman. Joseph was credited with four total tackles, the first of which came against — you guessed it — Ohio State. It was an unassuming season, to say the least. And there were few, if any, flashes of the player he would eventually become. But four games was apparently all it took for Joseph to get acclimated to big boy football. He hit the ground running in 2020, and had arguably the breakout performance of the year. It was one that very few saw coming, and not just because it looked like the Big Ten might punt on football altogether.

As a second-year safety, Joseph took a monumental leap. In eight games, he came down with six interceptions (!), tying him for the NCAA lead, and totaled 46 tackles from his secondary spot. He picked off three passes during the course of NU’s first three games, and had seven tackles and two INT in an upset of 10th-ranked Wisconsin. The Wildcats started out 5-0, with Joseph and a trio of linebackers driving the bus. They held opponents to 12.6 points per game over that five-game stretch, and eventually earned a spot against the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Ohio State defeated Northwestern in an ugly game, but Joseph’s play stood out. He and his teammates gave Justin Fields and Ryan Day all sorts of problems, limiting the Buckeyes to a mere 22 points. Fields completed less than 50 percent of his passes and was picked off twice, including a highlight grab by the star DB to prevent a touchdown. It was a heartbreaker for NU, but they rebounded to stomp Auburn in the Citrus Bowl, and their second-year safety was recognized for his stellar play. Joseph earned First Team All-Big Ten and First Team All-American recognition, becoming the first Wildcat defender to do so since Fitzgerald in 1996.

Northwestern’s Brandon Joseph with an ode to Kenny Moore II. Another incredible one-handed interception pic.twitter.com/BS2s6yA84x

— Taylor Tannebaum (@TaylorTannebaum) December 19, 2020

2021 saw more of the same from Joseph, as he came down with three interceptions and was credited with 79 total tackles. He also added his first and only career sack, as well as a single fumble recovery. His team, however, faltered in a major way. Northwestern came crashing back down to earth with a 3-9 record, and the outlook for 2022 did not appear to be any more promising.

With the writing potentially on the wall, Joseph entered into the transfer portal and ended up in South Bend as part of a talented defense. Now he will be looking to make life difficult for the Buckeyes again, and perhaps even the score in big games.

As a player, Joseph can do it all. He is known for his center field prowess, and I would argue that he is an impressive, underrated tackler. While he might not bring the lumber a la Kyle Hamilton, Notre Dame’s new star safety had 54 solo tackles (out of 79) in 2021, showing an ability to hit and wrap, as opposed to hit and wait for help. That being said, patrolling the back end is where Joseph does his best work. Nine interceptions in 20 starts is flat-out impressive at any level. Joseph combines range with elite awareness and instincts, and I expect him to make C.J. Stroud really work for downfield completions.

The Fighting Irish have few studs on the defensive side of the ball, including Isaiah Foskey and J.D. Bertrand, but Joseph is the difference maker for me. He knows where to be, and more importantly, when to be there. He will be a deterrent to the Buckeyes making big plays over the top, which is something I think they would like to do — especially with a reshuffled offensive line and at least some curiosity surrounding the run game. Saturday will be a challenge for the Ohio State offense, but here’s hoping they can come out firing against Joseph and a solid Notre Dame defense.

Go Bucks!

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Sep 2, 2022

Ask LGHL: A smörgåsbord of outstanding nagging questions
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.

Every day for the entirety of the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.

Questions:

Running back depth?
Can the O line block late to kill the clock in tight games?
CB depth?
How do the LBs all get snaps?
Does the Defense improve to even average to help out the offense?

— David Cole Grey (@greycole05) August 18, 2022

Question 1: Running back depth?

On his radio show today, head coach Ryan Day said that TreVeyon Henderson will be the starter — no surprise there — Miyan Williams will be the backup (I would imagine that he gets at least six to eight carries during non-garbage time on Saturday), true freshman Dallan Hayden will be third, and then Arizona State transfer Chip Trayanum will be the emergency, fourth-string option.

Trayanu, played two years at RB at ASU, but the Ohio native came to Columbus to be a linebacker. I would imagine he is in the mix for a backup slot in the LB rotation, so it would have to be a pretty ugly situation for him to jump back to offense.

Question 2: Can the O line block late to kill the clock in tight games?

I wrote about the offensive line earlier this week (check out the link below), but in short, I would expect a different attitude and level of production out of that unit this year. In fairness, in 2021, the Buckeyes had the third-best yards per carry average in the country, and they were generally very good in pass protection; they gave up only 17 sacks all season — good for 14th nationally. However, the issues arose when the team needed the line to clear the way in high-pressure, short-yardage situations.

Former position coach Greg Studrawa thought that it would be a good idea to have an entire starting line — save the center — made up of tackles. When you are as talented as Ohio State is, you can get away with playing two interior linemen dramatically out of position against the majority of teams, but when it comes to the best competition that you will see all year, that is generally not a great idea.

I think that new o-line coach Justin Frye getting guys back into their proper positions will be a huge improvement in and of itself. The players also have spent the past nine months hearing about how they are soft and incapable of winning at the line of scrimmage. Based on their comments during training camp, those storylines really bothered them and they are looking to prove them wrong.

So, we won’t really know if there has been a major improvement in that department until they are tested in a close game — which may or may not happen on Saturday — but I feel pretty confident in saying that they were an above-average offensive line last year who will be improved this year, and has the potential to be the best in the country if they can get things figured out.

Question 3: CB Depth?

This is an easy one: There is no CB depth. Ohio State only has six scholarship cornerbacks on the roster; that’s the definition of “Not great, Bob.” Fortunately, despite some early camp concerns, it appears that everyone is pretty healthy and ready to play on Saturday. I still have my doubts as to whether or not the coaching staff will be willing to let Cam Brown and Jordan Hancock shoulder a normal workload given the injuries that they are coming off of, but we will see.

Obviously, Denzel Burke is penciled in as one of the starters and, as long as he is healthy, Brown should be the other. If injuries were not a concern, I would guess that Hancock would get a decent amount of run, but it’s hard to predict that at this point.

During camp, new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles told the media that when it comes to the secondary, he prefers to keep the best guys on the field as much as possible, because it’s important to give them as many chances to see what the offense is doing from the backend as possible.

I think that JK Johnson will also get on the field on Saturday, but whether that is in crunch time or not likely depends on how much Knowles wants to rotate guys and the health of players ahead of him on the depth chart.

True freshmen Jyaire Brown and Ryan Turner round out the official CB room and likely won’t see the field until games are decided in hand. Safeties Jantzen Dunn and Cam Martinez also have gotten some reps at corner during camp, but that was likely done mostly in case the injuries that Burke, Brown, and Hancock were dealing with proved to be more long-term than they now appear to be.

Question 4: How do the LBs all get snaps?

This one is a bit tough to answer, because we don’t really know yet how Knowles is going to deploy his linebackers. The assumption is that he will play with two traditional backers in a 4-2-5 scheme. While that might change depending on opponent, even against a run and tight end-focused offense like Notre Dame, it appears that hybrid safety/linebacker Kourt Williams will be called upon to come up and fill in a traditional LB spot.

So, much like how Knowles wants to limit the rotation in the secondary, I would imagine that Steele Chambers — clearly the best linebacker on the team last year — and co-captain Tommy Eichenberg will be the bulk of the snaps. Trayanum will probably be the backup to Chambers (interesting that they are both converted running backs) and veterans Cody Simon and Teradja Mitchell will factor in behind Eichenberg.

I think that when OSU goes with a traditional three-linebacker set, Mitchell will get the call at strong-side, but I just don’t know how often that will be in Knowles’ defense. We could see some of it on Saturday and against Wisconsin and Iowa, and maybe even Penn State, Michigan State, and TTUN; or we could not see it at all. It is really all a guessing game to how the new defensive coordinator is going to play things this season.

Question 5: Does the Defense improve to even average to help out the offense?

I think that the defense was decidedly average last season. Depending on the metric, they were okay when looking at the entire swath of college football. The problem with that of course is that Ohio State doesn’t compare itself to the widest possible cross-section of the sport; they are compared to a tiny handful of teams including Alabama, Georgia, and Clemson. And in that respect, the defense was well below average in 2021.

However, perhaps it is my scarlet and gray colored glasses, or simply being swept up in the preseason hype, but it just feels as though the players and the new defensive coaching staff have figured something out. We know the talent is there, the recruiting rankings prove that; but will the scheme and execution be there when it matters most? I think it will.

For two years, I have been beating the drum that the OSU defense needs to be more aggressive and flexible. Use the athleticism of the players on the roster to put offenses into uncomfortable situations and tailor what you run to the talent you have in the room.

For far too long, the defensive coaching staff tried to fit round pegs into square holes because they were tied to a defense that had worked in Columbus before. But times change, talent shifts, and it is incumbent on the coaches to adapt in order to put their current players in the best situations to succeed.

I don’t think that the previous defensive staff did that nearly enough, but I think this new one already has.

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Sep 2, 2022

Ohio State women’s basketball releases full 2022-23 non-conference schedule
1ThomasCostello 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

It features a slew of potential ranked challengers and three in-state opponents.

Thursday, the Ohio State Buckeyes women’s basketball team unveiled part of their 2022-23 regular season schedule. After a few larger matchups were announced throughout the summer, the Buckeyes began September sharing the rest of their 11-game non-conference slate.

Head coach Kevin McGuff’s side starts the regular season with an exhibition. On Halloween, Northeast Ohio’s Notre Dame College travels a couple of hours south to Columbus. It’s a warm-up for a heck of a start to the games that count, welcoming the Tennessee Volunteers to the Schottenstein Center on Nov 8.

The rest of the games are true to the original announcements. Ohio State travels to New England to face Boston College on Nov. 13, Louisville, KY on Nov. 30 for the ACC/B1G Challenge versus the University of Louisville, and finish their non-conference schedule on Dec. 20 and 21 at the San Diego Invitational. The first of two games in California are against the University of South Florida Bulls and either the Arkansas Razorbacks or Oregon Ducks the next day.

Elsewhere in the schedule are six games against mid-tier conference teams, with one in-state away matchup.

After their trip to Boston College, the Scarlet & Gray head to Southwest Ohio to face the Ohio University Bobcats on Nov. 17 in a contest between the two Ohio universities. In 2022, the Bobcats had a 15-15 record and lost in the first round of the Mid-American Conference’s 2022 tournament.

The other five non-conference games are against McNeese State on Nov. 20, Wright State on Nov. 23, North Alabama on Nov. 27, New Hampshire on Dec. 8, and the University of Albany on Dec. 16, all in Columbus, Ohio.

Last season, the Buckeyes didn’t reach as high as they could in the weekly rankings mainly due to their non-conference schedule. In 2021, Ohio State didn’t face a single ranked team, and their lone road game against Syracuse University — who was in a down year — yielded the only defeat of their non-conference games.

In the upcoming season, the Buckeyes play potentially five games against ranked opponents, testing the 2021-22 Big Ten Regular Season Champions with the hopes of pushing them further into the national conversation.

Another item to note is that all of the games will be held at the Schottenstein Center, and none at the Covelli Center, like they had once during the 21/22 season. Even though Land-Grant Holy Land thinks its a great idea to make a venue change.

The times for the games are still pending. Also, the full Big Ten schedule is still pending, with its expected release before the fall.

A schedule release now means that September is the last month there won’t be Ohio State basketball in Columbus, Ohio.

Here’s the full non-conference schedule:

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Sep 2, 2022

MC&J: Notre Dame-Ohio State undoubtedly tops Week 1’s slate involving Big Ten teams
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 Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Games involving Big Ten teams are sprinkled throughout the weekend ahead of the main event on Saturday night in Columbus.

Week 0 ATS: 4-3 (2-3 National, 2-0 B1G)

By now you should know how this works. In a normal week, you’ll see picks for some of the big national games on Thursdays, followed by Big Ten picks on Fridays. This week is a little different since the Big Ten has a couple games on Thursday. Check back tomorrow for a healthy collection of national game picks in Week 1.

B1G picks (All games Saturday unless otherwise noted):

(All lines courtesy of Draftkings Sportsbook.)

Penn State (-3.5) v. Purdue - Thursday Sept. 1 8:00 p.m. - FOX

There is really only one thing you need to know about this game — it’s under the lights at Purdue. As a Buckeye fan, I’ve seen this horror movie before. Although Purdue doesn’t have Rondale Moore, or even a David Bell on their roster, Aidan O’Connell can still put huge numbers on the board. Over his last five games last year, O’Connell tossed 19 touchdowns and threw for at least 390 yards in four of those contests.

Even though Penn State has a lot of questions, it feels like we know what we are going to get with the Nittany Lions. Sean Clifford is entering his 53rd season as starting quarterback, so it’s not like he is going to show us anything new. I’m still not impressed by James Franklin, who is 11-11 in his last 22 games as Penn State’s head coach.

In a game that feels like a coin flip, I’ll gladly take 3.5 points with the home team. The Boilermakers not only win this game, they are going to finish this season with more wins than the Nittany Lions.

Purdue 31, Penn State 21

New Mexico State v. Minnesota (-36.5) - Thursday Sept. 1 9:00 p.m. - BTN

I’m pretty high on Minnesota in the Big Ten West this year. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Golden Gophers are taking on the Buckeyes in early December in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.

Having said that, I think this is A LOT of points. New Mexico State is really bad, but the Aggies at least already have a game under their belt this year, so they could be a little crisper than Minnesota. Plus, Minnesota might take it easy on former head coach Jerry Kill.

P.J. Fleck will get Mohamed Ibrahim some work in Ibrahim’s first game since suffering a season-ending injury in last year’s opener against Ohio State. Don’t expect Ibrahim to see 30 carries though, especially since Minnesota should have this game well-in-hand pretty early. The Golden Gophers win by somewhere in the 28-35 point range.

Minnesota 44, New Mexico State 14

Western Michigan v. No. 15 Michigan State (-23) - Friday Sept. 2 7:00 p.m. - ESPN

If Mark Dantonio was still Michigan State’s head coach, I’d feel a little better about banking on the Spartans to sleepwalk through an early season game against a directional state school. Still, I am confident in siding with the Broncos since Michigan State has a lot they are trying to replace from last year’s team that won the Peach Bowl.

Western Michigan is coming off an 8-5 season where they also beat Pitt. The Broncos are a solid squad that has become one of the most consistent programs in the MAC under Tim Lester. Western Michigan isn’t going to beat Michigan State on Friday night, but they will at least make the Spartans work for the victory. Michigan State wins, just not by more than three touchdowns.

Michigan State 38, Western Michigan 21

Illinois v. Indiana (-3) - Friday Sept. 2 8:00 p.m. - FS1

I know it’s dangerous to put a ton of stock in a win over a bad Wyoming team. But, how do we know that Indiana isn’t just as terrible as Wyoming? Last year the Hoosiers were 2-10, with their only wins coming against Idaho and Western Kentucky. Indiana could be even worse this year than they were last year.

Illinois could be a bit of a surprise team this year, and I think they will contend to qualify for a bowl game. While that might not seem like a big deal, it definitely would help the rebuilding process in Champaign for Bret Bielema. Chase Brown had a strong season debut on Saturday, rushing for 151 yards and two touchdowns. The Fighting Illini show that the wrong team is favored here.

Illinois 31, Indiana 24

Colorado State v. No. 8 Michigan (-30.5) - 12:00 p.m. - ABC

As much as I’d love to clown Michigan all season long, it will be a lot sweeter when Ohio State beats an 11-0 or 10-1 Wolverine squad. It is obvious Jim Harbaugh wants to be elsewhere. He was interviewing for an NFL job on National Signing Day. Any schools with any stones would’ve canned Harbaugh immediately for missing NSD.

Just look at what Harbaugh is doing with the quarterback position, refusing to name a true starter. Luckily the Wolverines have a Charmin-soft schedule, so taking time to decide between Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy won’t hurt them here. Michigan rolls a Colorado State team that will need time to recover from Steve Addazio.

Michigan 51, Colorado State 13

Buffalo v. Maryland (-24) - 12:00 p.m. - BTN

It feels like it has been a while since Maryland has had this much momentum going into a season. The Terrapins finished last season by pantsing Virginia Tech in the Pinstripe Bowl, closing 2021 with a 7-6 record. Back are Taulia Tagovailoa, Dontay Demus Jr., and Rakim Jarrett, which should lead to Maryland putting plenty of points on the board.

Former Michigan assistant Maurice Linguist had a rough first season as head coach of the Buffalo, posting a 4-8 record in 2021. The 2022 season is going to get off to a rough start for Linguist and the Bulls, as they don’t have the weapons on offense to keep up with Terrapins.

Maryland 49, Buffalo 20

Rutgers v. Boston College (-7) - 12:00 p.m. - ACC Network

We have a battle of former Ohio State assistants here as Greg Schiano brings Rutgers to Chestnut Hill to take on Jeff Hafley’s Golden Eagles. If you are looking for offensive fireworks, you came to the wrong place. This game isn’t going to be easy on the eyes, as both teams have struggled on offense recently.

If anything, Boston College has a little bit of an advantage with Phil Jurkovec returning as starting quarterback after missing a good portion of last season due to injury. Even though Rutgers has a solid defense and can get some trick plays to work, I think the Golden Eagles have enough on offense to win by at least a touchdown.

Boston College 27, Rutgers 14

No. 5 Notre Dame v. No. 2 Ohio State (-17) - 7:30 p.m. - ABC

If there are any games during the season to fade me on, it’s probably Ohio State games. There are times when I am looking through scarlet and gray glasses. Always remember, bet with your head and not with your heart. Unfortunately, since this is an Ohio State site, it’s unavoidable that I’m going to be betting with my heart in Buckeye games.

Now that we got that out of the way, Saturday night feels like a great night to beat up on some Notre Damers. It’s going to be even better to watch the Fighting Irish get crushed into fine dust after listening to some of the things tight end Michael Mayer and former Buckeye Marcus Freeman are saying heading into this game. Even more hilarious is former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire trying to come at Ohio State from every angle on Twitter. Unfortunately for Malik, he is having about as much success with that as he did on the football field.

I’ll give Notre Dame this, they are a very solid team. The Fighting Irish are probably ranked a little higher than they should be, but that’s likely to try and throw some more fire on this already hot opening weekend matchup. Mayer is one of the best tight ends in the country, the offensive line is experienced, and there are some really nice pieces on defense, especially Northwestern transfer safety Brandon Joseph. Even with all that, the Domers feel overmatched here.

Ohio State has a lot to prove, especially on defense this year. Jim Knowles has brought a new attitude to a defense that was brutal at times in 2021. Knowles also brought Tanner McCalister, one of his most trusted defenders, with him from Oklahoma State, which should help some of the growing pains as the Buckeyes play a new defensive system. This feels like one of those statement games where the Buckeyes are all over new starting quarterback Tyler Buchner, who will be making his first start in front of a raucous Ohio State crowd.

All this and we haven’t even talked about the Buckeye offense yet. You know the type of explosiveness that we can see from C.J. Stroud, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and others. At first I was thinking that more than two touchdowns was a little high, but the more I think about it, I just don’t see how Notre Dame keeps pace in this one. Ohio State knows how close they are to a national title, and they’ll start the year looking like they are capable of winning one.

Ohio State 48, Notre Dame 24

National pick:

West Virginia v. No. 17 Pitt (-7.5) - Thursday 7:00 p.m. - ESPN

I feel like I’m missing something here. I know Pitt won the ACC last year. I also know that Kenny Pickett and Jordan Addison no longer play for Pitt. Even though they brought in Kedon Slovis to replace Pickett, it feels like the Panthers might come back to earth a little this year after a memorable 2021.

West Virginia has a former USC quarterback of their own in JT Daniels. The addition of Daniels and offensive coordinator Graham Harrell should help to spark an offense that was inconsistent last season.

When these two schools were in the Big East, “The Backyard Brawl” was SPICY! The last time the rivals met was back in 2011, with West Virginia claiming a 21-20 win to earn their third straight victory over the Panthers. The Mountaineers make it four in a row over their northern rivals.

West Virginia 28, Pitt 24

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See sportsbook.draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

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Sep 2, 2022

Ohio State men’s basketball player preview: Brice Sensabaugh
justingolba via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

Could Brice Sensabaugh be a one-and-done in the 2022 class?

As the basketball offseason continues and we move into the fall, Land-Grant Holy Land will put out our basketball player and team previews. There will be two previews per week leading all the way into the start of the season, starting with player previews.

Last time we highlighted Bruce Thornton. This time around, we are taking a look at fellow freshman, Brice Sensabaugh.

Name: Brice Sensabaugh
Height: 6-foot-6
Weight: 240 pounds
High School: Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, Florida
Class: Freshman
2021-22 stats: N/A

Outlook

Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Sensabaugh comes in as a guy who can pretty much do anything. He is listed at 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds, but he probably walks around stronger and bigger than that. He can score at all three levels and defends multiple positions.

Sensabaugh shot up the recruiting rankings over the past year, finishing as the No. 65 player in the 2022 class nationally, the 19th-ranked small forward and the No. 12 player in Florida, according to the 247Sports Composite. He was a late addition to the Buckeyes class, but maybe save the best for last?

He also won Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Florida, becoming the second player in the Buckeyes’ 2022 class to win the award in their respective states (Bruce Thornton – Georgia).

Sensabaugh is also making it his priority to improve each and every day.

“The coaches are telling me to keep listening,” he told Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch. “Listening is a skill and I take pride in my ability to listen and build off that, so whatever I did well, build off that and listen to what I did wrong and keep trying to grow as fast as possible so I can contribute when the season comes.”

“The coaching staff just tells me, take my rhythm shots, slow down when I get the ball,” the freshman said. “If I’m wide open, take it. If I’m not, I’m playing the 4 right now so I have a bigger, slower guy on me so drive that and touch the paint and find a kick-out. We’re just trying to make the right play and wherever the ball ends that’s who’s taking the shot late in the clock.”

After the Kingdom League, Ohio high school legend and Michigan basketball legend Trey Burke had high praise for the young Buckeye.

“Honestly, before the game, I haven’t really followed college basketball, so I was hearing about him, but I hadn’t seen him play. But I’m impressed, very impressed,” Burke told Eleven Warriors after the Kingdom League. “The kids not scared, very competitive, didn’t back down from a challenge, very athletic. I like his game. I think the sky’s the limit for him. I told him after the game, ‘What I saw tonight, I want to see this year.’ So, I’m expecting big things from him.”

Burke went onto add that he thinks Sensabaugh not only has the physical tools, but the mental tools.

“I think (it takes) a high sense of self-confidence. Guys that come in right away and produce at a high level, they know who they are,” Burke also said over the summer. “Nobody has to tell them who they are, they just know who they are. It doesn’t take two or three missed shots to turn them off. Two or three missed shots might turn them off. Other guys might shy away from the challenge after that. But I seen a competitor in him tonight and I think Ohio State has a gem in him.”

Not a bad compliment from an NBA player.

Expectation

Sensabaugh has the most expectations set on him out of all of the freshmen coming into the program this season based on how he finished his high school career and how he performed at the Kingdom League. There has even been talk that he could be a one-and-done, similar to Malaki Branham, but that is obviously remains to be seen.

It will be interesting to see because he will not have the role Branham had on the 2021 team. Branham turned into the No. 2 scoring option on that team, and because of the depth on the 2022 squad, it is hard to imagine Sensabaugh becomes that heavily relied upon on. However, he is emerging as maybe the second-best shooter on the team behind Sean McNeil, which is great to see.

Prediction

At this point, especially after what he did over the summer in the Kingdom League, it is safe to say that Sensabaugh is going to be a sticking point in the rotation this season. I don’t think he will play the most minutes of any freshman, just because Bruce Thornton will play a lot out of necessity. However, Sensabaugh reportedly played some point guard in the Kingdom League, so he might be another one that could help take the burden off of Thornton at that position.

Sensabaugh should play 20-25 minutes a game, and he could very well average in the double-digits. He will be one of the most talked about freshmen in the conference.

Highlights

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LordJeffBuck · Sep 2, 2022

Ohio State vs Notre Dame: The Rivarly That Never Was

The Big Ten Conference was formed in 1896, and by 1917 it counted as members every major football power in the upper midwest. All except one - Notre Dame.

Notre Dame began football in 1887 as an independent and it has stayed that way ever since (more or less - see below) despite various attempts to lure them into a conference. But in the early days, before Notre Dame became a brand name in college football, the small private Catholic school in South Bend, Indiana, actually tried to join the Big Ten. Although Notre Dame fit the Big Ten profile geographically, that factor was about the only match with the other conference members, most of whom (Northwestern and Chicago being the exceptions) were large state-operated "land grant" universities. The Big Ten could ignore the "small" and "private" aspects of Notre Dame, as the conference had previously done with Northwestern and the University of Chicago, but many of the key players had a serious problem with the "Catholic" element of that university.

The rift between Notre Dame and the Big Ten dates back to at least 1909. Back then, Notre Dame was a considered a "cupcake". From 1887 to 1908, the Fighting Irish sported an impressive overall record of 89-30-9 (.730 winning percentage), but the vast majority of those victories came against a motley crew of high schools, prep schools, medical schools, dental schools, law schools, future D-III programs, and private clubs such as the Illinois Cycling Club and the South Bend Howard Park Club. Against the relatively powerful Big Ten schools, Notre Dame had a miserable record of 10-23-4, with the Irish being outscored 189 to 518 in those 37 contests.

Led by the legendary Fielding Yost, Michigan was perhaps the most powerful program in the country in first decade of the Twentieth Century. Yost took over the Michigan program in 1901, and during his first eight years on the job his team posted an overall record of 69-5-2 (.921 winning percentage) with four national championships. Yost was ruthless in victory (his teams would "tramp on the injured and hurdle the dead" according to one sportswriter), but petulant in defeat.

In 1909, Notre Dame faced Michigan for the ninth time. The Wolverines had won all of the previous eight games by a combined score of 121 to 16, with Yost notching two of those wins (1902 and 1908). However, Notre Dame pulled off the upset in 1909, besting Michigan by the score of 11 to 3 in Ann Arbor. After the game Yost was the typical sore loser, claiming that the contest was nothing more than an exhibition game, with his team "caring little whether we won or lost."

But Yost obviously cared a lot more than he let on, as he subsequently cancelled the 1910 rematch with Notre Dame, claiming that the Fighting Irish were using ineligible players. Yost then blackballed Notre Dame and refused to play them for the remainder of his tenure at Michigan, which did not end until he finally retired as athletic director in 1941.

Yost was known as a virulent anti-Catholic, and during the 1920's he worked behind the scenes to keep Notre Dame from joining the Big Ten Conference. Under the direction of President Father Walsh, Notre Dame made an informal "goodwill tour" of the Big Ten schools to make its case to join the conference, but the tour hit a roadblock in Ann Arbor where Yost still held his grudge. In the mid-1920's Yost had a massive amount of sway within the conference, and his denigration of Notre Dame's athletics, academics, and religious affiliation was enough to convince the other Big Ten members to steer clear of South Bend. Although Notre Dame would eventually end up forming rivalries with several Big Ten teams (including Michigan after 1941), the football program would remain more-or-less unaligned until the present day.

In 1999, the Big Ten privately approached Notre Dame about joining the conference. Notre Dame's faculty senate overwhelmingly endorsed the idea by a vote of 25 to 4, the main lure being entrance into the Committee for Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which is essentially the academic and research wing of the Big Ten. However, Notre Dame's board of trustees, under severe pressure from prominent boosters and alumni, rejected the faculty's wishes and decided to keep "King Football" independent (and the sole beneficiary of a lucrative NBC television contract) despite the numerous benefits that the academic institution would have received by virtue of CIC membership.

Since 1999 there have been numerous conference expansions and realignments, including the Big Ten adding Nebraska in 2011; Maryland and Rutgers in 2014; and USC and UCLA scheduled to join in 2024. During this period of instability there have been persistent rumors of Notre Dame joining the Big Ten Conference, but the stumbling blocks were the aforementioned NBC contract as well as Notre Dame's desire to retain its numerous non-conference rivals such as Southern Cal (no longer an issue), Stanford, Boston College, and Navy. In 2014 Notre Dame essentially precluded any further entrees to or from the Big Ten by joining the Atlantic Coast Conference as a partial member, playing five ACC football games a year instead of a full conference slate. Unless, of course, the ACC falls apart in the next few years....

Notre Dame Versus the Big Ten

As mentioned above, Notre Dame has long-standing rivalries with several Big Ten programs, notably Michigan (44 games), Purdue (87 games), Michigan State (79 games, 59 with MSU as a Big Ten member), and Northwestern (49 games). For reasons discussed below, Ohio State never developed a rivalry with Notre Dame, despite the proximity of the two schools and the prestige of the two programs. Here's how Notre Dame has fared against the core members of the Big Ten Conference:

Big Ten Opponent	Number of Games	Notre Dame Record	Notre Dame Win %
Purdue Boilermakers	87	59-26-2	.690
Michigan State Spartans	79	49-29-1	.627
Northwestern Wildcats	49	38-9-2	.796
Michigan Wolverines	44	18-25-1	.443
Indiana Hoosiers	29	23-5-1	.810
Iowa Hawkeyes	24	13-8-3	.604
Wisconsin Badgers	17	8-7-2	.529
Illinois Fighting Illini	12	11-0-1	.958
Ohio State Buckeyes	6	2-4-0	.333
Minnesota Golden Gophers	5	4-0-1	.900
Chicago Maroons	4	0-4-0	.000
Versus Core Big Ten Teams	356	226-116-14	.654

Notre Dame vs Ohio State (1935)

Ohio State was the last of the "original" Big Ten schools to play Notre Dame. The first meeting between the two programs occurred on November 2, 1935, when Notre Dame was an already established football power (four national championships from 1918 to 1930 under the direction of Knute Rockne) and Ohio State was just beginning to emerge as such.

The 1935 contest was one of the first to be dubbed "The Game of the Century". The Fighting Irish traveled to Columbus with a perfect 5-0-0 record to face the Buckeyes, who sported a perfect 4-0-0 record of their own. A record-setting crowd of 81,018 packed Ohio Stadium to see the clash between national championship contenders.

The Buckeyes got off to a fast start with a 75-yard pick six in the first quarter, and they cruised to a 13-0 halftime lead. After a scoreless third quarter, Notre Dame staged a furious fourth-quarter comeback. The Irish scored a touchdown early in the final quarter to cut Ohio State's lead to 13-6, and then scored another touchdown with just under two minutes left on the clock. The PAT attempt was no good, and the Buckeyes still clung to a 13-12 lead with a chance to run out the clock. However, the Buckeyes fumbled the ball away near midfield and the Fighting Irish recovered. Notre Dame quickly drove down the field for their third touchdown of the quarter and took an 18-13 lead with 32 seconds remaining. The Buckeyes' final desperate drive ended with a quarterback sack as time expired.

Ohio State would rebound after the loss to Notre Dame to finish the 1935 season with a 7-1-0 record and a Big Ten co-championship (with Minnesota). On the other hand, the Irish would suffer a let down after their historic comeback, losing to Northwestern, then tying Army, before beating Southern Cal to finish their campaign with a record of 7-1-1. In an unofficial season-ending UPI poll (the official UPI poll would not begin until 1950), Ohio State was ranked #5 while Notre Dame placed #8. A powerful Minnesota squad (8-0-0) took home the national title that year, but if Ohio State had managed to hold on against Notre Dame the Buckeyes might have earned their first ever national championship in 1935.

Notre Dame vs Ohio State (1936)

The two schools held a rematch in South Bend on October 31, 1936, with the Fighting Irish winning a relatively uneventful contest by the unlikely score of 7 to 2. Notre Dame would end their season at 6-2-1 and ranked #8 in the inaugural AP poll, while Ohio State would finish unranked with a record of 5-3-0.

The fledgling series then took a six-decade hiatus for reasons that remain clouded in mystery. One legend has it that Woody Hayes, who took over Ohio State's program in 1951, refused to play Notre Dame because he did not want the Catholic population of Ohio rooting against the home state school in the rivalry game. That's a nice story, but it doesn't explain the gap between 1936 and 1951, nor why Woody's quaint policy survived another 17 years after his dismissal from Ohio State at the conclusion of the 1978 season.

On the Notre Dame side of the equation, the Irish had already established rivalries with several other Big Ten programs and adding Ohio State to their list was not a priority, especially if it would jeopardize existing rivalries with teams outside of the Midwest such as Southern Cal, Pittsburgh, Army, and Navy. In any event, Notre Dame and Ohio State would not play again until 1995.

Notre Dame vs Ohio State (1995)

John Cooper began his career at Ohio State (1988 to 1994) with a record of 54-26-4 (.667 winning percentage), which alone should have been enough to get himself fired. Add in a record of 1-5-1 against arch rival Michigan and 1-5-0 in bowl games (with no major bowl appearances), and it's easy to see why Cooper's seat was scorching hot as the 1995 season began. However, Cooper was able (very briefly) to salvage his public perception with a resounding 45 to 26 victory over Notre Dame in Columbus on September 30, 1995.

In the game, Buckeye running back (and future Heisman winner) Eddie George rushed 32 times for 207 yards and two touchdowns, and wide receiver (and future Biletnikoff winner) Terry Glenn added 4 receptions for 128 yards and a pair of scores (including an 82-yard touchdown, the 5th-longest passing play in Ohio State history). In all, the offense racked up 533 yards, while the defense forced three turnovers in the rout.

In 1995, Ohio State would win eleven straight games before closing the season with losses to Michigan and Tennessee in the Florida Citrus Bowl; the Buckeyes would finish 11-2-0 and #6 in the final AP poll that year. Notre Dame would not lose another game until falling to Florida State in the Orange Bowl; the Irish ended their season with a 9-3-0 record and a #11 ranking in the AP poll.

Notre Dame vs Ohio State (1996)

Ohio State and Notre Dame finished their brief two-game series the following season with a rematch in South Bend. The Buckeyes once again won that contest handily by the score of 29 to 16. Taking over where Eddie George left off, Buckeye tailback Pepe Pearson rushed 29 times for a career-best 173 yards and two touchdowns, and the defense once again forced three Irish turnovers.

Following a heartbreaking 13-9 loss to Michigan and a thrilling 20-17 victory over previously unbeaten Arizona State in the Rose Bowl, Ohio State finished the 1996 season with a record of 11-1-0 and a #2 ranking in both major polls. Notre Dame ended their 1996 campaign with a record of 8-3-0 (no bowl game) and the #19 ranking in the AP poll.

Notre Dame vs Ohio State (2006 Fiesta Bowl)

The next time that Notre Dame and Ohio State squared off was in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State finished the 2005 regular season with a record of 9-2, with the Buckeyes' only losses coming against eventual national champ Texas (25-22) and eventual #3 Penn State (17-10). Notre Dame also entered the bowl game with a 9-2 record, with losses to Michigan State (44-41) and eventual #2 Southern Cal (34-31).

The game looked to be a clash of opposites, with Ohio State playing sound defense and special teams to supplement a plodding Tresselball offense, and Notre Dame looking to light up the scoreboard under the guidance of first-year head coach Charlie Weis, a certified offensive guru (at least in his own mind). But things didn't quite work out that way. Although Weis claimed that his NFL-style offense had a "decided schematic advantage" over other college teams, the normally conservative Tressel showed him a thing or three about how to exploit an opposing defense. The Buckeye offense, which had averaged only 369.9 yards per game during the regular season, exploded for 617 yards in the Fiesta Bowl, much of it coming on huge scoring plays: a 60-yard TD run by tailback Antonio Pittman; a 68-yard TD run on a reverse by flanker Ted Ginn, Jr.; a 56-yard reception by Ginn; and an 85-yard reception by wide out Santonio Holmes, the third-longest pass play in Ohio State history. Quarterback Troy Smith orchestrated the virtuoso performance with 408 total yards (342 passing, 66 rushing), at that time the third-highest single-game total for a Buckeye player. If not for a pair of fumbles (one in the red zone) and a blocked field goal, Ohio State would have blown out Notre Dame. As it was, the Buckeyes merely won the game comfortably, 34-20.

Based on their BCS bowl victory, Ohio State moved up to #4 in both major polls, while Notre Dame dropped down to #9 in the AP poll and #11 in the coaches poll. The game propelled Troy Smith's 2006 Heisman run and tarnished Charlie Weis's largely self-generated reputation. Although Weis would have another fine season in 2006 (a 10-3 record), his career crashed and burned thereafter, and in his final six seasons as a college head coach (three more at Notre Dame and two-plus at Kansas) he would post a combined record of 22-43 (.338 winning percentage). Weis was fired from Kansas on September 28, 2014 for "lack of on-field progress", and he remains unemployed to this day.

Notre Dame vs. Ohio State (2016 Fiesta Bowl)

The final contest between Ohio State and Notre Dame came in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 2015 season. The Buckeyes entered the game as the #7 team with a record of 11-1, their sole loss coming against eventual Big Ten champ Michigan State, 17-14, on a last-second field goal. The Domers were ranked 8th with a record of 10-2, both losses coming by two points to ranked teams (Clemson, Stanford). Ohio State got out to an early 14-0 first quarter lead with touchdowns by Ezekiel Elliott and Michael Thomas, and the Buckeyes cruised to a 44-28 win. The game marked the final appearance in scarlet and grey for many stars including Elliott (149 yards, 4 TDs), Thomas (7 reception, 72 yards, TD), Braxton Miller, Darron Lee (7 tackles, 2 sacks, forced fumble), and Joey Bosa (4 tackles before an early ejection for a questionable targeting call). After the victory, Ohio State rose to #4 in both final polls while Notre Dame sank to #11 in the AP poll and #12 in the coaches poll.

To recap the abbreviated series, Ohio State leads 4 to 2, outscoring Notre Dame 167 to 95. In the six games, there have been eight touchdowns of 47+ yards (47, 56, 60, 68, 75, 81, 82, 85), seven of them by Ohio State.

Aug 31, 2022

LGHL Asks: Buckeye fans, tell us what you think will happen in the Notre Dame game
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by John Cordes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Give us your score and headline predictions for the season opener.

Every day for the entirety of the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.

Ok, it’s your turn to tell us what you think, and since it's game week, we are turning our attention to this Saturday’s game between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 5 Notre Dame. We want to know what you think is going to happen in this primetime showdown, so check out the questions and answer using the form below.

Question 1: What will be the headline after the game?

This one is going to be fun. You will notice that I specifically only picked options that were positive for the Buckeyes because, honestly, I don’t think that this game will be especially close. The OSU offense is lightyears better than Notre Dame’s and I think that given everything that we’ve heard so far this fall, the defense will be markedly improved.

To be honest, I don’t even think that they need to be any better from a fundamental or schematic perspective (although I am confident that they will be) in order to have a dramatically improved impact on the team, they just need to be tougher and more aggressive. If new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles can get his unit to do that, this is easily a College Football Playoff team, and if he is able to improve in the other areas as well, this is probably the national championship favorite, in my humble, yet completely biased opinion.

I’ll share what my pick is for this question when we discuss the results later this week, so as to not influence the voting, but I am excited to see what y’all think.

Question 2: What will the outcome be for the Ohio State vs. Notre Dame game?

Similarly, I will have an official score prediction in my “LGHL Tailgate” podcast on Saturday morning, but needless to say, I am in the top half of these options. The Buckeyes opened as 17.5-point favorites and remain one of the favorites to make the CFP and even claim the trophy come season’s end.

Without getting into specifics, I’m going to pick Ohio State to win this one, and I don’t think that it will be especially close. I have been saying for weeks that 17 points was the floor that OSU would win by. Admittedly, I am probably approaching this more as a fan than an unbiased analyst, but I anticipate this being yet another point showing that the Fighting Irish are still a ways away from being back to the upper echelon of the sport.

Make your picks here and check back later in the week for the results:

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State Buckeyes fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate.

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Aug 31, 2022

You’re Nuts: Who is the biggest ‘traitor’ in Ohio State football 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

Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.

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.

Today’s Question: Who is the biggest ‘traitor’ in Ohio State football history?

Editor’s Note: Before any Notre Dame fans get all worked up over the headline, this article is intended to be read in a playful, game-week rivalry mindset. We love and appreciate everything that Marcus Freeman did for Ohio State during his time wearing the scarlet and gray, and even if he doesn’t seem to have fond memories of his time in Columbus, we do.

We also do not consider players who transfer in order to find better situations for themselves and their families to be traitors, so sorry about that.

Jami’s Take: Marcus Freeman

I know what you’re thinking — “Neither of these two idiots chose Bo Schembechler? What kind of garbage column is this?” Hear me out though, we should be thanking Bo Schembechler for his contributions to a rivalry that, while it has had annoying moments over the years, is also the source of much gloating and joy for Buckeye fans.

No no, the true Benedict Arnold here is none other than Marcus Freeman, the former Ohio State linebacker who kicks off this 2022 season as the Notre Dame head coach.

I’m all for great players advancing their careers, and I’m not dense enough to assume they will all be able to do so in Columbus. In fact, I was happy to see Freeman step into the head coaching role after the end of the Brian Kelly era.

But then came Freeman’s off-season comments about his time at Ohio State.

Now, I don’t mind a little trash talk going into a huge game, and Notre Dame-OSU is very much the game of opening weekend. I think it can be a good motivator, and it can help get your guys hyped, to an extent (it can, however, also motivate the other team, and that’s the risk you run).

But I also believe in loyalty, and these comments are where Freeman took a hard left turn at Benedict Arnold Drive. In fact, Arnold himself was known for some trash talk, often complaining that the Continental Congress was passing him over for promotions.

The first foray into Benedict Arnold territory was a December 2021 column Freeman wrote for The Players Tribune, in which he implied choosing to play at Ohio State was a mistake.

“I visited this university for the first time when I was about 16 or 17 years old and was recruited to play here. I had a choice to make, and in the end what it came down to was Ohio State or Notre Dame. And I chose Ohio State,” he wrote.

Freeman went on to say, “Fast-forward to last year, and you might have heard that I was being considered for a couple of coaching jobs. During that time, me and my wife, Joanna, took a trip down to Louisiana and then up here to South Bend — and when we got back home, it was another tough decision. I can’t tell you exactly what it was that told us to come to Notre Dame, but there was something. We all know there’s something different about Notre Dame. We all know it’s something special. And I just thank God that I didn’t make the wrong decision twice.”

I don’t mean to invalidate any of Freeman’s experiences, but that’s the sort of thing you don’t put in writing. After all, he’s a successful guy whose coaching future looks bright – surely at least SOME of that is thanks to his alma mater?

Clearly, he built strong relationships with his fellow Buckeyes, with former OSU teammate and fellow linebacker James Laurinaitis joining his coaching staff, so it certainly wasn’t all bad for Freeman over in Columbus.

But that’s not Freeman’s only moment of running his mouth about Ohio State. After taking the job as head coach at Notre Dame, he decided to take a shot at OSU’s academics in an interview with CBS Sports.

“You don’t go to class [at places like that]?” Freeman said rhetorically. “OK, take some online classes, show up for your appointments. At Notre Dame, you’re forced to go to class every day.”

One of my biggest criticisms of Notre Dame fans is their smug elitism in touting the academic record of their very expensive private school, without really considering the layers of systemic wealth that factor in. Additionally, if Freeman chose not to attend class at Ohio State, that was surely his decision? I sat through many a class with football players who were engaged and engaging. Surely it’s not the university’s fault if Freeman wasn’t one of them.

It’s entirely possible that Freeman is making these comments for recruiting clout, or alternatively, he’s trying to get ahead of the possibility that the Fighting Irish will lose on Saturday by having a few excuses at the ready.

It doesn’t excuse it.

It is said that a French statesman who encountered Benedict Arnold after his exile in England said after their meeting, “I must confess that I felt much pity for him … for I witnessed his agony.”

I, on the other hand, can’t wait to witness Freeman’s agony on Saturday after a Buckeye victory, and unfortunately for him, since academics are such a joke at OSU, I must have skipped the class where we learned the meaning of “pity.”

Matt’s Take: Lou Holtz

As Jami alluded to, no, I am not taking Bo Schembechler, but he was the first person that I thought of when we came up with this topic. Bo was not only a Woody Hayes assistant at Ohio State, but he played for him at Miami University. So, when Schembechler left his alma mater to take over the Wolverine program, no doubt that was an incredibly bitter pill for Woody to swallow.

But here’s the thing, Hayes love Schembechler. The two remained incredibly close during the Ten-Year War and after it. Bo and Woody would show up for each regularly until Hayes died in 1987, one day after the former Ohio State coach — who was in demonstrably poor health — gave a lengthy introduction of his friend before a speaking engagement.

In 1986, Hayes told The Lantern, “If ‘Bo’ is not a winner, I never saw one and I should know. He beat me the last three games we played. We’ve fought and quarreled for years but we’re great friends.”

So, as far as I’m concerned, if Wayne Woodrow Hayes can forgive and love Bo Schembechler, who am I to consider him a traitor?

Lou Holtz on the other hand? He’s (long been) dead to me.

Like Woody and Bo, Holtz has deep Ohio ties. Though born in West Virginia, he grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio, went to school at Kent State, and joined the Buckeyes’ coaching staff for a single season, the historic 1968 national title campaign.

After that, he left to coach at William & Mary before a rather circuitous career took him to the NFL, back to college, and to South Bend as the head coach of the Fighting Irish in 1986. Holtz lost both games he coached against OSU as the head coach at ND (in the famous 1995 and ‘96 games).

He, of course, got his revenge in back-to-back Outback bowls in 2001 and 2002 with wins over John Cooper (in his final year in Columbus) and Jim Tressel (in his first year in Columbus).

Now, I don’t love a lot of what Lou Holtz says or stands for these days, but my issue with him is not really about what he’s done on the field, instead, it is primarily what he has done in his post-coaching broadcasting career. And the simplest distillation of why Sweet Lou is persona non grata to me can be boiled down to two words: Mark May.

From their days together on ESPN to as recently as earlier this year, Holtz continues to publicly associate with that imbecilic, rancorous, know-nothing jacknut posing as a real, live human. May’s illogical hatred of Ohio State is legendary, and it has gone far beyond the normal trolling that talentless media personalities generally participate in because they are not insightful or clever enough to garner attention on their own merits.

Instead, he has done what a legitimate analyst should never do, he’s made it personal. Don’t believe me?

And yet, despite being a proud son of the state of Ohio, despite having a championship ring from his time on the Buckeye staff, despite still being invited to speak at Ohio State events, Holtz continues to not only work with May, but he considers him a friend.

If the former ND coach had simply parted ways with the Pitt simpleton when they both departed the worldwide leader in sports, I could have forgiven Holtz; hell, if I can learn to appreciate Bo, I surely could have come to terms with Holtz.

But no, he continues to do podcasts with May, most recently around the 2022 NFL Draft. In fact, both Holtz and the asinine asshat picked Utah to beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

I am a pretty forgiving person. I’ve screwed up a lot in my life and I believe that everyone deserves second, third, and even fourth chances. But when it comes to voluntarily associating with Mark May, that’s a line that I refuse to accept or forgive.

Continue reading...

Aug 31, 2022

Notre Dame Offensive Player to Watch: Tight end Michael Mayer
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

The Fighting Irish have a long history of talented tight ends, and Mayer has a chance to finish his collegiate career as one of the absolute best in program history.

The Ohio State Buckeyes will face a stiff test to open the 2022 season, especially on defense. Sure, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost their starting quarterback from 2021, as well as their top running back and top wide receiver, but they return plenty of other skill position players and a solid offensive line.

Offensive coordinator and ND alum Tommy Rees is also back to lead the unit, which should come as a huge relief to first-time head coach and former Buckeye, Marcus Freeman. Rees is a rising star in the college ranks — so much so that Brian Kelly attempted to poach him for his new LSU staff. But Rees turned down his former boss, and will have the keys to the proverbial car on offense.

The OC’s decision to stick with Notre Dame was a big offseason win for the program, but their most important offensive returnee still wears shoulder pads on Saturday(s). He is a supremely talented tight end, who also happens to be a preseason All-American, a likely 2023 first-round draft pick, and arguably the Irish’s best player — on either side of the ball. Oh yeah, he also caught 23 more balls than any other pass catcher on the team last year, and 39 more than the leading returnee at WR.

His name is Michael Mayer, and he is this season’s first Offensive Player to Watch.

NFL teams already know Notre Dame TE Michael Mayer gon’ be a problem on Sundays pic.twitter.com/bcDOnaC0Vv

— PFF College (@PFF_College) May 16, 2022

Mayer is the latest in a long line of successful, NFL-ready tight ends that have come through Notre Dame. The tradition of TE excellence goes back multiple decades, but since 2011 alone, the Irish have seen eight of their super-sized pass catchers taken in the NFL Draft. Kyle Rudolph, Tyler Eifert, and Cole Kmet are a few of the college stars whose game(s) translated well to the next level, but Mayer might be the best of the bunch when all is said and done. He is that good.

The Kentucky native was an early commit to ND, doing so in July of 2018 (2020 enrollee). 247Sports had Mayer ranked as the No. 2 TE in his class – and a top-50 player overall – but he shut his recruitment down fairly early, choosing the Irish over Georgia, Texas, Penn State, Alabama, and others. He also made an unofficial visit to Ohio State in April of 2018, but the Buckeyes were never considered a favorite for his services. Mayer hit the ground running in South Bend, and has never looked back.

In his first game as a true freshman, Mayer had three receptions for 38 yards against Duke. The following week, he was named a starter. He performed well throughout the season, with some of his best games coming against ND’s stiffest competition. He caught five passes for 67 yards in an upset of No. 1 Clemson, put up nearly an identical state line against the Tigers in the ACC Championship Game, and then led the Irish with seven receptions and 62 yards against Alabama in the Rose Bowl. ND lost the game (because Brian Kelly loses big bowl games), but Mayer announced his presence to the college football world, and established himself as a budding star.

The talented tight end carried momentum into 2021, and had one of the best seasons by a TE in Notre Dame history. Mayer opened the season with a nine-catch, 120-yard, and one touchdown performance against Florida State. He then added 7/81/2 in Week 2, before cooling down a bit and failing to add another score until mid-November. However, he still led the team in receptions and/or yards a number of times. And he closed the season out strong, averaging a stat line of 7/87/1 over the Irish’s last four games. Mayer finished with 71 receptions (led the team, ND record for TE), 840 yards (ND record for TE), and 7 TD (you guessed it, a ND record for TE) — for which he was named a Mackey Award Semifinalist and AP Third Team All-American.

Sounds like the antithesis of what Ohio State fans would like their linebackers and new defense to face in Week 1. But this is the challenge, and this is what Jim Knowles and Co. were brought in for.

As a tight end and draft prospect, Mayer has everything you are looking for. He has prototypical size at roughly 6-foot-5, 260 pounds. He is a better receiver than he is a blocker, but he can hold his own at the line of scrimmage. And his athleticism translates well to the football field, meaning: he has quick feet, solid change of direction for a big man, and can make catches “above the rim”. Mayer’s straight-line speed is not elite for his position, but it doesn’t seem to slow down his production. When he gets open – or into the body of an opposing defender – he is coming down with the ball more often than not.

Mayer will have the occasional concentration drop, and there were games where a number of his receptions came on check-downs or underneath routes (not that he can’t get downfield when called upon). Those are not knocks against him; those are nitpicks in his game. He is truly the total package as far as college tight ends go.

If the Buckeyes are going to slow Mayer down, I think they need to keep him “busy” and force him to stay in as a blocker as often as possible. I would like to see them blitz — all the damn time, forcing ND to make a decision. Cover him one-on-one, as opposed to zone, and have a second set of eyes on him during each play. Lastly, hit him with all they’ve got, because he is a load to bring down. Mayer should be priority 1A and 1B for the OSU defense, as he is by far their most proven offensive threat.

Adding to the pressure of the moment, is the fact that this is the first time we will be seeing Jim Knowles’ new Ohio State defense under the bright lights... literally. Have they put everything together? Have they developed groupthink, as far as where to be on the field, and when to be there? And can they minimize Michael Mayer’s impact on the game? Saturday will be a heck of a first test, against a heck of an offensive weapon.

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Aug 31, 2022

A look at Big Ten season win totals
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

How do the oddsmakers expect each team in the B1G to fare in 2022?

All odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.

B1G East:

Ohio State: o/u 10.5
Michigan: o/u 9.5
Penn State: o/u 8.5
Michigan State: o/u 7.5
Maryland: o/u 6
Rutgers: o/u 4
Indiana: o/u 4

Looking at how the win totals are projected in the Big Ten East, the order in which they’re presented here is how Vegas thinks the standings will look at the end of the season. It’s about as you would expect, with Ohio State and Michigan followed by Penn State and Michigan State and then all of the rest, with Maryland clearly ahead of teams like Rutgers and Indiana.

A few of these lines are tough. When it comes to the Buckeyes, you’re basically asking yourself if they beat Notre Dame or not. It’s tough to find two losses on Ohio State’s schedule if the Fighting Irish are not one of them, but we’ve seen crazier things happen before. Michigan is another interesting one. While I’m expecting them to take a step down this season, it’s tough to find two losses on their very easy schedule, let alone the three they would need to fall under the 9.5 total set by the oddsmakers.

The team that catches my eye the most here is Maryland. The Terps have a real chance to be one of the best non-Ohio State offenses in the conference. Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa is entering his second full season as the starter, and around him are a plethora of top end weapons including wide receivers Rakim Jarrett and Dontay Demus. The defense should be solid as well, anchored by guys like Ruben Hyppolite II, Jakorian Bennett and Tarheeb Still as well as a handful of players just waiting to break out.

Maryland has two easy non-conference games against Buffalo and Charlotte, then get Indiana, Northwestern and Rutgers in-conference as five should-be wins. They likely aren’t quite there yet to knock off Ohio State or Michigan, and road contests against Wisconsin and Penn State won’t be easy, but if they can just grab two wins against the group of SMU, Michigan State and Purdue, they can reach seven wins to hit their total. At worst I see this team winning six games, which would be a push.

B1G West:

Wisconsin: o/u 8.5
Minnesota: o/u 7.5
Iowa: o/u 7.5
Purdue: o/u 7.5
NOTE: Nebraska, Northwestern and Illinois have already played, thus have no odds.

The win totals in the Big Ten West are exactly as you’d expect them to be. Someone has to win the games on the schedule in the lesser half of the conference, but nobody knows exactly who that will be. The oddsmakers have given Wisconsin the greatest chance of emerging victorious with the highest win total in the division at 8.5, but it’s not saying all that much since Minnesota, Iowa and Purdue are all right behind them at 7.5. The rest of the West already took part in a Week 0 game, so their win totals are not listed.

The team I'm looking at on this side of the B1G is Iowa. The Hawkeyes had one of the best defenses in the country a season ago, and most of that production is returning. Senior linebacker Jack Campbell is one of the very best in the nation at his position, and Seth Benson alongside him is no slouch either as the pair combined for 245 tackles in 2021. In the secondary, Riley Moss is the definition of a ballhawk, while Joe Evans and Lukas Van Ness return up front having tied as the team’s sack leaders a year ago. If Iowa can put together any semblance of offense — something which, to be fair, is not a strength of any team in the West outside of maybe Purdue — then I like to Hawkeyes to exceed their win total.

Iowa gets two relatively easy games in the non-conference against South Dakota State and Nevada, and then they get Iowa State in a rivalry game that Kirk Ferentz’s squad has owned, winning each of the last six meetings. They then have road contests against Rutgers and Illinois sandwiching a big home battle against Michigan. All three of those games are winnable, as Kinnick Stadium could prove a bugaboo for the Wolverines as it has many teams before them. They probably won’t upset Ohio State on the road, but then they hit a stretch of Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska to close it out. I like their chances to win at least three of those games if not four. This would put Iowa at somewhere between 8-10 wins, hitting the over of their 7.5 total.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

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Aug 31, 2022

Battleground Columbus: Clash of The Blue Blood Programs
Richard Tongohan via our good friends at Men of the Scarlet and Gray
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Welcome Home, but

As another offseason draws to a close, we are three days away from the start of the 2022 CFB season. Excitement is definitely in the air and this year will feature a pair of Buckeye great for a homecoming of sorts against Notre Dame.

Former Buckeye stars Coach Freeman and Coach Laurinaitus will return home donning the Irish green and gold. They will also be looking to upset the Buckeyes in each of their debuts.

Coach Freeman coming off of a successful year got the head coaching job after Coach Kelly departed for LSU. He then hired his old teammate Laurinaitus as a Graduate Assistant for the defense.

The Goal is Disruption

This will be a big test for the Buckeyes, who suffered two losses last year to stout defenses with talent on the edge. This time around they face the All-American, Isaiah Foskey.

Aside from Foskey, the front seven is solid and they will look to disrupt Coach Day’s offense. On the backend, there might be a few question marks, but we shall see how they fare.

Stroud has JSN and friends on the perimeter, the chimera of RB’s and a mystery at TE. If they can stop the run and make the new starters on the perimeter outside of JSN make plays, there is a chance.

Offensive Adversity?

ND just named Tyler Buchner the starter at Quarterback. He will lead this years offense and is a bit of a mystery.

Joining him in the backfield are Chris Tyree and Logan Diggs. They will be leaned on to change things up and to lessen the offensive burden on Buchner.

The reason? The injury bug has taken away two of his veteran options at WR after losing Avery Davis (ACL) and Joe Wilkins Jr. (foot). Luckily they have Michale Mayer at TE to help lift the offense.

Buckeye Defensive Resurgence?

After a disastrous defensive showing in 2021, there is a ton of anticipation for the 2022 version. Resurgence or Regression? Feast or famine?

With an embarrassment of talent and a new defensive coach, they made the necessary changes to repair a struggling defense that often underperformed.

With a young team with a new QB, WR’s and RB’s they should be able to contain things, but the risk of the unknown is something to keep an eye on. The Irish have a star TE in Mayer, so things will get interesting.

This is a certain group, but there will be a few new faces that will find ways into the game. This will be the test to hopefully set the tone on this side of the ball for the entire year.

Offensive Firepower

The offense will be deadly again with the return of CJ Stroud at QB. The trio of Henderson, Williams and Hayden will be a threat and JSN returns to lead his Zone 6 brethren to another stellar year.

You would think losing Wilson and Olave in the first round in last years draft would hurt, but Zone 6 has stockpiled a nice group of players to take over for instances like this.

Enter MHJ, Fleming and Egbuka. This is going to be a make or break year for those just mentioned. There were reports of a six-man rotation, but until I see it I’ll reserve judgment.

Cade Stover and Gee Scott Jr. are the two TE’s to keep an eye out for. Stover was voted captain and Scott will be a matchup nightmare in the seams.

Definitely excited and could go on and on but I’ll cut it short. I can talk about the obvious, but the unknowns are what intrigues me. Breakout candidates galore.

Finally, this O-Line will have to be aggressive and consistent to have any succes at crating balance with play calling. They will be raked to stop the All-American and his fiends from harassing Stroud and his teammates.

Predictions:

The defense shows dramatic improvement under Knowles (at least 1 INT and 1 sack; 4 TFL’s)
The offensive line dominates the LOS (at least 100 yards rushing & 280 yards passing)
A few players breakout and/or show flashes (Egbuka/Fleming/Scott on offense & JTT/Sawyer/Hancock on defense)

Final Score:

42-20 Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish

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Aug 31, 2022

Column: Notre Dame is a must-win for Ohio State, but the reasons are strange
Meredith Hein via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Related, it’s helpful to set expectations.

There are few opportunities for hiccups in today’s college football landscape. Ohio State, as we well remember, barely made the College Football Playoff in 2014 after a single, early loss.

What does that mean for this Saturday’s matchup against No. 5 Notre Dame? Ohio State has to win. Obviously. Or maybe not so much.

Granted, it’s hard to extrapolate this data for Ohio State, because the Buckeyes simply do not have that many losses. Ryan Day has amassed a 34-4 record through four full seasons at Ohio State (plus three games in 2018). Last season was by far the worst showing a Day-coached team has had, and the Buckeyes remained in the playoff discussion until the bitter end.

The Buckeyes have made the College Football Playoff four total times. In 2014 and 2016, Ohio State made the Playoff after losing to unranked Virginia Tech and Penn State teams, respectively. Of course, Penn State ended up running the table in the Big Ten in 2016.

The other two times Ohio State made the CFP, they were undefeated (2019 and 2020). Those undefeated seasons sure make it easy for the CFP committee to make their selections.

However, the times Ohio State has missed the Playoff included:

2015: Loss to No. 9 Michigan State
2017: Losses to No. 5 Oklahoma and unranked Iowa
2018: Loss to unranked Purdue
2021: Losses to No. 12 Oregon and No. 5 Michigan

Early losses are generally more forgivable than ones later in the season. In 2021, even with an early loss to Oregon, Ohio State was in the Playoff conversation leading up to November’s loss to Michigan. The narrative was that the winner of that game, assuming a follow-up win in the Big Ten Championship, would be Playoff-bound. In other words, the early loss didn’t matter so much.

When it comes to forgivable losses, the opponent also plays a role — but it’s not as clear-cut as you might think. When Ohio State loses to a highly ranked team that loses games throughout the season (like last year’s Oregon team), Ohio State’s initial loss tends to matter less. That’s because the CFP committee doesn’t want to see rematches in the Playoff between two teams that remained highly ranked — unless, of course, it’s two SEC teams. Cue eye roll.

Losing to a highly ranked opponent clearly positions Ohio State behind the other team, but losing to an unranked opponent means Ohio State had a bad day.

Take Ohio State’s loss to Purdue in 2018 compared to its loss to Michigan in 2021 as examples. Here, we have another instance where the transitive property doesn’t apply in college football. Losing to a bad team does not mean that the losing team is worse than the bad team. No one would argue that Purdue was a better team than Ohio State in 2018. The Boilermakers finished the season 6-7, including a 5-4 conference mark. Ohio State, meanwhile, wrapped the season with Purdue as its only loss. Ultimately, the Buckeyes beat Washington in the Rose Bowl.

Meanwhile, against Michigan, two teams with similar records and rankings were essentially racked-and-stacked against one another. In short, a loss meant Ohio State was the comparatively worse team in 2021.

Perhaps it’s because teams like Purdue are not in the consideration set for the College Football Playoff year in and year out. When Michigan played Iowa for the Big Ten Championship last year, there was only discussion of Michigan wins and they’re in. There was little consideration of the Hawkeyes making a Playoff run. We saw a similar discussion, or lack thereof, around Northwestern in 2020.

Some of that has to do with the record. The Hawkeyes had two regular-season, in-conference losses. It would be hard to make an argument for them to go to the CFP. But branding plays a big part, too — and for brands as big as Ohio State, the story tends to revolve around them. Again, the narrative around the loss to Purdue was how Ohio State had a bad day.

This brings us to expectations. The over-under for Ohio State regular season wins is just 10.5, which is absurdly low. The Buckeyes are one of just six teams favored to win all their games and the only team in the Big Ten.

Knock on wood, but Ryan Day has not dropped the ball on regular season games in the same way Urban Meyer seemed to. Sure, losses for both coaches have been few and far between, but it takes a high level of discipline to do what Day has in his tenure at Ohio State. The closest Day has come to such a loss, in many ways, was the Buckeyes’ loss to Oregon last season — and even that is a stretch.

The curse of having a team as great as Ohio State is that anything less than 11 regular season wins means a disappointing year. While the CFP committee might forgive an early loss to a Notre Dame team over the course of a season, Ohio State fans will remember. And, as a result, Saturday is a must-win for the fanbase.

Moreover, it’s a heck of a lot easier to make the College Football Playoff as an undefeated conference champion.

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Aug 31, 2022

Columbus, Ohio State welcome NCAA in hopes of hosting another Women’s Final Four
1ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Greater Columbus Sports Commission on Twitter @ColumbusSports

The Greater Columbus Sports Commission welcomes the NCAA in a site visit, part of the process to secure a spot on the 2027-31 calendar.

Apr. 1, 2018, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Mississippi State Bulldogs sat level at 58-58 with three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The Fighting Irish inbounded the ball, finding guard Arike Agunbowale who drained a three, sending a sellout crowd to its feet and earning Notre Dame their second National Championship. Now, in 2022, Columbus is trying to earn a second championship of its own, bidding for another spot on the NCAA Final Four calendar.

Tuesday, the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, a group responsible for elevating sports in — and attracting sports to — Central Ohio, ended a two-day tour of the city with an NCAA Site Committee. Columbus is one of seven finalist cities working towards earning one of the five available National Championship Final Four tournaments from 2027 to 2031.

“We were very proud of the tournament that was here in 2018,” said Linda Logan, CEO of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission. “We all know that we can never rest on our laurels. So, as a community, and the team that’s surrounding us today, they really put their arms together to elevate the experience, we’ve been able to showcase a lot of things that are new.”

During the site visit, the commission took the NCAA committee through new spots around the city. New professional soccer stadium Lower.com Field, the home of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew, the new Hilton Tower opening in two weeks, and a trail of other updates highlighted by tour guides with stickers placed around the city; all located at renovations and additions since the last time the city hosted the NCAA.

In 2018, Columbus sold out all three games, rolled out a literal red carpet (for the first time in tournament history), and broke market ratings and social media engagement numbers, helping the continued growth of women’s basketball.

When you look at the growth and trajectory of women’s sports in the last 10-15 years, specifically the women’s basketball championship and our women’s Final Four,” said Lynn Holzman, Vice President for NCAA Women’s Basketball. “We continue to be very very bullish around what’s happening around our championship.”

Part of that bullishness is what the NCAA committee asks of potential hosts. Columbus, and the six other finalists, are all on board with hosting not only the Division I championship but Divisions II and III. In 2016, Indianapolis, Indiana played host to all three NCAA championships, with Dallas, TX following suit in 2023.

If chosen, Columbus could become the third city to host all three. It gives student-athletes from each division the chance at a Division I experience – playing in an arena and all the fanfare that comes along with it.

There is a slight wrinkle in the process. Ohio is hosting another Women’s Final Four, in Cleveland, Ohio in 2024. It doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, as there’s no known rule within the committee to avoid a certain state due to frequency. However, a six-year gap between the 2018 Columbus edition and Cleveland’s 2024 hosting could mean that Columbus is scheduled to host a final, but not till later in the five-year planning process.

Even so, the tournament bid has something that not a lot of other cities do – the backing of the Ohio State University.

“The Ohio State University (note I used the correct title there) they have a great track record in supporting NCAA championships and obviously have a very successful athletic program,” said Holzman. “With the leadership of its president, Gene Smith its athletic director, they’ve continued to invest and support NCAA championships and also in particular the women’s basketball championship.”

In December 2021, Ohio State, in partnership with Nationwide Arena, hosted the NCAA Women’s Volleyball National Championship. The Buckeyes were also part of the 2018 basketball finals and have recently hosted bowling and swimming & diving collegiate title events.

In addition to the Buckeyes are the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League. After all, the games would be hosted in the Blue Jackets’ arena, a venue that Nationwide Arena leadership sees as a space for the community to highlight the city. The arena’s going through updates, as evidenced by Tuesday’s media availability with the sound of construction on the suite levels as the tour came to its end.

By the time any games would tip, the arena is likely to have updates that aren’t even planned yet with the first games not happening for at least five years.

It is a long game when bidding on a tournament of this magnitude, but the city could know soon where they stand in the running. Columbus was halfway through the site visit process, with only a few cities remaining for the NCAA selection committee.

Columbus is competing with San Antonio, Dallas, Tampa, Portland, Sacramento, and Indianapolis to host.

In mid-November, the final seven cities descend on Indianapolis, Indiana to make their final presentations. From there, the committee decides the tournament’s fate. It could take days or weeks for a decision to be handed down and longer to become public. Either way, by the end of 2022, Columbus should know where they stand.

If 2018 is any measure of Columbus’ chances of hosting again, they make a compelling argument to run the tournament back in Central Ohio.

“We could not do it without communities, hosts, and places like Columbus that have supported this championship in the past,” said Holzman. “As we look forward to the future, we’re excited about what that holds.”

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Aug 31, 2022

Hangout in the Holy Land Podcast: Previewing Michigan in 2022, Ohio State’s season opener vs. Notre Dame
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Buckeyes are set to kick off their season this weekend against the Fighting Irish.

The latest episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s flagship podcast ‘Hangout in the Holy Land’ is here! Join LGHL’s co-managing editor Gene Ross alongside his co-host Josh Dooley as they cover everything from football to basketball to recruiting and more!

Listen to the episode and subscribe:

Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio

On this week’s episode, Gene and Josh wrap up their Big Ten season previews with everyone’s favorite reigning conference champions: the Michigan Wolverines. From there on the focus is all on Week 1, where Ohio State will kick of its season with a massive opener in Columbus against Notre Dame. The Buckeyes’ offense is expected to keep on humming under C.J. Stroud and his supporting cast of Uber-talented running backs and receivers, but can Jim Knowles successfully turn around an OSU defense that has been dreadful for a few years in a row? What exactly will the Fighting Irish bring to Ohio Stadium on Saturday?

“Hangout in the Holy Land” will be back to two episodes per week during the regular season, with an episode before and after each Ohio State game to give you all the preview and recap content you may need. Be sure to download and listen in wherever you get your podcasts, and leave us a review on Apple to let us know your thoughts and how we can make things even better!

You can also follow us on Twitter @HolyLandPod, where we will want to hear from you guys even more! If there’s anything you’d like us to talk about on the show, @ us and let us know!

As always, Go Bucks.

Connect with the Podcast:
Twitter: @HolyLandPod

Connect with Gene:
Twitter: @Gene_Ross23

Connect with Josh
Twitter: @jdooleybuckeye

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Aug 31, 2022

Why is this News? All the articles and tweets Buckeye fans need for August 31, 2022
Matt Tamanini 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

All the Buckeye news thats fit to re-print.

Look, we get it. Your days are busy and you don’t have time to read all of the stories and tweets from the three dozen websites dedicated to covering Ohio State athletics, or the 237 Buckeye beat writers churning out hot takes and #content on a daily basis. But that’s ok, that’s what your friends at Land-Grant Holy Land are here for.

Monday through Friday, we’ll be collecting all of the articles, tweets, features, interviews, videos, podcasts, memes, photos, and whatever else we stumble across on the interwebz and putting them in our daily “Why is this News?” article. That way, you’ll have a one-stop shop for all of the most important Buckeye news, jokes, and analysis.

You’re welcome!

For your Earholes...

Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio

Ask LGHL

Introducing ‘Ask LGHL,’ asking and answering questions throughout the football season
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land

LGHL Asks: Buckeye fans predict how Ohio State’s season will go; needless to say, they think it will go well.
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land

On the Gridiron

Three Takeaways as Buckeyes ramp up for Notre Dame (paywall)
Austin Ward, Dotting the Eyes

‘This team is hungry’: OSU ready for opener vs. No. 5 Notre Dame
Bill Rabinowitz, The Columbus Dispatch

Practice Report: Confident Buckeyes locked in, set to unveil offseason changes in opener
Spencer Holbrook, Lettermen Row

Presser Bullets: Ryan Day Says Ohio State “Wants to Be Great” and Has “A Lot to Prove,” Jim Knowles Says Buckeye Defense Is “100% Ready” for Notre Dame
Griffin Strom, Eleven Warriors

Other than Clemson, I feel like Barrett stole my predictions!

Official 2022 college football picks:

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Clemson
4. Utah
First two out: Georgia and Baylor

Ohio State over Alabama for College Football Playoff national championship

Heisman: C.J. Stroud
Coach of the Year: Kyle Whittinghamhttps://t.co/H2Fh55cYlN pic.twitter.com/lURbZYno8y

— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) August 30, 2022

Ohio State names Kyle McCord backup quarterback for Notre Dame
Joey Kaufman, The Columbus Dispatch

Jim Knowles, Buckeyes expecting defensive line to ‘attack,’ have major impact (paywall)
Spencer Holbrook, Lettermen Row

Knowles notes: Ohio State DC on preparing for Notre Dame’s first-time starting QB
Dave Biddle, Bucknuts

⁰@sonnystyles_ is officially #BIA pic.twitter.com/scyZVDGrLm

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 31, 2022

Will Allen, Michael Doss to unveil sculpture to honor 2002 OSU team
Colin Gay, The Columbus Dispatch

Members of 2002 Ohio State football team to appear on ‘College GameDay’
Colin Gay, The Columbus Dispatch

Column: Big Ten needs to stop letting Notre Dame have its cake and eat it too
Jami Jurich, Land-Grant Holy Land

Jim Knowles is such a weird dude, and I love it.

here's the call to let @tommyike41's mom he's a Buckeye Captain pic.twitter.com/ywAF7JdCzl

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 30, 2022

Column: The Buckeyes won’t crumble under pressure this season and this is why
Megan Husslein, Land-Grant Holy Land

C.J. Stroud’s legs could unlock even more for potent Ohio State offense (paywall)
Bill Landis, Dotting the Eyes

You’re Nuts: Who scores the first touchdown of the season for Ohio State?
Brett Ludwiczak and Meredith Hein, Land-Grant Holy Land

51 Ohio State Players Make Initial 53-Man Rosters for 2022 NFL Season
Dan Hope, Eleven Warriors

Cardale Jones in mentorship role for Ohio State commit, prospect
Matt Parker, Lettermen Row

On the Hardwood

Column: Make Covelli Center the home of Ohio State women’s basketball
Thomas Costello, Land-Grant Holy Land

Here's 1st @BigTenNetwork hoops ad.

Honestly, some amazing performances here. From the understated (Thad Matta on "the tiny hot dog things") to the overstated (@TomCrean with the clipboard and @CoachTubbySmith 's final "ever") - it is just brilliant.https://t.co/C5fIHdELZa

— Dave Revsine (@BTNDaveRevsine) August 30, 2022

Outside the Shoe and Schott

Men’s Soccer: Wootton Named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week
Gaurav Law, The Lantern

And now for something completely different...

This one gets me every time.

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Aug 31, 2022

Five-star defensive end from California to visit this weekend
Bret Favachio via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

861332E5_477B_46A9_BBCF_52DF21695BDA.0.jpeg

Matayo Uiagalelei | 247Sports

The Buckeyes will play host to yet another big-time visitor on Saturday with a five-star making his way to Columbus from California.

Just a few days after learning that 2023 five-star defensive end Keon Keeley of Berkeley Prep (FL) would be in attendance for this weekend’s contest against Notre Dame, another highly-coveted defensive prospect was confirmed as a visitor on Tuesday. Plus, head coach Ryan Day briefly discussed the upcoming recruiting weekend in Columbus.

Uiagalelei to visit for ND game

As expected, Ohio State will indeed get a weekend visit from 2023 five-star defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei of St. John Bosco (CA) as confirmed on Tuesday by 247Sports Greg Biggins.

West Coast recruiting analyst @GregBiggins has story on @Bucknuts247 on 5-star DE Matayo Uiagalelei visiting #OhioState this weekend for the Notre Dame game. VIPhttps://t.co/9pqFzZzCno

— Bill Kurelic (@Bill_Kurelic) August 30, 2022

The weekend visit from Uiagalelei to the Buckeyes campus will be the first trip to Columbus since taking an official visit to the program back in June. That means the upcoming stop at Ohio State will be on the Bellflower natives own dime, further showing the major interest he has in the program.

Uiagalelei is part of a highly-coveted trio of defensive lineman for 2023 that includes the aforementioned Keeley and four-star EDGE Damon Wilson of Venice (FL) that will get a first hand viewing of the Buckeyes new look defense. A positive visit for Ohio State would be one that could ultimately give them some momentum in this recruitment with Alabama, Oregon, and USC also very much in-play.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pounder is currently graded as a Top 10 prospect in the class at No. 8 overall, Uiagalelei also slots in as the second highest graded edge defender and the third best prospect from the state of California.

Day talks recruiting weekend

It has been no secret for some time now that the weekend contest against Notre Dame would be a major recruiting event for the Buckeyes. It seems that each passing day another blue-chip prospect gets added to the visitor list and head coach Ryan Day noted as much on Tuesday when meeting with the media.

“We are going to have a big number here,” Day said. “We have a lot of people flying in from different parts of the country. They play on Friday night, and they’re able to come in on Saturday because it’s a night game, so this is unique that way, and we have big numbers.”

Among the expected visitors aside from the three mentioned above, Ohio State will also 20 Buckeye pledges and numerous elite level 2024 prospects including five-star linebacker Sammy Brown of Jefferson (GA), five-star athlete Joshisa Trader of Chaminade-Madonna Prep (FL), and five-star wide receiver Ryan Wingo of St. Louis University (MO), among many others.

“I think most of the conversation leading up to the game has been the recruiting. Now it’s time to go play the game and just allow them the opportunity to see what an atmosphere at Ohio State is like, playing in Ohio Stadium. It’s a top 10 matchup, ESPN game, you know, just the whole atmosphere, just take it all in and then picture themselves being on that field.”

Quick Hits

According to Travis Branham of 247Sports, 2023 four-star small forward Dailyn Swain of Columbus Africentric Early College (OH) will be making his commitment on Friday at 5:00 p.m. EST. The 6-foot-6, 170-pounder will make his choice between Arizona State, Arkansas, Clemson, Xavier, and Ohio State.

Aug 30, 2022

LGHL Asks: Buckeye fans predict how Ohio State’s season will go; needless to say, they think it will go well.
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

They also pinpoint which position group they think will show the most improvement.

Every day for the entirety of the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.

Last week, we asked you, the brilliant, incredibly insightful, stunningly beautiful, and overall good people of Buckeye Nation, what you thought the Ohio State football season would look like. Our friends at SB Nation Reacts compiled your responses and, I’ve gotta say, I love you, you easily exciteable group of homers!

Question: How do you think OSU’s season will go?

I’m not going to lie, when our annual LGHL staff predictions article comes out later this week, I too will be picking the Buckeyes to win the national championship, but I am a little surprised by how big of a margin there is between winning the natty and losing in the final.

Given how snake-bitten the fan base has been in the last few years, I thought that there would be at least a certain segment of the fandom who would consciously be guarding against setting themselves up for potential disappointment. However, I suppose the excitement of a new, confident defensive coaching staff and the return of the best offense in the sport is enough to get people over whatever psychological hangups that they might have.

I love that a combined 95% of the survey respondents have the Buckeyes at least making it to the College Football Playoffs. To be completely honest, I think at this point, it should be considered not only a disappointing season but an outright failure of a season if Ohio State doesn’t make the CFP.

Now, those types of years are bound to happen on occasion — not even Alabama makes the playoff every year (although they’re pretty darn close) — but the way that Ryan Day and company recruit, it should be considered the base minimum every year for OSU to make the playoffs. If you want to be considered in the same echelon as Alabama, it’s gotta start there.

Question 2: Which position group will have the biggest improvement?

Unlike the first question — which I knew what the top answer would be — I was unsure of how this one would shake out. New defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is also the Buckeyes’ linebacker coach, so that makes sense, but he is also known for his safety-focused schemes, which I thought might have pushed them a bit higher in the rankings.

The defensive ends are an interesting selection though, because — other than the wide receivers — that group is probably the most talent-laden in terms of recruiting profile, but they just haven’t been able to put it together since Chase Young departed for the NFL. So I could have seen Buckeye fans place them higher.

But, when it came down to it, more Ohio State fans went with the linebackers than the safeties and ends combined. I hope y’all are right!

Aug 30, 2022

Stick to Sports Podcast: Should Notre Dame be allowed to play Big Ten teams? Do they have the smuggest fans?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Matt and Jami also discuss their typical college football watching traditions and expectations for the game.

Land-Grant Holy Land’s Stick to Sports is unlike any podcast you’ve heard on the Ohio State beat. Your hosts, Matt Tamanini and Jami Jurich, will (of course) talk Ohio State sports, but the primary focus of the show will be on what’s going on around the periphery, such as weird/funny happenings in college football and the sports world at large, as well as other things that keep us interested in between games.

Listen to the episode and subscribe:

Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio

On today’s episode, Matt and Jami geek out that the college football season is finally here and the Buckeyes will be back on the field in a matter of days. They discuss their normal football-watching setups, how much of Week 0 they consumed, and their feelings about the Notre Dame game coming up on Saturday.

They also discuss how they feel about Fighting Irish fans’ general level of smugness and how it compares to that of the fans of TTUN. They also dive into whether ND should be allowed to play Big Ten teams after spurning invitations to join the league multiple times in the past two decades.

Then, as they are wont to do, they share a couple of pop culture recommendations.

Jami’s Recommendation: “A League of Their Own” series on Prime Video
Matt’s Recommendation: Season 2 of “Only Murders in the Building” (especially the finale) on Hulu

Connect with Jami Jurich
Twitter: @JamiJur ich

Connect with Matt Tamanini
Twitter: @BWWMatt

Theme music provided by www.bensound.com

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Aug 30, 2022

Column: Make Covelli Center the home of Ohio State women’s basketball
1ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Photo by Graham Stokes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

How volleyball shows what could be possible for basketball.

Friday night, the Covelli Center, tucked right behind the scoreboard of Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, hosted the first Ohio State Women’s Volleyball match of the season. The No. 7 Buckeyes welcomed the No. 2-ranked Texas Longhorns for the first of two games over the weekend. While the Buckeyes lost Friday and Saturday, the atmosphere and energy made a basketball writer jealous. But there’s a way to fix it: put the Ohio State women’s basketball team in Covelli for their home court.

Before there’s too much said on this topic, this is not an attempt at St. John’s Arena erasure. Land-Grant Holy Land has a rich history of being on the side of the house former men’s basketball coach and athletic director Lynn St. John built, but we’re dealing with a more realistic idea in 2022.

While the volleyball results didn’t fall Ohio State’s way, the Covelli Center was electric. Before the first serve, a capacity crowd of 3,700 held up scarlet glow sticks in a pitch black arena, captured by the Big Ten Network below.

.@OhioStateWVB fans showed up in a Top Ten @NCAAVolleyball matchup vs. Texas pic.twitter.com/E5jPA3TMe4

— Ohio State on BTN (@OhioStateOnBTN) August 27, 2022

In that crowd were members of the women’s basketball team. Here are a few reasons why head coach Kevin McGuff’s side should pack up and head down to Covelli too.

Atmosphere

The most obvious is the atmosphere. For anyone that’s been in the Schottenstein Center to watch the Buckeyes, it’s a hollow cavern made more for concerts and Monster Jam events than collegiate competition.

Even with a covered nosebleed section, there are large gaps of empty seats for a team that has 16 Big Ten regular season titles — six more than anyone else in the conference. There’s no home court advantage when the arena can’t get filled with noise. When it can’t fill with noise, it’s not an environment that attracts casual fans.

For casual fans, it’s not exactly an atmosphere that brings you back. Even with the media and arena teams doing an amazing job of having games, creative engagement on the videoboard and more to keep all ages connected, the Schott is a place where a newcomer can get lost easily.

Access is key. The Covelli Center corridor is what you see above the court. Instead of trying to find the right stairwell or an escalator that probably isn’t going the direction you want, everything is within close proximity. Unless you like the excess thousands of steps you get at the Schott, the Covelli Center is central and easy to get around.

Currently, games feature a crowd of devoted fans, friends and family. Every so often the band joins the fun and a few rows of the student section get filled. In the 2021-22 championship season, only twice did Ohio State bring in more than Covelli’s 3,700 capacity. A loss against the Michigan Wolverines and a convincing senior day victory against the Wisconsin Badgers.

In 16 home games last season, the Buckeyes averaged 3,274 spectators per game. Put that amount of fans in the Covelli center, with its more inviting and what real estate agents would call “cozy” confines, it would help with the next point.

Home Court Advantage

With games played at Covelli, where people feel part of the action, more people will want to attend. When more people attend, it does a couple things.

First, it allows less opposing fans into the building. No one watches a Duke men’s basketball game to hear visiting fans cheering against the home team. When Ohio State welcomes rivals like Michigan, or what will happen this year when the Tennessee Volunteers come to town, it becomes a game of which team has more fans.

Ohio State fans, family of players, students and alumni would much rather have a large crowd of scarlet than orange or Michigan yellow in the stands. Create an allotment for the team’s family, students, the general public and then some for the visiting team. More than likely it’ll be the Buckeyes receiving more representation in the seats.

Even better, make a devoted student section and get it filled game in and game out, something that isn’t happening today.

Second, it creates demand. When there are less seats available for a building that gives the home team a boost of crowd energy, the demand is higher. It goes back to the old saying, “people want what they can’t have.”

If there are situations where the demand for tickets warrants it, then sure, open up the Schott. Better yet, open St. John’s for Michigan every season that the building still stands. Make it even more of an event that people can circle on their calendars.

Player’s Choice

A final element that should be a large slice of the “why Ohio State women’s basketball should play at the Covelli Center” pie chart are the players themselves. Last season, the Buckeyes faced the Cincinnati Bearcats at Covelli. After the game, when asked by the media about the Covelli Center, players liked playing there.

The facilities are newer and its built exclusively for college athletics. The Buckeyes began playing there for closed door games during the height of the pandemic. Having fans in attendance heightened it for those competing.

Also, a small benefit to the players, and a lone positive for media folks covering, is the player interview environment. Currently, at the Schottenstein Center, select players and coach McGuff meet the media in a hallway that’s usually interrupted with arena crew breaking down for the next event or the occasional men’s basketball player leaving their area of the Schott.

At the Covelli Center, there’s a dedicated media room that doubles as a film space for teams. In it, a player can stand behind a podium and answer questions uninterrupted. A little detail that makes the moment feel more professional.

Whether the Buckeyes stay in their current arena, move to Covelli or continue to split their time every now and then, Ohio State is a team that’s shown that they’re deserving of being a hot ticket in town for sports fans.

Its time for the players to know that when they stop onto the court.

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