Spring football showcased how much talent Ohio State has on its 2024 roster, but two of the biggest question marks surrounding this year’s Buckeyes. Quarterback and offensive line have been the biggest positions of concern for Ohio State dating back to this time last season, and that didn’t change this spring. While Will Howard still looks like the frontrunner to start at quarterback for the Buckeyes, our opportunities to watch him throw this spring left us wanting more. And it’s clear Ohio...

Ohio State’s spring game will be headlined by a quarterback competition for the second year in a row. While Will Howard entered the spring as the frontrunner to start at quarterback, the competition has heated up over the past five weeks. Not only is Devin Brown pushing Howard for the starting job, but true freshman Julian Sayin is becoming a real factor in the competition, adding intrigue to Saturday’s spring game as each of them looks to make their case that they should be Ohio State’s...

There’s been no shortage of Ohio State football and basketball happenings over the past week. On the gridiron, Ohio State has now completed 10 of its 15 spring practices, highlighted by its Student Appreciation Day scrimmage on Saturday. Jeremiah Smith and C.J. Hicks are among the Buckeyes turning heads on the practice field while quarterback and offensive line remain Ohio State’s biggest question marks with a week-and-a-half of spring ball to go. Who will coach the running backs is no longer...

The offseason is officially underway for both Ohio State basketball teams. Ohio State’s men’s basketball season ended Tuesday with the Buckeyes’ loss to Georgia in the NIT quarterfinals while the women’s basketball season concluded with an upset defeat to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. While both teams had hopes of continuing their seasons further, the focus for both teams now turns to the offseason – particularly what they will do in the transfer portal to bolster their...

Ohio State men’s basketball has a new head coach while Ohio State football has an unexpected opening for a running backs coach. Both teams have championship expectations. The Ohio State basketball coaching search ended over the weekend when Jake Diebler was promoted from interim coach to head coach. While Diebler has never been a full-time head coach before, making it anyone’s guess how he will ultimately fare as a long-term head coach, Ohio State is projecting nothing but confidence in...

It’s a season-defining week for Ohio State men’s basketball. The Buckeyes are headed to the Big Ten Tournament with a chance to earn their way into the NCAA Tournament, but they’ll need to win at least two games in Minneapolis – which means beating an equally desperate Iowa team and a top-15-ranked Illinois team – to have a real shot of landing a spot in the bracket on Selection Sunday. Meanwhile, Ohio State’s search for its next head coach continues to unfold behind the scenes. Florida...

Ohio State doesn’t have as many holes to fill this spring as it usually does, but there’s still plenty to talk about after the Buckeyes’ first spring practice. The biggest headlines from the first day of spring practice included Sonny Styles’ move to linebacker, Luke Montgomery starting the spring as the first-team right guard and Devin Brown getting his shot to compete for the starting quarterback job. Tuesday also brought Chip Kelly’s first press conference as Ohio State’s offensive...

The start of spring football is less than one week away, Ohio State men’s basketball could play its way back into NCAA Tournament contention, a frontrunner has emerged in Ohio State’s coaching search and the NFL Scouting Combine is underway. That gives us a lot of ground to cover on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, and we discussed it all in a little more than 80 minutes. With Ohio State football set to begin spring practices Tuesday, we start this week’s RPW by previewing the...

There’s finally something positive to talk about with Ohio State men’s basketball. After struggling through most of January and February in Chris Holtmann’s final weeks as head coach, the Buckeyes started Jake Diebler’s interim coaching tenure off with a bang by upsetting No. 2 Purdue, 73-69, to earn their biggest win of the season in their first game following Holtmann’s firing. Could that win spark a late run back into NCAA Tournament contention for the Buckeyes? We assess what would need...

What will Chip Kelly bring to Ohio State’s offense? We called in our X’s and O’s expert to help us break it down. Eleven Warriors football scheme analyst Kyle Jones joins us on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays for an in-depth conversation on what Ohio State’s offense could look like with Kelly calling the plays as the Buckeyes’ new offensive coordinator. Our conversation with Jones touches on a variety of topics related to Kelly’s hiring including how he has built consistently elite...

A lot has happened in Ohio State football over the last five weeks, and Ryan Day still has to hire at least one more coach for the 2024 season. Ohio State reporters had their first chance to ask Day about everything that’s happened as he held his first press conference since the Cotton Bowl on Wednesday, giving us a lot to talk about on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. We start, however, by talking about the one answer we didn’t get on Wednesday: Whether or not Bill O’Brien will...

We begin this week’s episode by talking about the big news of the week up in Ann Arbor, where Sherrone Moore is now the head coach following Jim Harbaugh’s departure. While we agree that Moore was the right choice to succeed Harbaugh, we foresee a challenging season ahead for the defending national champions as they replace their head coach, several other key assistants and the majority of their starters from last season. In Columbus, meanwhile, expectations are only growing for the 2024 Ohio...

Ohio State’s big start to the offseason got even bigger over the past week. The Buckeyes added the best safety in the country to their roster with the transfer of former Alabama safety Caleb Downs. They added the top quarterback in the 2024 recruiting class with the transfer of former Alabama quarterback Julian Sayin. And they added an offensive coordinator with impressive qualifications in Bill O’Brien. All of that speaks to the sense of urgency Ryan Day and Ohio State are feeling as the...

The Ohio State football team’s 2024 roster is loaded – especially on defense. With TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Donovan Jackson, Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, Denzel Burke, Jordan Hancock and Lathan Ransom all choosing to stay at Ohio State for another year rather than enter the 2024 NFL draft, Ohio State’s roster could be the best in the country. The Buckeyes’ defense, in particular, looks like it should be even better than it was this past season. Ohio State’s offense...

The past week has been full of both good and bad news for Ohio State. Michigan won the national championship on Monday, forcing Buckeye fans to watch their archrival celebrate college football’s biggest prize. On a better note for the Buckeyes, Ohio State added three key pieces via the transfer portal to its offense over the past week: Former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard, former Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins and Alabama offensive lineman Seth McLaughlin. We begin this week’s...

Ohio State’s offensive performance in the Cotton Bowl was unlike any we had seen since Ryan Day came to Columbus. The Buckeyes’ three points and 203 yards of offense against Missouri were both by far the worst totals put up by an Ohio State offense in any game since OSU’s 2016 College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Clemson. That game, in which the Buckeyes failed to score any points, led to an offensive staff shakeup that initially brought Day to Ohio State as the Buckeyes’ co-offensive...

Ohio State’s 2023 season finale has arrived. While the Buckeyes aren’t playing for a national championship as hoped, they still have an intriguing matchup to wrap up the year as they take on No. 9 Missouri in the Cotton Bowl on Friday. While the game might mean more to Missouri than it does to Ohio State, the Buckeyes are still plenty motivated to conclude their season with a victory to take some momentum into 2024. A win over the Tigers won’t come easily, however, as Missouri possesses what...

A crazy National Signing Day meant we had to re-record Real Pod Wednesdays. Ohio State signed all but one player it was supposed to – that is, assuming Jeremiah Smith ultimately submits his National Letter of Intent, which he hadn‘t yet as of Wednesday night – but the twists and turns of the day, which unfolded amid Ryan Day’s press conference, were such that we felt we had to record a fresh episode, having previously prerecorded on Tuesday, to talk about everything that happened...

With one week to go until National Signing Day and two weeks to go until the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State is simultaneously preparing to play its final game of the 2023 season and working to fill holes on its 2024 roster. We start this week‘s episode with some Cotton Bowl-related conversation after speaking with 11 Ohio State players on Tuesday. We talk about how the initial fears of mass opt-outs appear to have been overblown and discuss Ohio State’s apparent move toward starting Devin Brown at...

Now that Kyle McCord is in the transfer portal, the biggest question surrounding Buckeye football is who will replace him as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. Plan A might be bringing in a transfer quarterback – and we see Washington State’s Cam Ward as Option A – but we also think Devin Brown and Lincoln Kienholz are both viable candidates to start next season if the Buckeyes don’t land a top passer from the portal. We spend the first 30 minutes of this week’s show talking all about why...

It’s not quite as easy to pinpoint what went wrong against Michigan this time around. In 2021, Ohio State lost because it couldn’t run the ball or stop the run. In 2022, Ohio State lost because it gave up five touchdowns of 45 yards or more. This year, the Buckeyes needed to be just a little bit better across the board. Unfortunately for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes, there’s no moral victories in The Game. Ohio State was more competitive against Michigan this year than it was the last two years,...

It’s all about The Game on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. Typically, we start each week’s episode of RPW by breaking down the previous week’s game before previewing the next opponent. This week, however, we jump right into previewing Ohio State’s season-defining rivalry game with Michigan, weaving in a few takeaways from the Buckeyes’ 37-3 win over Minnesota but otherwise focusing fully on the impending clash of titans in Ann Arbor. With the College Football Playoff set to expand...

Ohio State still has to beat Minnesota this week, but we’re already looking ahead to The Game. While the Buckeyes are keeping their focus on the task at hand of beating the Golden Gophers, we aren’t expecting Ohio State to face much resistance from Minnesota in the final home game of the season. Next week’s game at Michigan, however, will make or break the Buckeyes’ season – and we get our best look before The Game at the Wolverines’ strengths and weaknesses in their 24-15 win over Penn State...

Ohio State might be making a habit of winning ugly, but it still covered the spread in Piscataway. The Buckeyes had their most competitive game ever against Rutgers this year but still came away with a 35-16 win, and we felt there was more good than bad to take away from Ohio State’s performance – even if it wasn’t the most prolific day for the Buckeyes’ passing offense, run defense or special teams. We begin this week’s episode by sharing all of our takeaways from the Buckeyes’ performance...