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...

Ohio State football is the No. 1 team in the country as it enters the final month of the regular season while Ohio State basketball season begins next week. We talk about both sports on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, though our discussion mostly centers around the football Buckeyes, who earned the top spot in the initial College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night. We think that ranking is well-deserved, and we explain why – and why it does matter – on this week’s...

Ohio State’s defense keeps getting better. The Buckeyes had their most impressive defensive performance of the season yet as they held Penn State to just one touchdown and one third-down conversion in a 20-12 victory that was good for Ohio State’s second top-10 win of the season. We begin this week’s episode by discussing what impressed us most in Ohio State’s win over the Nittany Lions – including another memorable performance by JT Tuimoloau, how Jordan Hancock and Jermaine Mathews Jr....

Ohio State played one of its most complete games of the season against Purdue, but a much bigger test awaits this week against Penn State. We spend the first half of this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays breaking down what impressed us most from Ohio State’s 41-7 rout of Purdue, including the performance of Dallan Hayden (and why Ohio State should scrap its plan to redshirt Hayden), more creativity in the run game on offense and the play of Ohio State’s defensive ends, Cody Simon,...

Ohio State has a defensive-driven team for the first time in Ryan Day’s tenure. Five games into the 2023 season, it’s become increasingly clear that the Buckeyes’ defense is their strength this year. The Buckeyes currently rank in the top 10 nationally in points allowed per game (3rd), yards allowed per play (4th) and yards allowed per game (8th), but their offense – which has perennially ranked among the nation’s best since Day became Ohio State’s head coach in 2019 – ranks just 20th in...

Maryland is better than all but one team Ohio State has played so far this season, but are the Terrapins good enough to actually challenge the Buckeyes for a win? The Buckeyes don’t have any easy games in October, and that starts this week with Maryland, who has won its first five games of the season. We’re not sure the Terrapins are as good as their records and statistics indicate, however, given that they have yet to play a team with a winning record this year. Taulia Tagovailoa will...

We’ve never seen Ryan Day as fired up as he was after Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame on Saturday. Usually calmer and more reserved, Day used both his postgame interview with NBC and his postgame press conference to fire back at Lou Holtz for comments the former Notre Dame coach made one day before the game, in which Holtz predicted that Notre Dame would win and critiqued Day by claiming that “everybody that beats him does so because they are more physical than Ohio State.” We start this...

Ohio State’s first big game of the season has arrived, and the Buckeyes look to be hitting their stride at the right time. The Buckeyes face a big step up in competition this week against Notre Dame, which will serve as this year’s first real test of how good Ohio State actually is. That said, the Buckeyes are entering the game with momentum on their side after looking the part of an elite team in their dominant 63-10 win over Western Kentucky this past weekend. Ohio State’s offense certainly...

Ohio State’s quarterback competition is now complete, but the pressure is increasing for the Buckeyes to find their A-game. Tuesday’s press conference at Ohio State brought the expected news that Kyle McCord would remain the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback going forward, bringing an end to the competition between McCord and Devin Brown that extended into the season. Ryan Day had good reason to shut down the competition and allow the offense to coalesce around one quarterback this week. The...

Ohio State’s first game of the 2023 season gave us plenty to talk about. While the Buckeyes were never in danger of losing and came back from Indiana with a 1-0 record and a Big Ten road win, Ohio State and its fans were left generally unsatisfied with the team’s performance on offense after the Buckeyes scored just two touchdowns in a 23-3 win. That’s exacerbated concerns about whether Ohio State will have the quarterback play, offensive line and running game it needs to have a...

Ohio State finally has a starting quarterback and the 2023 season is about to begin. That gives us plenty of topics for conversation on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. We start today’s show by evaluating Ohio State’s decision to name Kyle McCord the starting quarterback and how likely he is to be the starter all year long. We also assess Ohio State’s indecision at free safety and how much of a concern that could be for the Buckeyes’ defense and explore why Jayden Fielding beat out...

Ohio State’s first game of the 2023 season is 10 days away, but the Buckeyes still don’t have a quarterback. With it now appearing likely that Ohio State’s quarterback competition will continue into the start of the season, we start this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by weighing what we make of the Buckeyes still not picking a starter, when they must settle in on one quarterback and who will hold the edge if the competition continues into the season. Of course, quarterback isn’t the...

While Ohio State hasn’t yet named a new starting quarterback, Real Pod Wednesdays has named a new co-host. In his first episode sharing co-hosting duties with Dan, we introduce you to new Eleven Warriors reporter Andy Anders, who outlines his journey from posting in the 11W forums to becoming a full-time member of the staff. Then, we get into our usual hourlong discussion of the biggest topics in Ohio State sports of the past week, starting with the ongoing quarterback competition and what we...

Ohio State is nearly one week into preseason camp and two more teams are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. That gives us plenty to talk about on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays as Chase Brown joins Dan Hope to discuss the most notable things we’ve seen and heard during the first six days of preseason camp and weigh the pros and cons of the Big Ten continuing to expand by adding Oregon and Washington in addition to USC and UCLA. (Note: This podcast was recorded before Gene Smith...

Ohio State’s current football players are about to return to the practice field while there’s been no shortage of happenings – both good and bad – impacting the Buckeyes on the recruiting trail over the past month. With all of that to talk about as well as a new wave of conference realignment starting, Garrick Hodge returns to Real Pod Wednesdays this week for a discussion on what’s gone well and what hasn’t for Ohio State recruiting in recent weeks, the biggest storylines entering preseason...

This week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays comes to you one day late but from on location in Indianapolis as we react to everything we heard from Ryan Day and the Buckeyes at Wednesday’s Big Ten Media Days. There was plenty to react to on Wednesday, particularly Ryan Day’s suggestion that the Ohio State vs. Michigan game could be played before the final week of the regular season, as well as Day’s latest thoughts on the quarterback competition, praise from Luke Montgomery and other Buckeye...

Ryan Day, Marvin Harrison Jr., Cade Stover and JT Tuimoloau will be in Indianapolis participating in Big Ten Media Days one week from today. We’ll be in Indianapolis too to catch up with those Buckeyes and cover the first official media availability of the preseason for Eleven Warriors. With that in mind, we look ahead to next week’s event on this week’s Real Pod Wednesdays with a discussion on why those Buckeyes were chosen to represent the program and what we expect to be the biggest...

If you could pick only 22 Ohio State football players to go win a game for you against 22 other Ohio State football players, which Buckeyes would you choose? That’s the question we were tasked with answering on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays as we held our annual Eleven Warriors preseason team draft, going head-to-head to pick the best possible lineups for a hypothetical intrasquad game. The ground rules were as follows: Each of us had 22 total picks to draft 11 offensive players...

On the latest edition of Real Pod Wednesdays, we discuss another massive commitment for Ohio State's 2024 class and take a look at what's on the horizon for the Buckeyes. With regular podcast co-host Dan Hope on vacation, resident Eleven Warriors recruiting expert Garrick Hodge joins the show once again as Griffin Strom returns from a trip to Florida. While we usually record the show on Tuesday, the Fourth of July pushed things back a day, so we hope you don't mind a rare Thursday edition of...

The summer official visit season is now over, but more BOOMs could still be coming to Ohio State. Ohio State already landed three big BOOMs from in-state prospects over the past week as quarterback Tavien St. Clair committed to the Buckeyes’ 2025 class last Wednesday and Glenville teammates Bryce West and Damarion Witten joined Ohio State’s 2024 class on Saturday. With Eleven Warriors recruiting reporter Garrick Hodge filling in for Griffin Strom on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays,...

There are plenty of good vibes emanating from the Woody Hayes Athletic Center following its most recent weekend of official visits. While Ohio State hasn’t landed any new commitments yet, the Buckeyes certainly appear to be expecting some soon following a weekend in which they hosted four five-star defensive prospects: defensive ends Dylan Stewart and Eddrick Houston, safety KJ Bolden and cornerback Kobe Black. Landing even one or two of those prospects would be a huge and much-needed boost...

The Big Ten’s new scheduling model should help Ohio State, but it might make for a less entertaining regular season. Following last week’s announcement that the Big Ten will go divisionless and that Michigan will be Ohio State’s only protected annual opponent beginning in 2024, we spend the majority of this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays discussing what we like and what we don’t like about the Big Ten’s new scheduling model and why it should give Ohio State an easier path to both the...

With Ohio State’s 2022-23 year in sports just about complete and a new year of Buckeye sports just a few months away, we decided it was the perfect time to sit down with Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith to talk about the hottest topics in Ohio State sports, college athletics as a whole and the Big Ten. In a 30-minute conversation with Gene Smith to begin this week’s Real Pod Wednesdays, we talk to Ohio State’s athletic director about his expectations for the Buckeye football and...

For the first time since the end of spring practices, we had the opportunity to talk to all of Ohio State’s assistant football coaches on Tuesday. All 10 of Ohio State’s on-field assistants as well as director of sports performance Mickey Marotti met with the media on Tuesday, giving us the opportunity to get updates on every Ohio State position group and how summer workouts are going for the Buckeyes. Just a few hours after finishing up those interviews, we sat down to record this week’s...