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Dan Hope and Andy Anders of Eleven Warriors bring you inside the Ohio State beat every Wednesday with a podcast covering everything you need to know about the Buckeyes.
Note: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been edited for errors.
[Dan Hope]
Welcome into RealPod Wednesdays, Dan Hope joined by Andy Anders, as we are just three days away from the Ohio State spring game. It's a spring game. It's not a spring showcase anymore.
It's a spring game. Ohio State is going to play some actual football, or at least as close to actual football as a spring game traditionally is. Buckeyes will start the game in a FUD tempo, as they call it, as their starters get in there.
You know, big guys like Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs and Sonny Stiles and Carnell Tate were probably not going to see them play a whole lot on Saturday. But we are going to see, you know, everybody else play a lot. And most of the game will be live, full contact football.
But the quarterbacks won't be tackled, but everybody else will be. And I think that speaks to what way this spring has developed for Ryan Day, where, you know, going into the spring, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to have a spring game. He was very concerned about, you know, the toll, the length of the season had taken on his players' bodies and really wanted to prioritize preservation and health over everything else.
But, you know, he said it the last couple of weeks in his press conferences, as the spring progressed, he realized, oh, wait, we play Texas in week one. We need to take advantage of every practice we can get. And so that's really been the focus here over the last couple of weeks.
Ryan Day has even said on Monday, he said, this has been one of the most physical springs we've had since he's been here as head coach. You talk to players, you talk to Ryan Day, something you're hearing a lot about right now is competitiveness, edginess. This is a team, even though they just won a national championship a couple of months ago, they've got their sights set on winning another one.
And there's a lot of players inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center who, yeah, they were a part of a team last year, but they weren't starters on the team last year. They weren't playing big roles on the team last year. And so there's a lot of guys in there.
But even though Ohio State won the national championship last year, they're hungry to do it again because they want to do it when they're the ones starting, they're the ones playing a major role. And so, you know, that seems to really be the tenor around this team here as we get through this final week of spring practice. And now the fans will get their opportunity to see that on Saturday.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, I mean, we've even heard guys that are coming back say, you know, Caleb Downs has said this team hasn't accomplished anything yet. You know, we've heard talks about some some players even want to take the championship banners down for now in the Woody so that they're not living off of what last year's team accomplished. And so there's been a clear motivation and that comes from the top down, like you mentioned, Dan, and they came out and said it in that press conference.
He got a week and a half into spring practice and it's like, yeah, actually, these aren't a ton of experienced guys that we have. We lost a ton of seniors. You know, you're realizing that, like you said, they've got to get ready to play Texas week one.
And we've talked about that before, I think. So this spring game is honestly, there's so much newness with this team and sorting all that out, getting a lot of guys, a lot of reps is going to be critical this Saturday for Ohio State. But it was critical throughout the spring and having that physicality, setting that tone and establishing a new core of leaders because you had all this built in leadership with last year's team.
And it's a component that you don't always talk about as a pundit, as a media member, that leadership is kind of this abstract concept and we're all about reporting the stats and the results and the tangible things. But establishing that new core of player leadership is critical behind the scenes for a football team. And so having those voices be that driving force, who's to say how it's going to play out this fall?
But it's a good sign in the spring that that's the mentality they're taking, that they haven't accomplished anything yet. It's time to get back on that climb up the long mountain that is a year of preparing to try and win a college football national title.
[Dan Hope]
I mean, Ohio State's going to have 15 players most likely selected in the NFL draft in a couple of weeks, so a lot of new faces going to be starring for this team in 2025. And, you know, as Ryan Day, you kind of realize it's like, yeah, there's a few guys on this team who played a lot last year coming back in big roles and they don't need a ton of reps this spring. But there's a lot of other guys that do need those reps.
And that's that's really going to be the focus on Saturday. Saturday probably isn't going to be the Jeremiah Smith show or the Caleb Downs show. It's going to be an opportunity for those guys who are competing for starting jobs, who are competing to play bigger roles, to have a chance to finish the spring on a high note and make a statement.
And that's certainly no more important than it is at the quarterback position right now because this feels like it's very much a quarterback competition. And I think, you know, there's different viewpoints on that. Some people feel like, ah, this is just Ryan Day doing what he does every year.
He's going to, you know, let the competition bleed into August because he doesn't want anybody to transfer out. And Julian Sane is ultimately going to be the guy. But, you know, we were both there on Saturday.
I think really everybody who was there, media members, you know, even students who were there and had the opportunity to watch on Saturday at Student Appreciation Day, I think it was pretty clear agreement that Lincoln Kienholz was the best quarterback on the field at Student Appreciation Day, that he outperformed Julian Sane, who didn't have a great day on Saturday. Now, you know, Ryan Day made the point on Monday, emphasized the fact that it's just one practice. Yes, media were there.
Yes, fans were there. A lot of recruits were there. But at the end of the day, it's still just one practice out of 15 in the spring.
You know, one practice out of 40 leading up to that season opener in Texas when you include preseason camp. And so you never want to read too heavily into one practice. And that's true of this Saturday spring game as well.
But I do think that, you know, this is when you hear Ryan Day say on Monday that this quarterback competition between Sane and Kienholz is pretty much neck and neck right now. Saturday is certainly a big opportunity for each of those guys to try to build momentum in that competition, because it's going to be the last time the Buckeyes go through a real practice for three and a half months. And so Saturday is a big opportunity for both of these guys to kind of make their case for why they should be the starting quarterback this year.
And I think it's especially important for Julian Sane because, you know, it was funny. I was looking back at what we what we were talking about at this time a year ago, going into the spring game. And the big storyline was, has Julian Sane done enough this spring to make a run up a starting job?
Like that's the way he was being talked up at the end of last spring. He had lost his black stripe. He was doing really well.
And it's like, is he going to make this a free man competition with Will Howard and Devin Brown? And then Julian struggled in the spring game. That talk all proved to be a little bit excessive.
And you know, Will Howard, of course, ultimately wins the starting job. The rest is history as he leads Ohio State to a national championship. But it just doesn't feel like Julian has built the same kind of momentum for himself this spring as he was a year ago.
And I think some of that just comes with the added the added expectations. Like a year ago, he was a freshman that nobody's really expecting to apply. And you know, he's turning heads with what he's doing as a freshman in his first spring.
Now he's the redshirt freshman who's expected to be the starting quarterback. That comes with a lot heavier scrutiny on what he's doing. And all of a sudden, whereas a year ago, maybe the focus was just on, oh, that's a nice play by Julian, but he's a freshman, so you expect him to make mistakes.
Now there's more of an intense focus on, ooh, that wasn't a good throw by Julian. If he's gonna be a starting quarterback, he can't do that. And so, you know, I think for Julian, I really think that it would go a long way for him.
Not even just in the competition sense, but I think in terms of his confidence, in terms of giving himself momentum going into the summer, if he can go out there on Saturday and have a strong showing in front of Ohio State fans.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, that was the exact point I was about to make, is I think it's Ryan Day and his coaching staff, and they've said this, for them it's just one data point out of, you know, 15-16 in the spring that they can take and evaluate the state of the competition. And they're gonna get 30 more data points in preseason camp before, you know, somewhere along the way you hope to make a final decision on the quarterback competition. But it's just one small piece of the puzzle when you're talking about it from a coaching perspective.
But from the player perspective, like, this was sort of Julian's chance, first chance in front of a crowd, even if it's just, you know, a couple thousand students in the woody, to show why he's gonna be the guy this fall, or could be the guy this fall. And that's true of all the quarterbacks. And you didn't have, I'm sure he wasn't happy with the showing that he put on.
It wasn't, I don't think all the quarterbacks had a particular, any of the quarterbacks had a particularly fantastic day, but like you and I had said, and like we're saying now on this podcast, it's, Lincoln had the best day and there seems to be pretty much unanimous agreement about that. Now, I think it is very much a mental thing for Julian to then go have a good performance on in front of a much bigger crowd and a much more important setting just for the emotions of it than on that student appreciation day. And even just like as us viewing, as the public viewing, there hasn't been a lot of really good chances for Julian to showcase maybe the strengths that made him the number one quarterback in his class that had him coming in with all that hype because he didn't have a good showing in last year's spring game.
We saw some good things from him in practice, but the public didn't really get to see those things. And when he came in and blatant games and blowouts last year, didn't really do that great either. And so for him, I think it is about getting that confidence that he can do it at the collegiate level and those things.
But, you know, the big, my biggest takeaway from Saturday wasn't that I'm going to anoint a starter or say this guy has taken a lead necessarily, but that it is a very real competition. Like I think I wasn't lending enough credence to the fact that Lincoln Kienholz really could win this job to me. Now I think it's a much more realistic possibility on the table where, you know, if you ask me like to make a choice, if I was forced to make a choice today, I might still pick Julian.
But to me, it's just a much more real competition. And I truly do believe Ryan Day when he says it's neck and neck. Whereas like you said last year, I wasn't, you know, we weren't really thinking that about Devin Brown and Will Howard.
And so it really does come down to that consistency because those flashes that I was one of the main drivers of the Julian Sane train last spring, I think, where I was saying that I really thought he could go out and prove to be Ohio State's best quarterback over the course of the season that, you know, those sorts of things aged poorly, of course. But he, it was the flashes he was showing. It was, he had made some throws that just wowed you and no one else on the roster, despite how deep the quarterback roster really was last spring, was going out and making those throws.
And then it's just the consistency hasn't been there when we've watched it. He can make those plays from time to time, didn't have as many of them on Saturday. But the consistency is what coaches are going to talk about in winning this competition and what I come back to because both those guys are really talented.
And I think where Lincoln maybe could shine above Julian, where Julian could be, you know, he's got that quick release, he might have a naturally stronger arm potentially. Lincoln's got amazing athleticism when you look at, obviously, his high school background, being that three-sport star. I think there's a lot of things he can do with his legs that you would like.
And just general athleticism helps at that position. And so, just as it continues to unfold here, I think my main takeaway from Saturday was really that this is just a very real competition and that both guys have a legitimate shot to go win the thing through the rest of spring and then fall.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, I think to be clear too, when we're talking about this, it's not just like, oh, Julian's not doing everything he needs to do to win the job this spring. A lot of it's Lincoln's development too. Lincoln looks different than he did a year ago.
And I think the highlight of the day really on Saturday was the 45-yard deep ball he had to Carnell Tate, which was really a perfectly thrown ball, beat another very hyped young player in Devin Sanchez. And I think seeing him make a throw like that shows you he has, because that to me has always been the question with Lincoln. We've always known he had the athleticism, but the question has always been of Lincoln, is he an Ohio State caliber passer?
And we still don't know that, but I think you saw enough flashes on Saturday to where you can see he has the potential to be that. And so if he continues to show that he can be that, then Ohio State has to at least consider the possibility that he could be their best quarterback for this season. So like you said, if I was forced to pick right now, I would still predict that Julian Sane will be the starting quarterback.
I will see what I say a week from now after we've seen them play in the spring game, but I still lean toward the likelihood that Julian Sane, the guy who was really being talked up a year ago, the guy who's the number one overall or number one quarterback recruit in his class is going to ultimately win the job. But I do believe this is a real competition. I don't believe that this, we've talked about it in the past, like Justin Fields, that was a competition, no matter how much it was talked up as a competition, it was a formality.
Justin Fields is going to win that job. C.J. Stroud, there was a little bit more legitimacy to the competition in terms of who was in the room and Kyle McCord and Jack Miller, but that one always felt like it was C.J.'s job to lose and he consistently did what he needed to do to go win the job. Like you said, with Will Howard, I had some concerns about Will Howard last spring, but the difference there was this was a guy who had played a lot of football for four years, who they brought in through a transfer portal.
The thing about this competition is none of these guys, including Tavian St. Clair, who I thought Tavian St. Clair looked good on Saturday. Ryan Day did save us a gap right now between Julian Sane, Lincoln Kienholz, and Tavian St. Clair. And so, I mean, Tavian being a freshman, he's still got a long way to go in his development.
He's not really a serious contender in that starting competition right now. But Julian Sane, Lincoln Kienholz, neither of these guys has played a lot. So we can think Julian Sane could be Ohio State's next elite quarterback.
And I still think he absolutely has that potential. We just don't know it yet. And we don't know whether he's going to be ready to be that in a little over four months when Ohio State goes and plays Texas in its first game of the season.
And so that's really what it all boils down to at the end of the day is Ohio State's got to pick the guy who it thinks gives them the best chance to beat Texas in week one. And I don't think they know yet whether Julian Sane is that guy. I think Saturday will not decide this competition.
I think this competition is almost certainly going to go into preseason camp now. But it will at least be one more data point for Ohio State to consider as it goes into the summer and looks at how this competition could potentially unfold in preseason camp. Moving away from the quarterbacks, if we stick on the offensive side of the ball, I think probably the most intriguing position battle going into this spring game outside of quarterback is it right tackle?
And you made an interesting comment to me earlier that you think Austin Searville might be moving into the pole position to be that starting right tackle, which is an interesting comment because I think we both entered spring with the feeling that Philip Daniels was a front runner to be the starting right tackle. I would personally still be in that camp. I think Ian Moore is another guy we've talked about being in that thick of that competition.
But Austin Searville is a guy who's been talked up a lot this spring. Ryan Day has said he thinks that Searville is a guy who's capable of starting at either guard or tackle. It's a guy who played a lot of football last year, filling in on that interior offensive line.
It's a guy who was named an Iron Buckeye this spring, one of just three, along with Jeremiah Smith and Sonny Stiles. And so when you talk about that best five up front, there's certainly a very real possibility that Austin Searville is going to be in that best five. It seems like, going into the spring, we figured his chance of winning a starting job was going to be beating out Luke Montgomery or Tegra Shibola for a starting guard spot.
That's still not out of the question because we saw him taking first team reps at guard on Saturday as well, rotating with Luke and Tegra. That's still a possibility that he could emerge as a starting guard, but it seems like he is getting a real look in that right tackle competition.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, and that's the momentum in particular behind Searville. I don't know if there's any even credence right now, a preference of the coaching staff, where Austin plays between guard and tackle. It's more seemed to be this is a guy that, at least at this stage of the offseason, they want to get on the field in some capacity.
They want to figure out where exactly he fits and the best fit for him on the offensive line. I think it goes back to that best five argument. This might actually not even evolve into a debate between who's the best right tackle between Austin Searville, Ian Moore, and Phillip Daniels.
To me, it could even evolve into something more like, well, would you rather have Tegra Shibola at right guard and Austin Searville at right tackle, or would you rather have Austin Searville at right guard and Phillip Daniels at right tackle? It might even be more of a discussion between who's your best non-Searville right guard option and who's your best non-Searville right tackle option. That's kind of where I see a lot of this going.
For me, that Iron Buckeye means a lot when you're talking about the strength and conditioning staff. When you watch Austin in these spring practices, his body has changed, man. He's slimmed down.
He's a lot leaner. That bodes well. I think it's similar to the body change.
It reminds me of the body change that Josh Fryer underwent from 2023 to 2024, where we had seen him have problems with speed rushers off the edge as he had played tackle throughout his career. He made those body changes specifically to address those concerns in his game. Austin, it's a very different situation, obviously, because he has been a guard his whole career, but it reminds me of those kinds of...
He's training his body, and clearly very well to be named an Iron Buckeye, to play tackle if he needs to. To me, that's where I can very much still see Philip Daniels winning that job, even Ian Moore winning that job, but it is a very interesting competition right now. Just the way the coaching staff has talked about those guys, I don't think we're going to see any final decisions made on the offensive line this spring at all.
I think there's going to be still a lot of ongoing conversation about this come preseason camp, but to me, right now, the best five might very well be a lineup that has Tegra Chabula at right guard and Austin Searvelt at right tackle. We saw that lineup as the first unit we saw in the Student Appreciation Day practice on Saturday. Like you said, there were a ton of different first-team offensive line units that we saw.
Josh Padilla, I think, even got in at center for some work with the ones, which was interesting as they slid Carson over to guard. They're working with a lot of different configurations right now, but to me, that might end up being what's the best five is to put Austin Searvelt at right tackle and keep Tegra Chabula at right guard.
[Dan Hope]
It's a fascinating development because, I think, if we would have talked about a year ago between Luke Montgomery, Tegra Chabula, and Austin Searvelt, which one of those guys would be most likely to become a starting tackle for Ohio State? I think we both 100% would have put Austin Searvelt third on that list. It would have been Tegra or Luke would have been number, probably would have been Tegra at this point a year ago, would have been, because I think he was actually practicing primarily at tackle at this point a year ago before they moved him inside to be the right guard.
I wouldn't have guessed that this would be the conversation. I would have thought it would be more likely to be the opposite conversation and maybe Austin Searvelt's the starting right guard and Tegra Chabula's the starting right tackle. Who knows?
That could still happen. Like you said, a lot of experimentation happening on this offensive line where you have, whether it's Austin Searvelt, playing both guard and tackle, they've talked about Luke Montgomery being able to play multiple positions, Tegra Chabula being able to play multiple positions, Carson Hinsman, like you mentioned, he has experience playing both center and guard. Ian Moore, we've seen him taking reps at both left and right tackles.
So the good news is there's a lot of options here. I think they have a core of eight guys on that offensive line. Those being Ethan Onianwa, Luke Montgomery, Carson Hinsman, Tegra Chabula, Austin Searvelt, Phillip Daniels, Ian Moore, Josh Padilla.
I think they have a core of eight guys on that offensive line that they feel pretty good about. They don't know yet who the best five are, what the best lineup among those guys are. But I think it feels like they have a pretty good core there, which gives them some depth, which as we saw last year, offensive line depth is a crucial thing.
You better have a good six, seven, eighth man because they sure needed it last year. And if those guys hadn't stepped up the way they did at the end of the season, Ohio State would not have won a national championship. And so right now that's like the most important thing is like building that depth, building multiple lineups that you can work with.
And I think that's been a big point of emphasis this spring, but it will be interesting to see like if they go up there for the first series of a spring game and Austin Searvelt's the first team right tackle, that'll be interesting. You know, that'll make you think if it's Phillip Daniels out there and you go, well, maybe the original line of thinking was right. So definitely going to be fascinated.
You know, when we look at the snap counts and all that from a spring game, one of the areas I'm definitely gonna be most fascinated in is to see all the different lineup combinations they use on the offensive line. And you know, even acknowledging that, you know, some of those more experienced guys like Tegra and Carson probably aren't going to take a ton of reps in the spring game. Just to see some of those different lineup combinations they utilize when the first team offense is out there is going to be very interesting to see how that plays out.
I think on the other side of a ball, it's also the trenches that at least for me are going to be the biggest point of focus in the spring game, because we've heard Ryan Day say it two weeks in a row now, the defensive tackle play is not where it needs to be, that they need more guys to step up. You know, I think we saw Caden McDonald have a really good day on Saturday on student appreciation day. I think Edra Houston, hopes remain very high for him, but I think behind them there's still a lot of uncertainty about whether Ohio State has what it needs at defensive tackle.
And I think if guys like Tywon Malone and Jason Moore and Will Smith Jr. you know, want to earn spots in that two-deep and they want to give Ohio State less reason to go bring in guys to replace them out of a transfer portal, I think a good day in the spring game on Saturday would go a long way for them. And the defensive ends as well are also going to be a position to focus on for sure, because you know, again, like Caden Curry, Kenyatta Jackson, I don't think we're going to see those guys play a ton in this game, but you know, it's not like they've been starters. So those guys are still going to get some work, you know, we'll see, can they make some plays, you know, again, if, you know, quarterbacks aren't live, so it's not always the best opportunity for evaluating a defensive end, but to see, you know, can Kenyatta Jackson, Caden Curry make some plays as they move into kind of being the veterans of the defensive end room.
Of course, CJ Hicks, I think is going to be a player we're going to be excited to watch. A lot of fans are going to be excited to watch because this is going to be the first real opportunity in a game-like setting to see how he looks now that he's a full-time edge rusher.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah. Hicks is like one of, I think maybe the top guy on my list defensively that I'm excited to see what it looks like. And just now that he has spent a spring in the defensive line room and really learned some of the finer points of edge rushing specifically, what does, how does that then translate to the field?
And another guy I'm really excited to watch, honestly, both of them at linebacker, I think Arvell Reese is a name that I look at and say, he could be poised the way he's been talked about this off season for a breakout year and Peyton Pierce too. I think both of those guys, each bumping up a spot on the linebacker depth chart with the departure of Cody Simon, we've heard both of them be raved about by this defensive coaching staff, whether that's James Laurinaitis or whether that's Matt Patricia. Arvell, I think they're going to do a lot more with him than maybe we anticipated coming into the spring.
That's kind of what it sounds like right now. We might see Arvell do some of those edge rushing things and be moved around the defense that way. We might see him play in different parts of the defense and Peyton Pierce, whenever you hear James Laurinaitis talk about him, it's almost like he sees a little bit of himself in Peyton Pierce.
Just he called him a throwback, Colt said, you just hear all the time about physicality with Peyton Pierce and his ability to just have a nose for the football. My dad used to always say the greatest linebackers he watched growing up were unblockable. I think when you talk about having the wrestling background that Peyton Pierce has, a state champion from Texas, the ability to manipulate, punch, and shed blocks on the interior is going to be a real strength of his.
Matt Patricia raved about his physicality, so I think those two guys are also pretty high on my list of guys that I'm pretty excited to watch here on Saturday in the spring game.
[Dan Hope]
If you haven't watched it, you should go watch the video Ohio State posted on Tuesday where the players were imitating their coaches and there was one clip with Peyton Pierce where he was talking about like he was he was imitating James Laurinaitis, I love you man, I wish I was you. And it's like, yeah, that really is like every time we talk to James Laurinaitis, it's just like, man, like he loves Peyton Pierce. You can just tell you can tell there's a lot of people in that building who love Peyton Pierce based on what we saw Saturday at Student Appreciation Day.
I think that's a good reason. I think Peyton Pierce is going to be a player. And yeah, I think, you know, Arvel, he has such a.
Such a wealth of physical gifts, but I mean, I remember when he came in, like there was a thought like I was last year was his freshman year. I think it was a freshman year where they moved him briefly to defensive end and they were thinking about making him into an edge rusher. And so he certainly has that in his repertoire of things he could potentially do.
So like I said, you know, maybe they use Arvel as an edge rusher sometimes. That opens up more opportunities for Peyton Pierce to play. You know, it's one of those inside linebackers alongside Sonny Stiles.
And so, you know, you take those three guys, Sonny, Arvel, Peyton, it sure feels exciting. Like what those guys have a potential to do. And again, Sonny Stiles, probably not going to see him take a lot of reps in the spring game.
So that opens the door for guys like Arvel, Peyton Pierce, even guys like Riley Pettijohn, TJ Alford, who have been talked up this spring. Can those freshmen make some plays, flash onto the screen? You know, certainly going to be fun to watch those guys.
You know, secondary as well. I mean, I think, of course, Devin Sanchez is going to be a guy who's going to be in focus in this game. Aaron Scott Jr. is a guy we both agreed had a really good day on student appreciation day. So can he continue to build on that in the spring game? Certainly we'll be keeping an eye on who's playing that nickel spot, whether it's Lorenzo Stiles Jr., maybe a little Jermaine Matthews Jr., Bryce West, Miles Lockhart, maybe mixing some safeties in there. Certainly that safety competition as well, you know, Jalen McLean, Malik Hartford, you'd expect again, Caleb Downs probably not going to play very much in this game.
And so that's going to open the opportunity for both Jalen and Malik to get a lot of reps of that first team defense. And can those guys can continue to build on what they've been doing all spring as they both kind of make their case for either being starters or even if one of them is not a starter to play a significant role in some package in some way in this defense this year. Don't expect that we're going to see a whole lot of packages on Saturday that I think, you know, Matt Patricia is going to try to keep some of those things under wraps until they play Texas in their first actual game come the end of August.
But will at least be an opportunity for us to see some of the players who might be able to fulfill some of those roles in the fall.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, I think that safety competition, too, is probably like next on my like after I'm just excited about those linebackers, because, you know, it's it's a fun position to see maneuver. And I think you can get a good sense of maybe where that position has progressed in the spring, too. But like, yeah, that competition and maybe even getting both on the field between Malik Hartford and Jalen McClain, I think is like we've talked about it before.
It's one of the most intriguing position battles. And I also like while I like you said, I don't expect Matt Patricia to unveil the entire defensive game plan, the entire defensive playbook here in spring practice when you've got Texas in week one. I do think I've talked about before how Malik Hartford has been discussed as another guy who they're looking to move around and do some different things within this defense and see how he's looking close to the box, see how he's looking maybe in something resembling a slot defensive role.
See how he's looking playing that traditional deep safety and doing some versatile different things, how he and Jalen kind of are utilized and what different looks and positions the coaching staff puts them into to kind of help gain that evaluation.
[Dan Hope]
We've talked about pretty much everything except for the non-quarterback offensive skill positions. There's a reason for that. If you guys watched last year's spring game preview episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, you'll remember that we did a spring game fantasy draft where we picked the players who we think will score the most fantasy points in the spring game.
I edged Andy slightly in that one, 17.7 points to 12.54 points. So we'll see if I can make it 2-0 or if Andy can get some redemption in this year's edition of the fantasy draft. For a refresher of the rules, each of us will draft five players, one quarterback, one running back, one wide receiver, one tight end, and one flex player that can be either a running back, wide receiver, or tight end.
We will use standard fantasy football scoring, one point for every 25 passing yards, four points for every passing touchdown, one point for every 10 rushing or receiving yards, and six points for every rushing or receiving touchdown. So Andy, I've got a little coin flip page up here. I'll let you make the call.
Heads or tails for the number one overall pick.
[Andy Anders]
I've gone tails, I've lost pretty much every coin toss when we've done one of these drafts. It's got to work out sooner or later, Dan. I'm riding with tails.
[Dan Hope]
You're flipping, and...
[Andy Anders]
It is heads! Tails, tails has failed you again. Tails, it always, it turns out it always fails.
I used to think it never fails, turns out it always fails.
[Dan Hope]
All right, so that gives me the number one pick in our little 10 pick snake draft here. As I think about who I think can score the most fantasy points in this spring game, I got to go with Bo Jackson. I think we're going to see a lot of Bo Jackson on Saturday, especially later in the game when maybe James Peoples and C.J. Donaldson have come out of a game. Bo Jackson looked really good on student appreciation day. We've been hearing good things about him all spring. So I got to go Bo Jackson.
[Andy Anders]
Great pick. That was pretty close on the top of my running back board with him and who I'm going to take at running back. But for me, I'm kind of thinking of this maybe in a positional scarcity sense because there's a lot of good options and a lot of positions offensive skill wise for Ohio State, obviously.
So my first pick is actually going to be Max Clair tied in because I think it might be hard. There's a lot of great blocking tight ends on this roster for Ohio State. A lot of great tight ends in general.
We've talked about that. But I think Max Clair is going to be excited to get involved in the offense with new quarterbacks. I think they like throwing the targets closer.
So for me getting that, I think Max Clair, there's a clear separation for me at the top of the board with him and the rest of the choices. So Max Clair is actually going to be my first pick there at tight end. And then I'll stick at running back.
Go ahead and get mined so you can't snatch him up with a flex pick. And I got to ride with my guy, James Peoples, like I've been on that hype train. I can't not take him with one of my first two selections.
I'm going with J.K. Dobbins 2.0 and taking James Peoples.
[Dan Hope]
James Peoples was my leading scorer last year. He was a big reason why I won that competition last year. So certainly a shrewd choice there.
I'll go ahead and dip into the wide receivers with my first pick. And, you know, there's so many different options here that I could go with. But I figure, you know, some of those more established guys might not play as much.
So I'm thinking about who's a guy that I think is going to get a lot of reps who I think could also go off in this game. And that guy, for me, I'm going to go with Mylon Graham. We've heard a lot of good things about Mylon Graham this spring.
This is a guy who did not play in the spring game last year because he was a summer enrollee. I think as he looks to kind of lock down a spot, you know, in that rotation and try to establish himself as that four for fifth guy in that rotation. I think this is a good opportunity for him to really showcase what he can do, really for the first time, because last year he got in at the end of a few games, but it weren't passing situations.
It was basically he was out there and they were running out the clock. And so I think this is really Mylon Graham's first showcase opportunity to really show what he can do as an a as a Ohio State wide receiver. And so I'm going to go ahead and take Mylon Graham here with the fourth pick and then debating between a couple of different options here for this next pick.
You know what? I'm going to go ahead and take my flex. I'm going to stick right there at wide receiver and I'm going to go with the guy who is really generating a lot of buzz at that wide receiver position right now.
And Quincy Porter, he was one of the big stars of the student appreciation day last week. Another guy who you'd think is going to get a lot of reps in this game just got his black stripe off. Only freshman who's got his black stripe off so far.
Can he continue to build on that on Saturday in the spring game? I'm betting on yes. And so I'll take Quincy Porter.
[Andy Anders]
Those are both great selections. I think it's going to be wild to see that people are going to look at these rosters and be like, where's Jeremiah Smith? No one took Jeremiah Smith, but I don't think either of us expect him to get many reps.
Why would you risk him in this game? Right. Like, you know, it's a talking point.
We've we've talked about it. Ohio State's not going to be playing a lot of their veterans, a lot of their really important players, some of them for an extended period of this game. So I guess that leaves really the board open to me at receiver for later.
I'd be advised to address other positions here. I want to take a quarterback in this spot because they're all still available. The problem is, who do I actually think has the best spring game?
[Dan Hope]
And why I said I'm going to let him take the first one.
[Andy Anders]
I am actually going to ride with Lincoln Kienholz here. And I think part of it is that rushing yards are inherently more valuable when you're talking about fantasy scoring than passing yards. So Lincoln Kienholz breaks off a couple of nice runs for me.
I like him in this as far as the quarterbacks go. I'm going to take Lincoln Kienholz as my quarterback. And then for my first receiver pick, I'm going to take Brandon Ennis.
I think Carnell, similar to Jeremiah, the reps are going to be more limited in this game. But Brandon is a new starter, although he is a more veteran player as a third year in the program, did get some use last year. But I think he's very hungry this offseason to emerge as that star to prove his five star status.
And I think that that's going to bleed into maybe a few more reps in the spring game. And like I said, with new quarterbacks, being a slot guy, I think benefits him being closer, that more just ready available target for a quarterback. And so I'm taking Brandon Ennis here as my top receiver with Quincy Porter and Miley Graham both off the board.
[Dan Hope]
Two shrewd choices there, Ennis would have been the next receiver on the board for me after those two, so I think that's the right choice there in terms of the next receiver. I'm now left with a quarterback and tight end choice. Quarterback pick, you know, this is when people are going to start to think I'm a Julian saying hater.
I'm not. But because of what you just said about the running aspect of this game, you know, I was looking back at last year, the guy who would have scored the most points in last year's game was Aaron Nolan because he was the guy who ran the ball the most. I don't know how much we're going to see Julian say and run in this game.
I have a feeling we are going to see Tavian St. Clair run the ball a little bit in this game, especially later in the game when a lot of those backups are there and he's getting a lot of those reps at the end of the game. We saw it on Saturday and Student Appreciation Day. He was doing a lot of things with his legs.
And so because of that, because I think we're going to see Tavian run more than Julian and because I think we're going to see him get a lot of reps there late in the game when they've got a lot of those backups in, I'm going to take Tavian St. Clair as my quarterback and then for my tight end, I'm going to go with Jelani Furman. Jelani is a guy who's had a really good spring, a guy who needs to continue to build momentum for himself to, you know, earn a role in that tight end room alongside Max Clair, Will Kaczmarek, Bennett Christian. Because of that, I think he might play more in this game than you would maybe expect for a guy who's a third year guy who's already played some decent amount in his career.
And so, you know, Jelani Furman's one of those guys. He just always seems to flash in the spring. I think he makes some plays in this game.
So I'll round out my team with Jelani Furman.
[Andy Anders]
So that just leaves me with my flex option here. It's a debate between a few guys for this spot, because I think about like CJ Donaldson, are they going to want to limit his reps at all with the experience he has coming in from West Virginia, even though this is a new offense for him? We've already discussed it with Jeremiah Smith and Karnell Tate.
I don't think those guys are going to be seeing a particularly high amount of action in this in this game. Smart Money says to kind of stick with the receivers here in that Brian Hartline room. So I'm actually going to take Bryson Rogers as my flex option, who also, I think, has a lot to prove.
Kind of a forgotten guy when you're talking about the hype surrounding Mylon Graham, surrounding Quincy Porter now. But I think Bryson stayed at Ohio State. Ohio State wanted him back for a reason when he entered the transfer portal last year.
I think there's just a lot of a lot of traits of his game I like, and he's going to get some use out of that slot position, which, again, I like being close to the quarterback in these settings. Great route runner. So that is who I'm going to ride with here.
With my last flex pick, we'll see if with my last pick, we'll see if I regret not taking Jeremiah Smith, because who knows? He could just like be in for one series, but make a spectacular touchdown catching that one series. We'll see.
But I'm going to I said at the beginning, Jeremiah Smith wasn't going to be on my board and I'm sticking to it. So we're going with Bryson Rogers.
[Dan Hope]
My question is, will we regret not taking Brennan Schramm? Because Brennan Schramm would have been the leading scorer among receivers in last year's game, scored the only touchdown among receivers in that game. We will see does a walk on steal the show again in this year's spring game or to some of those rising scholarship players that we picked make more plays in the spring game?
We'll we'll we'll we'll tally up the points after a spring game on Saturday, let you know how it all went on next week's show. Or if one of you wants to do the scoring yourself and hold us accountable, feel free to do that as well. Lots more to come on the spring game, of course, on Saturday and next week after we see how things play out in the shoe, but wanted to wrap up the show by talking a little bit about basketball, because Ohio State's men's basketball team has made multiple transfer portal additions over the past week, starting with Kristof Tilly, a center from Santa Clara, who was a productive player there.
Average double digits last season was a second team. All WCC player was considered one of the best centers in the portal, certainly addressing a massive position of need there for Ohio State as Ohio State did not have the offensive production it needed at the center position last year. Aaron Bradshaw leaving the team after one year to enter the transfer portal.
Getting a center was a must and getting a guy who seems to be a pretty good one in Kristof Tilly. And then on Tuesday, making another transfer portal addition, Brandon Noel coming from Wright State, which, you know, I got to say, like I initially see that in my initial thought is like, well, the last time Ohio State took a player from Wright State was Tanner Holden, and that didn't work out the way that it was hoped to. But, you know, we'll say Brandon Noel comes to Ohio State with a good pedigree, 19 points per game, seven and a half, 7.7 rebounds per game last season. The big question of both of these guys coming from Santa Clara, Wright State is will it translate to Ohio State? Because we've seen, especially in Chris Holtman era, Ohio State take a lot of guys like this who were productive players at kind of a mid-major level. A lot of them have come to Ohio State and not had the same kind of production once they've gotten in the Big Ten.
So Andy, you've studied these guys a little bit more than I have. When you look at these guys, how well do you think their games are going to translate to Ohio State?
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, I, you know, there's aspects of both that I think can translate and aspects that I think I have concerns with. We'll start with Tilly being the first addition that they've got and real chance to be the starting center this year. Right.
I don't know if they're going to want to play small ball with Sean Stewart again, although Sean did some really good things when he wasn't in child trouble this past season. For me, I think the efficiency around the rim is real. Christoph Tilly is a very good, efficient scorer near the rim.
When he gets his looks, average the 12 and a half points per game, seven footer with, and I think Ohio State missed people with a real postgame so badly in their offense. That was, you had Devin Royal to give you good scoring in other areas of the floor and some of that interior option. Some of that post element, but they didn't have that guy that they could dump it down to back to the basket on a consistent basis, kind of outside of him.
And for me, I think that's the part of the game for Christoph Tilly where I'm the most confident in. I would frankly like to see better rebounding numbers from a seven footer who played in against weaker competition than he's going to see in the big 10 there in Santa Clara. He's not going to see with Santa Clara.
He didn't see this, nearly the same caliber of bigs that he's going to see in the big 10. This is a guy who averaged only 8.7 rebounds per 40 minutes with Santa Clara. And that's less than Devin Royal averaged who's Devin Royal is a half a foot shorter than him for Ohio State this past season.
And again, playing much better competition. So for me, when I think about Ohio State's rebounding issues and some of that that they experienced on the interior, and he still has better production than Aaron Bradshaw had this past season. But for me, I think that's the main area of Christoph Tilly's game where I have concern.
I do think he can translate well as an interior scorer, although again, against bigger, better, like the big 10 is always going to have really big, strong front court players that can challenge shots that can really make you earn on the inside. And for him to embrace that next level of contact is going to be a step up. However, that's the part of his game that I see perhaps translating better.
He's going to need to produce at the very least a similar rebounding rate per 40 minutes that he got at Santa Clara, but you'd like to see it take a jump. Brandon Noel, watching his tape, I'm impressed with the skill in his game, with the diversity of his scoring. And for an offense that lacked efficiency in a lot of stretches last year, before Meachie Johnson Jr. left the team for personal reasons, and obviously has since transferred back to South Carolina, as a lot of our listeners will know, for me, I think you take a guy with a 59.6 effective field goal percentage, which is just field goal percentage, but three-point shots are weighed 1.5 times more than two-point shots because they score 1.5 times more points, right?
It kind of adds up in that respect. He would have been the best, most efficient shooter of Ohio State's major contributors this past year. When you talk about a guy like Bruce Thornton, who was 58% effective field goal percentage, a guy who shot over 40% from three, right?
It's going to lend itself well to that metric. I think when you look at that, shooting is something that you're going to get better contests at the Big Ten level, for sure, than you got at Wright State playing in Horizon League, but I think shooting and efficiency are elements of the game that are easier, I think, to translate than some of the other, like, just raw scoring numbers, maybe. I don't expect him to go out and score 19 points a game at Ohio State like he did at Wright State, per se.
But if he can give you 14, 15 a game and keep a similar shooting number, and he's also a 37% career three-point shooter just overall, then that's a really plus addition, especially as you need to replace some of that wing scoring potential that you lost when Micah Parrish left. So wing was a huge issue for them to address, and he's got the skill set to play that. I think there's a world where maybe he'd be better suited as a power forward, but it'll be interesting to see the configuration if both he and Devin Royal are in the starting lineup, who plays the three, who plays the four, because I think right now the plan seems to be one of those two guys, unless Colin White just has an explosion out of nowhere and really wants to stake that claim to the three. So definitely things to like about both players. The other thing I should mention with Brandon Noel, actually, his rebounds for 40 minutes were 9.1, which is even higher than Tilley's, who was a seven footer. I think that you love the hustle in his game and the well-roundedness of it, too, as a six foot eight guy who can play on the wing and give you more of that rebounding. So like I said, things about both players that I think can and will translate to the Big Ten, but how well do they translate? And I think some areas to work on for both of those guys as they take that major leap in competition.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, I think when I look at overall what Ohio State's done so far in terms of roster retention and addition, I say like to me, it's solid. I mean, like it's the good news is they, unlike last year, they successfully kept their top players in the fold. Bruce Fortin's back, John Mobley's back, Devin Royal's back.
Like that was keeping those three was like priority A and they've done that. So that's big. And then, you know, the three guys they've added also including Gabe Cupps.
I think they're all logical additions that make sense for their own reasons. You already talked about a lot of them with Tilly and Noel. Gabe Cupps feels like a little more of a dice roll to me because he didn't play much in two years in Indiana, but you are talking about a former Ohio Mr. Basketball. If he can get healthy and become the player he was projected to be coming out of high school, there's some potential there for him as a backup guard. But certainly I went into the start of portal season thinking, you know, Ohio State needs to make a big splash somewhere. That's what hasn't happened yet.
And you start to wonder now, is it going to happen? Because, you know, they're up to around, you know, 12, 13 players, depending on who all comes back next year. You'd think they want to add at least one more player in the portal.
Hard to say who exactly that might be right now. To me, I would think probably the biggest thing you'd be looking for if you add another player at this point would be another wing, like more of a true wing. Because I don't I feel like they don't really have that true wing player right now.
I'm a mold of like a Micah Parrish from last year. Like you said, you know, either Devin Royal or Brandon Noel could potentially play that three. But I still feel like they need more of a true wing there.
Would you agree with that assessment?
[Andy Anders]
I would. Like I said it before, I think both guys are more natural at the four than the three, even though both have capabilities, you know, to shoot, to drive, to do some of the things a three does. You'd rather like I think the optimal situation is, like you said, you make a big splash at small forward with one more portal addition and you let Brandon Noel come off the bench to provide you like bench scoring for me was a huge portal need to address this offseason as much as, you know, the direct needs of wing and center in terms of getting new starters.
Because like again, you look back at that Iowa game, they scored three bench points in their last game of the year that ended their season. Right. If they win that Iowa game, there's a good chance they could go on and get into the NCAA tournament.
And the outlook of this program is much better right now, like not the lack of depth really hurt them. And I think so. I think in an optimal world, you'd love to have Brandon Noel coming off the bench for this team.
But like I said, the current configuration would probably look something like one of those two guys playing three, which I think is their less natural position. So I'd agree with you, Dan, if I'm sitting there as the Ohio State general manager or whatever, my pick would be to go make another big splash and get that true small forward slashing wing shooting, you know, doing the things a really good star scoring wing can do. But yeah, like to your point, if I were to look at the whole of Ohio State's transfer portal ad so far, it's good.
It's just I think for where this program was coming off of this season, you'd like to get to that great threshold. And I'm not there yet in terms of what they've done in the portal so far.
[Dan Hope]
Well, we'll see if more additions are to come that could potentially elevate, you know, kind of the overall assessment of where this roster is going into the 2025-26 campaign. I mean, you know, the portal's not even closed yet. The guys are still entering the portal.
So certainly still times, I mean, Ohio State guys can still enter the portal. So there's certainly still more time for things to develop on both fronts there. But Ohio State has at least, you know, gotten commitments to retain their best players from last season, added a few more pieces.
We'll see how that continues to unfold as we'll be continuing to follow that along with the end of spring football this week as Ohio State plays. It's spring game at Ohio Stadium, Saturday at noon, Big Ten Network will be televising that it'll be on the radio on 97. We're a fan.
And of course, you can buy tickets if you want to be there at Pechew on Saturday. We will be there at Pechew on Saturday, bringing you lots of coverage on 11warriors.com. So stay tuned for plenty more coverage of spring football, Ohio State basketball and more over at 11warriors.com.
Until next time, he's Andy Anders. I'm Dan Hope. This has been Real Pod Wednesdays.
Thanks for joining us.