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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 Real Pod Wednesdays, Dan Hope joined by Andy Anders as it is officially Ohio State football season. Game week is upon us. We are just three days away from the Buckeyes' first game of the season as the Buckeyes prepare to host Akron at Ohio Stadium on 3.30 p.m. CBS will be televising the game. Andy, we've talked so much about this team for the past eight months. We finally get to see them in game action on Saturday. What are you most excited to see with this team?
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, for me, I think it's just how this offensive line plays and how they come out and attack the season with all of the criticism that they've taken. They're clearly motivated by it. I mean, I've written about it, wrote about it last week about how, you know, they feel the expectations on them.
They feel the criticism that's been levied their way, and it's motivated them to work harder in preparation for this season and try to correct some of the mistakes that cost them down the stretch of last year. So for me, it's that and it's just the general excitement of football being back, you know, and being in the horseshoe and covering the game and just being in that game day atmosphere. It always gets me so excited to just, you know, it's a big part of why I love this job is just that game day experience.
And I'm just looking forward to being in the sights and sounds of campus on a game day.
[Dan Hope]
I'm just going to go with the obvious answer and say I'm excited to watch Jeremiah Smith. Like who isn't excited to watch Jeremiah Smith at this point? I mean, we've heard so much about this guy.
You know, it almost feels like the expectations going into this first game for him are almost going to be unfair because it's almost like if he doesn't go out and have 100 yards and two touchdowns in his first game based on all the hype, it's like that's going to be the expectation. But I'm just excited to see, you know, everything we've heard about him, everything we've seen from him on the practice field. Will that translate to that first game in the shoe?
Well, you know, I think I think that hype train is already at full speed and it's just going to keep taking off if he can have a big debut in the shoe on Saturday. And I think just in general, not just Jeremiah, but there's so many exciting newcomers on this team, whether it's Will Howard at quarterback, Caleb Downs at safety, Quin Sean Judkins at running back. It's going to be exciting to see those guys in action as Buckeyes for the first time.
You know, can Caleb Downs make a big play that reminds people why he's one of the best safeties in the country? You know, we'll see Travion Henderson and Quin Sean Judkins splitting carries in the backfield. What will that look like in practice?
You know, Will Howard, we've had the questions of him, we've had the ups and downs. This will be our first opportunity to get a look at Will Howard and see, you know, how ready is he for that game spotlight? I mean, realistically, going against the Akron defense should be a lot easier than going up against Ohio State's defense in practice.
And so you expect everybody to look good in this game. And that's the thing that's hard, is that when you talk about a game where Ohio State is favored by 50 points or 49 and a half, 48 and a half, regardless what you look at, it's a huge number. Anything less than perfection is almost going to be seen as a disappointment with all the hype going into the season with this team.
But, you know, it's still the season opener. It's still the first game. There's still a big difference between practicing and actually playing when it matters.
And so I don't expect everything to be perfect, but, you know, we do expect to see a lot of good things. You do expect to see Ohio State dominate this game on both sides of a ball. Andy, I'll pose that question to you.
What do you need to see from this Ohio State football team on Saturday to come away really feeling impressed given who the competition is?
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, I mean, it's going to be hard to come away feeling impressed given who the competition is, I think. Even by a group of five standards, this wasn't a good team last year. They're off back-to-back two intense seasons.
I think that it's just, you want to see the holistic dominance of Ohio State, position-to-position, get up by, you know, 35 or so points by halftime, and come out and score in the third quarter and get the starters out of there, right? I think what will impress me is if Ohio State can play one series into the second half and then not have its starters see the field again. Just rest everyone, keep everyone healthy through week one here as you're preparing for this long haul of a season.
I think that if you dominate to that extent where you can get the starters out of the game really early, like not just fourth quarter early, but early in the third quarter, I think that's when I'll be impressed with the performance against Akron. Because to me, this is the worst team on the schedule and they should walk over them. Even if I didn't expect Ohio State to be one of the best Ohio State teams I've seen covering this team, I would expect them to walk all over this Akron team.
So it will take a lot to impress me, impress Ohio State fans at large, I'm sure, and maybe that's really too high of an expectation for a team in week one. We saw all four underdogs cover their point spreads in week zero, which I thought was a pretty interesting stat that shows, you know, just how much teams are still ironing out the wrinkles here early in the season. But no wrinkles expected from Ohio State on Saturday, which is the pressure of having a roster like this.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, I was thinking about what I was going to send you for my score prediction for this game and my initial prediction that came to my head was 59 to 7. I still might go with that, but then I thought about it and I go, well, that was the exact score of the Ohio State Akron game in 2021. That was with a true freshman, Kyle McCord, starting in place of CJ Stroud and a team that had a defense that was nowhere near as good as this year's defense.
So it's almost like, OK, like 59 to 7, like that'd be really good, right? Like, yeah, it would be. But it's also like, oh, like this team is supposed to be better than that team and that team beat Akron 59 to 7.
So that kind of puts into perspective, like what should be expected here in terms of dominance? I think to your point, you know, I think what I really want to see is you want to just see them come out on the gas pedal early and just dominate from the jump. I mean, you know, with that being said, I do think, again, it's the first game.
You have to keep everything in perspective in this game. Like if they look great, like you have to you have to realize, oh, OK, this is Akron. Like there's going to be much better teams to come.
They're supposed to look great. But at the same time, you know, if they have, you know, one turnover or they give up one touchdown or something like that, that also does not mean you should hit the panic button and Ohio State's going eight and four. They're not any good and throw out all those expectations from before the season.
I think you have to keep everything in perspective in this game. It's a season opener against a team that, like you said, was really bad last year. I think the thing I wonder with this team is there's been so much hype and it's clear it's clear that this team believes in itself the same way that so many of us believe in them.
You just get that vibe that this team really believes it's got something special this year. But this this team has the potential to be that team that gets over the hump and gets back to winning a national championship for the first time in 10 years. I think this Ohio State team really believes it can be that team.
But you also can't let that hype get to your head, like I think if you see maybe some disciplined stuff, you know, you know, sloppy penalties, sloppy turnovers, not seeming totally locked in, then maybe you're going to come out of it wondering, OK, like did this team maybe, you know, read its press clippings a little too much? Like this team, you know, you know, do they need to kind of get back to business? I think one thing I know for sure is no matter how many points Ohio State wins this game by, the coaches are going to find those things and they're going to harp on those things next week because they know tougher challengers are to come no matter how good this team looks.
So, you know, I want to sit here and say, well, just because Ohio State, if they dominate this game, that doesn't mean Ohio State's going to win a national championship. But we've both picked Ohio State to win the national championship. So I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, don't get excited because like, you know, we're excited about this team.
Like we think there's very good reason to be excited about this team. So do be excited by the good things you see. But certainly we have to keep everything in perspective in this game.
I think to your point as well about, you know, ideally getting the starters out early in the second half, when you talk about things we're excited to see, like I'm just eager to see, too. We talk about the newcomers. It's not just those guys who are in the starting lineup.
It's a lot of other guys who are going to get the chance to play in this game that, you know, maybe won't get the chance to play in every game, but they'll get the chance to play in this game. You know, do we get to see Julian Sayan make his debut in Michoud? We know Devin Brown is going to be that second quarterback in.
But will Julian Sayan be the third quarterback in? Will we get to see, you know, he did not have a very good spring game. Will we get to see more of a real Julian Sayan?
Why people are so excited about him if he gets in this game for his debut in Michoud? I mean, there's so many other freshmen that they're really excited about, whether it's James Peoples or Mylon Graham or Edric Houston, Aaron Scott, Peyton Pierce, Jalen McClain. You know, I could go on.
There's a lot of young talent on this team. And it's actually very important to get those guys reps because, you know, it's not the most important thing right now. But but you do think about a year from now, this team is going to look very different than the one that's going to be taking the field on Saturday.
So now is the time these first three games in particular, you want to be able to get those young players as many reps as you can to get them in the game. And I am going to be interested to see, too, how Ryan Day approaches it in terms of how quick a trigger he has to pull starters out of the game, because we've seen in the past Ohio State tends to be pretty conservative, like they usually want to be up like 35 points or something like that before they really pull those starters out of the game. But when you're forecasting ahead to a potential 16, 17 game season, it becomes all the more important to keep those starters fresh and to get those backups reps in case you need them later in the season.
I did make the point when we were talking a few days ago, I do think there's an argument to be made for one of these first three games that maybe you keep the starters in a little longer than you need to because you don't necessarily want to go into Big Ten play with a team that hasn't played four quarters yet. You know, you don't want to get to, you know, Eugene, Oregon, you've been dominating all season and all of a sudden you've got to win in the fourth quarter and you're gassed because your players haven't played four quarters all season long. So I think there's maybe an argument for that somewhere in these first three games that maybe you keep the starters in a little longer than you need to.
And again, who knows? I mean, you know, maybe one of these games is more competitive than we think and then they have to play anyway. But I think I do think ideally for this first game, especially with what we think Akron is, the goal is to dominate the first half, get as much of a lead as possible, and then it's a short day if any day.
I mean, if you have a big enough lead at halftime, maybe the starters don't play at all in the second half. I think ideally you want to take care of business as early as you can in this game, get those young guys some reps and come out of a shoe, one and all, and have that season opener under your belt.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, I think Ryan Day and the coaching staff would agree with everything you just said there about, you know, this is as far as wanting to play a four quarter game and having people in game shape, I do think there's something to that to your point. But, you know, I don't think this is the game for that either, because you want to do that a little closer to the actual Big Ten play. For one, kind of treat it as a ramp, right, and like, do it against Marshall, do it a little later, you know, after you've already given enough rest to your starters in some of these other blowouts, maybe these first couple blowouts.
[Dan Hope]
I almost wonder if you do it against Western Michigan because you have that 5 a week after.
[Andy Anders]
That's true too. That can also be a factor in this. So, it's just going to be interesting to see how they manage reps and it's also like, you know, again, just a measure of how soft this schedule is early on that this is, you know, this is what we're talking about is how much are the starters actually going to play in these games?
Because, yeah, and I'm excited to see these backups too and also get a sense of what the rotations might look like at some of the key positions. Now, when you're playing the big games, when you're playing at Oregon, when you're playing at Penn State later in the year, when you're playing Michigan, these types of games, the rotations at certain positions are probably going to look different. They usually shorten up in those kinds of environments.
But do we heard Jim Knowles say on Tuesday that Sonny Styles, CJ Hicks, and Cody Simon are going to split reps pretty equally at linebacker, even though Cody and Sonny will be the starters there. We heard talk in the past about rolling linebackers and it really didn't happen that much last year. Cody Simon did work into the rotations a little more as the year progressed, but really it wasn't it wasn't like an equal share.
Tommy at its best, you know, Cody might mix in like 20 snaps or so with in those big games. And then Tommy and Steel were mostly there to paint it as sort of an equal share. And to say that Sonny and CJ might be the two linebackers on the field in some scenarios.
It's like, I'll be interested to see if that actually plays out against Akron to see if then I can believe it'll play out at Oregon. And then this right guard to Ryan said there they want to roll some guys through, although Tegra Shibola will be starting. And that's another one.
I always push back whenever I hear they're going to roll offensive line and it's something day has said in the past to like that, you know, the guys who deserve to play will play. But offensive line chemistry is too important to roll guys there. You need to keep that front five as cohesive as possible.
So if Tegra Shibola is playing up to the standard, we expect of him that Ohio State expects of him. And, you know, we talked about this a lot on press coverage already, but if he's playing up to that standard, I'd expect him to lock down that job and not see much rotation at that position going forward in this game or in the future. So that's the other thing.
And also Jermaine Matthews Jr. right is another, I think, guy you've got to get involved at corner. So does he, how much does he roll in? Does he play any nickel?
Is the next nickel off the bench him or Lorenzo Stiles Jr.? There's little depth things like that too, that I think we'll also have our eye on.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, I think it's a fine line to walk because you certainly can't afford to experiment in this game. You can afford to rotate more if you want to, but it's that balance of do we want to experiment a lot? Do we want to rotate a lot or do we want to focus on building rhythm, building chemistry with our first team units while they're in the game?
Because we've talked about it before with last year where it felt like the offense was kind of behind the eight ball because they didn't have a firm starting quarterback. They weren't in a good rhythm early in the season and it was almost like they just never caught up. And we did hear Ryan Day say on Tuesday, I asked him, I said, do you feel like you're in a better rhythm offensively because you've had a starting quarterback for a couple of weeks?
And his answer was basically, we'll see. Over the next couple of weeks, he said, they're not close to where he expected they would be. And to that end, he said, I wouldn't expect them to be there right now because their expectation, their standard is to be the best in the country.
And Will Howard hasn't played a game yet. Quinn Sean Judkins hasn't played a game yet. Yeah, you mentioned, you know, Tegra Shavola has not started a game for Ohio State.
Wide receivers, while very talented, Emeka Buka is the only one of them who's really played a lot for Ohio State. So you expect there to be some growing pains, at least on that offensive side of a ball in the first few games of the year. Maybe not as much on defensive side of a ball, because literally with Sonny Styles being a Will linebacker, every single player on that defense has been a starter at a collegiate level.
So you kind of expect them to just be dominant from a beginning. I think you probably expect the offense. It's maybe going to take a little more time to get to where they need to be.
But, you know, when you start off with Akron, Western, Michigan, and Marshall, that's a nice ramp to have to really kind of build that rhythm and try to get some momentum going. And so I certainly think, you know, that's going to be priority A. And then, you know, ideally, if you do get that momentum early, you can build a big lead early in the game.
Then, you know, particularly in the second half, because we did hear Ryan Day say that he did talk to Chip Kelly, like they did have conversations about, do we get Devin Brown in early in the game just to give him some reps with the first team offense? He said they decided not to do that. So that suggests that they want to focus first and foremost on building rhythm offensively early in the game.
And then ideally, as the game progresses, get more and more of those backups in the game to get as many guys reps as possible, while also keeping those starters fresh in a game where they shouldn't need those starters to play for four quarters. So with that in mind, when we think about game predictions and what a score might look like, it's it's it always complicates that when we're talking about the possibility of backup seeing extended action and particularly complicates that when we're talking about a spread of seven scores. As we sit here right now recording on Tuesday evening, the spread I'm seeing on multiple sites is forty eight and a half points.
And so, Andy, will Ohio State cover the spread?
[Andy Anders]
I'm going to go, yes, my official score prediction is fifty six to three. I think that it's going to again, I think Ohio State's probably going to score at least thirty five of those fifty six in the first half and then game will kind of slow down as the starters come out and they just take the foot off the gas pedal a little bit in the second half. But I think this defense is deep enough that it's going to be dominant throughout this game, regardless of if it's the first, second or even third unit playing out there, because they just this defense can run so deep, especially on the defensive line.
I frankly think Ohio State's second defensive line is still overwhelming for Akron's first team offensive line. They're just that deep and that good up front. So I think that this game will be dominant throughout for Ohio State.
And I see them covering that spread, even though, as I pointed out earlier, it's been rare for the big favorites to cover the spreads so far this college football season and this brief college football season thus far. But for me, I have Ohio State covering the spread and winning this game. Fifty plus points with that fifty six three final.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, I do as well. I'll just go with that fifty nine seven score. That feels right.
But I do. I think Ohio State wins this game by fifty plus points. I think, you know, I said Akron is probably going to be one of the worst teams in the MAAC.
And so there's a massive talent gap between these two teams. And as long as Ohio State comes out and just does what it should do, it should be a very lopsided score at the end of the day. So even with a big spread, I mean, as you know, as a better, I'm not usually going to be looking to touch a whole lot of forty eight and a half point spreads.
But I would feel pretty good about picking Ohio State to cover in this game. I really will. Again, there's a lot of variables when you're talking about that kind of spread and you're talking about a game where almost certainly the starters are not going to play the whole game.
But I still think like to your point, I mean, the third stringers at Ohio State would be starting at Akron. So you expect that even when those backups are in there on the second half, you expect that Ohio State is still going to be able to continue to extend that lead and put up a big number on the scoreboard. And so that's why we both have the Buckeyes covering the spread.
Don't think there's really anything else to say about Akron at this point. And so I want to kind of do some big picture preseason talk and do some superlatives for the season. We've already both predicted publicly that Ohio State will win the national championship.
Actually, we and literally everybody else on our staff has picked Ohio State to meet Georgia in the national championship game and Ohio State to win that game. So not a whole lot of variety in those national championship picks from the 11 Warriors staff this year. But, you know, it just goes to show how good we think this team can be.
I mean, I am not the guy, honestly, who usually picks Ohio State to win when we do that to win at all when we do that exercise. But, you know, I think this is the best team Ohio State has had in some time, I think at least since 2019. And I think that was a national championship caliber team.
I think it's certainly the best team the Buckeyes have had since then. And so I do like this team's chances of winning at all. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy.
There's you know, you're going to have to win three college football playoff games at least this year to do that. And I think we actually both have the same exact prediction for the season, because at least for me, I have Ohio State losing to Oregon in the regular season, that road game at Autzen Stadium. But I think that will be the only loss of the year for the Buckeyes.
I think they will win the Oregon rematch in Indianapolis, Big Ten championship game to get that first round by in the CFP. I don't know who they'll play in the first two games of the CFP, but I think the Buckeyes will take care of business in those games. And then I think if we do end up getting that Ohio State-Georgia rematch of a few years ago in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the national championship game, I think that's going to be one hell of a game.
I mean, I think Georgia's really, really good. I mean, they've been really, really good pretty consistently in the Kirby smart era. They may have the best quarterback in the country.
They have one of the best offensive lines in the country, and they're pretty strong everywhere else, too. And so that's going to be one heck of a game if it happens between Ohio State and Georgia. But I think if it gets to that point, I do believe that these Buckeyes can get it done.
[Andy Anders]
I agree. I mean, that's how I projected it to play out as well. Obviously, you know, I was one of the rest of the 11 Warriors staff who also chose Ohio State over Georgia in the national championship game.
And I again, like you said, I also have them losing at Oregon and then I have the beating Oregon at the Big Ten title game because I think Oregon and Ohio State are clearly the two best teams in the Big Ten. So instead of rehashing all of that, I think it's best to move on to our next superlative here, and that's who we expect our team MVP to be this season, our picks for team MVP, I should say. And for me, I'm going to go with Caleb Downs here.
I think offensively there's going to be too much distribution for any one weapon to be that team MVP guy. For me, I think Emeka Abuka will be the leader of the receiving core, but Jeremiah Smith, Brandon Ennis, Carnell Tate will get enough production mixed in that I don't think he's going to rise above head and shoulders the rest of the crowd there. They just, what we've said in the past, even though they lost Marvin Harrison Jr., it feels like they're deeper and perhaps better overall at receiver than they were last year, especially if Abuka is healthy all year, unlike he was last season. And Caleb Downs, I mean, there's a lot of stars you could pick from this defense if you're going to pick a defender as team MVP, but I really think the way that Caleb Downs can be used across the entire defense, the way that they can deploy him in a variety of scenarios, and his production at Alabama speaks to, you know, usually you take a big step from year one to year two as a college football player. So do I expect him to have a hundred tackles again?
I'm not sure, but I think he's going to actually take steps forward and just be making plays all over the field, in the pass game, in the run game, and just embody what you expect a team MVP to be. And that's just a big contributor that's going to be, I think, a focal point for the best defense in college football.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, it's such a tough choice this year because there's so many good players on this team. Like I think we did this last year, like we probably both picked Marvin Harrison Jr. Like this year, there's so many good players on this team. There's so many different ways you could go.
But, you know, I do think, you know, this is going to be another defensive driven team. I think, you know, the key to a national championship type season for this team is having the best defense in the country. And that's what I think it can be.
So I got to go with somebody on defense. I feel like there's literally like five guys I could go with on defense. Caleb Downs is a good choice.
I could certainly go Jack Sawyer. Tyleek Williams is another guy who's going to have a big year. But I've been on the Denzel Burke train for a long time.
I'm going to go Denzel Burke. I mean, I think that Ohio State is going to have the best pass defense in the country again this year. And I think being that shutdown cornerback on one side of the field is so valuable to a defense.
I think if he can really lead a dominant effort in the secondary, it's going to make it tough for teams to pass the ball downfield. It's going to lead to more pressure from the defensive lineman, more big plays up front for the defense. And it's going to force teams to run the ball into a really good defensive line.
And so I'm going to go with Denzel Burke as my team MVP because I just think that what he can do as that cornerback on the outside of a defense brings so much value to that defense and is one of the biggest reasons why I'm very confident this is going to be an elite Ohio State defense this year. The next question here on our preseason superlatives, how many first team All-Americans will Ohio State have this year and who will they be?
[Andy Anders]
Let's say this was a tough one for me to count up, but I think on the offensive side, I guess the answer is going to be a lot here, which is, you know, I think this usually gets an overestimate for me when you ask me these types of questions for the season because it's easy. Like, you know, first team All-American is a pretty hard thing to get. You got to be, you know, if it's basically if you assemble all 130 some football teams in the country, would you start on the ultimate roster of all college football?
So, but I do have two on offense. I'm going to Mecca, Bucca, and I'm going Donovan Jackson. I think Travion Henderson and Quintron Judkins are going to split too many carries to be first team All-Americans, although I think both of them could make second, third team kind of in that range.
They'll have both have that potential. And if one emerges as the guy, whether that's through injury or other means over the course of the season, then I think that guy will have a legitimate shot to be a first team All-American. But I think Donovan Jackson has always had that potential and he's come close to performing at that level in stretches in his past.
It just feels like to me, this is the year not only he's going to put it together and the offensive line is going to take steps from last year. I don't know if they're going to be a Joe Moore award candidate or anything, but I do expect the offensive line to be better. And part of that will be because Donovan Jackson plays at the All-American level he's capable of.
So on offense, those are my two picks. Defensively, I have Jack Sawyer as a first team All-American. I have Denzel Burke as a first team All-American.
I have Caleb Downs as a first team All-American. And I come really close on Tyleek Williams, but I think that he kind of got slept on a little bit nationally last year. I think that's going to happen again to where he's not maybe a first team All-American.
And even like you look in the Big Ten, you've got defensive tackles like Kenneth Graham and others that are around the conference. And it might be tough just with the competition that's around to submit himself as one of the two best defensive tackles in college football essentially. But I think Jack Sawyer, Denzel Burke, Caleb Downs would be my three first team All-American picks there in Ohio State's defense to ride with going into the year.
So five total.
[Dan Hope]
Michigan's defensive tackles are so good, you combined them into one.
[Andy Anders]
I did.
[Dan Hope]
Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham, they're both really good. They're both potential All-Americans. So you're not wrong there.
I'm going to go the other way on you. You're saying you're going to overestimate. I'm going to go a little more conservative and maybe underestimate a little bit.
I can, when I was going through it in my head, I thought of all six of those same guys. I think those are Ohio State's top six All-American candidates. Like you said, I think at running back, I mean, there's a lot of really good running backs in college football this year.
So for one of those guys, when they're in a timeshare position to emerge as a top two running back in the country to earn those first team All-American honors, I don't see that. So it really was those six that I strongly considered. But I'm going to go with just two.
I'm going to go with Caleb Downs and Jack Sawyer. I think Caleb Downs is maybe the best safety, probably the best safety in the country. And so I think if he plays at the same level he did last year as a freshman, when he was a second team All-American at Alabama, I think he will be a first team All-American safety.
And then with Jack Sawyer, I've said it before. I mean, if he plays all year, the way he did down the stretch of last season, he will be a first team All-American. And I really do believe that he can do that.
And so I'm going with Jack Sawyer and Caleb Downs being the two Buckeyes who will get trees and Buckeye Grove this year. Tough to leave Denzel Burke off that list, but I think it's really loaded at corner this year with Will Johnson, Travis Hunter, Benjamin Morrison. And I just feel like Will Johnson and Travis Hunter, if they have the years that they're supposed to have, those are going to be the two guys who are going to get most of the national love.
So that's why I left Denzel Burke off. Emeka Buckeye is strongly considered, but it again goes back to the fact that there's also Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate and Brandon Innes. I just don't know with that much talent on offense.
I'm not saying I think it will happen. I'm not ruling out the possibility that Jeremiah Smith could be an All-American as a true freshman. I think it's within the realm of possibility if everything we've heard about him.
And I know that sounds crazy, but I think it's within the realm of possibility. But I think when you have three, four guys who are really good at that position, I just don't know if I see Emeka putting up the raw numbers that are going to be required to be an All-American. So I think he's an All-American caliber player, but that's why I'm going against him there.
Donovan Jackson, certainly one I could see, but I do think there's a jump that needs to happen in his play that I maybe thought would happen last year, but I don't feel like it did. So for that reason, I'm going to go more conservative there and not go with him. I wouldn't be shocked if it happens, if it all comes together for him.
The next question on here was going to be, who will be the breakout star for Ohio State this year? But I think if I just left it that simple, we'd both just say Jeremiah Smith. So which player not named Jeremiah Smith will be the breakout star for Ohio State this season?
[Andy Anders]
I think Sonny Stiles is my choice here. And not that obviously Sonny played a meaningful role last year, rotating at the start of the season, then sliding back to start at Deep Safety full-time. Deep Safety full-time.
He was at Strong Safety, starting there full-time after Latham Ransom got hurt. But really had a lot of issues pop up, I think, especially when he slid back deep, covering space in the open field, taking good angles in open space and tackling from that deep safety spot where it's a little different. I think Linebacker fits all the best qualities of his skill set.
And we've talked about this all offseason, talking about how his best plays last year were made in the box. And in the few opportunities he got to blitz, he made a huge impact, I think, crashing the line of scrimmage, had a couple sacks. And he'll get to do a lot more of that at Linebacker.
Jim Knowles has said they want to blitz more this year. I think he's part of the reason why he and CJ are both very, very ferocious blitzers. I think CJ is probably the best at that on the team, as the coaching staff, as he said.
But Sonny, that type of size and athleticism at the Linebacker position, you know, listeners might be familiar with Jack Lambert, the famed Steelers Linebacker, who was a very tall human. I, he and Sonny, I believe, are similar heights. And it was interesting, you know, I used to love watching the NFL 100 as a kid and seeing the documentaries, these short documentaries about these players that have shaped the game.
And when they talked about Jack Lambert, they talked about how, you know, short running backs have an advantage sometimes because they can kind of hide behind offensive linemen and change the angles for defenders. When you have a tall linebacker who can work in the opposite sense, where you can kind of see over the action and look at what's happening in the opposing backfield. I think that's going to play into Sonny's favor.
It's clear that he's acclimated to the Linebacker position very quickly. That's been taught, just how quickly he, you know, he was out there as the first team Will at the start of preseason camp. It really didn't take that long for him to transition.
And having the experience at safety allows him to have knowledge of the whole defense too. He's got the athletic skill set to run sideline to sideline from Will Linebacker. I think where covering slot receivers was a weakness for him last year, it'll be a strength for him to match up on tight ends and running backs.
All told, Sonny Stiles could become a real star in this Ohio State defense, where last year he was just sort of a contributor that had some flaws. So for me, I think Sonny Stiles is my kind of slept on breakout candidate in a defense that's just so loaded with star power.
[Dan Hope]
Well, Sonny Stiles was going to be my pick too, but I'll go. I think another player who I think has this kind of potential that I think can fit this category would be Josh Simmons, because I think Josh Simmons was a guy who kind of quietly improved over the course of his first year as Ohio State's left tackle, and I think was quietly a strength of a weak offensive line by the end of last season. But he's a guy that I think has the potential to be so much better than what we've seen from him.
And I think you've seen that in the practices we've been able to go to this preseason. I mean, this is a guy, he's got really prototype kind of physical ability in terms of his athleticism for that position. And I've also been impressed when we've had opportunities to watch him in the run game.
I think you think of him kind of being like that quick guy, should be really good in pass pro, but we've seen him moving guys in the run game, looking really good in that area. And so it would certainly be a huge boon for this Ohio State team if they can have a stud left tackle. That's something that we don't know about.
I mean, like, you know, there's some projection here of Josh Simmons, but I think the potential's there. He's on that trajectory where I think potential is there for him to potentially make a big jump and become an elite left tackle this season. And if he could do that, that could go a really long way toward Ohio State's aspirations of achieving all its goals this season.
[Andy Anders]
Last question here, kind of wrapping up our superlatives. Dan, who will be the Buckeyes' unsung hero? That is, you know, someone that isn't going to get a lot of attention, but will play an important role to the success of the team and make a big impact, even if it's quiet.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, I feel like there's a few different guys that I could go with here, but I'm going to go with Lathan Ransom because I think he's been kind of overshadowed now in the secondary because you have Caleb Downs next to him at safety. You have Denzel Burke. I mean, Jordan Hancock has become a stud.
I mean, Davison Igbenosin's a really good corner. I think Lathan's kind of the overlooked guy in that secondary now, but this is a guy who's now a fifth-year senior in that secondary. I mean, he's played a lot of football for this defense, and I think he's a really good player.
I think he's a guy who has improved a ton in coverage over the course of his career, and he's also a guy that can come downhill in the box and make some big hits, and I think with having a safety of Caleb Downs' caliber patrolling the back end, that increases the kind of things you can do with Lathan Ransom. It can allow you to be a little more aggressive with Lathan Ransom and really kind of take advantage of his ability as a downhill attacker, and so he's a guy. I mean, Caleb Downs talked about it when he met with the media last week.
He was asked about Lathan Ransom being maybe a little overlooked by the preseason award watch list and stuff. I mean, this is a guy who was a Jim Forb Award semifinalist two years ago. He wasn't even on the Jim Forb Award watch list last year, but Caleb basically said, no, Lathan's an elite safety.
He should be getting just as much recognition as I am, and so I don't know if it's going to happen just because of who's next to him at that position in Caleb Downs, but I think Lathan Ransom is a really important player for his defense this year, and I think he's going to be one of those guys that, you know, I don't know if we're ever going to be talking about him this year as like the star of his defense, but I think he's going to be one of those quietly very important linchpins who can play a big part in this Ohio State defense potentially being the best in the country.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, when I first was first pondering this question, I think, you know, my mind went to Seth McLaughlin, but I do think there's actually a lot of attention on the offensive line this year, and if he does perform well and fix some of the snapping issues he had last year at Alabama, then I think it'll actually get some recognition, maybe more than the offensive line normally would just because there's so much attention on it heading into the season.
So for me, Ty Hamilton is the guy that I think on this defensive line is talked about the least, but one technique is such an important position, that nose guard, ability to eat a double team and stonewall and do certain things against the running game, but also I think he's got the strength and kind of like his brother Devon entering his senior year. He's got the strength and things to get after the passer and make an impact in that sense, and I think that's something he's really worked on this offseason. Larry Johnson's called him a sleeping giant on occasion, and he talked about that too of how he's a more quiet guy, but he lets his play speak for himself.
That's how Ty translated that, but I really think he took a lot of steps, especially at the end of last season. He was pretty good in that Missouri game as well, as good as Jack Sawyer was. Ty Hamilton was right there in that mix of defenders who had a great game at the Cotton Bowl.
I really expect big things from Ty at that one tech position this year as I do the entire defensive line, but he'll probably get the least recognition for it because those nose guards are in there banging around and eating blocks and doing the dirty work so that other guys can make tackles.
[Dan Hope]
I'm glad you said Ty because I was sitting there going, do I say Lathan or do I say Ty? I was kind of between those two guys. I think Ty's definitely a guy who can fit that criteria.
I think Cody Simon's another guy who can fit that criteria, but I think he's become a little bit less unsung over the last couple weeks because he got the blocko, because he's named the captain, because he's been talked up so much as a leader. But I do think from a national perspective, he's another guy as well that I think is going to play a really important role for his defense this year, but I don't know if he'll necessarily get the national attention. I think he might get overshadowed by Sonny Stiles.
I think if Sonny Stiles becomes what we think he can be, Sonny might end up being the linebacker who gets most of the attention because I think he might be the guy who makes more of a flashy plays. But I think Cody, especially with this move to helmet communication and him being the guy who's going to be the defensive signal caller wearing that green dot helmet, I think he's another guy who's going to be really important for his defense this year. He's probably going to be overshadowed by some of the talent around him, but that should not lessen his importance to the defense because I think him becoming what he's expected to be at that Mike linebacker spot is going to be very important for his defense, especially in the run game.
One more thing to talk about this week, even though Ohio State football season is starting up this week, it still feels like the biggest story permeating around this fan base is Connor Stallion's Michigan scandal. I mean, you just have to look at, we have the metrics every day that show us what our most read stories are. Anytime we write about Connor Stallion's or Michigan, it's always at the top of the list.
And so as excited as fans are for the start of this season, I think there's probably plenty of you out there who are even more eagerly anticipating the day that Michigan finally gets penalized for this sign-stealing scandal that broke in the middle of last season. And certainly a development in that on Tuesday as Netflix released its much-anticipated Connor Stallion's documentary. And so, of course, even on a busy Tuesday where we had a Ryan Day press conference and a podcast to record and all that, we both had to watch the Connor Stallion's documentary because of all the attention that it's been getting.
And I don't know that I would say that we were surprised by what we saw on there because I think a lot of it was stuff we already knew or already seen or heard. And I think we kind of anticipated going in, based on some of the other Netflix documentaries they had done on similar topics, that this was going to be a little bit of a puff piece for Connor Stallion's. It was going to be told mostly from his perspective.
Nothing wrong with that because this is the first time that Connor Stallion's has spoken publicly about this. So that was kind of a whole big draw of it. That's why it was so anticipated is because we hadn't heard from Connor Stallion's yet.
We've heard so much about Connor Stallion's over the last 10 months, but this was the first time we actually got to hear what Connor Stallion's had to say. So it was very interesting to hear him talk, interesting to hear his perspective of being someone who has loved Michigan since he was a little kid and really wanted to do anything he could to help Michigan win a national championship. And he in fact did that.
But the big question that continues to linger over this whole situation is whether the things he did were in fact a violation of rules. And if they were, how should Michigan be punished for it? And I think we both agree that Connor Stallion's story in this documentary did not add up.
There were certainly holes in what he had to say. I think particularly in regards to his explanation for why he was forwarding tickets to people and why they were sending him film from a games they attended.
[Andy Anders]
It was the first of our staff to watch it because I'm a pretty restless sleeper. I got up in the middle of the night last night and I'd already volunteered for this assignment to kind of write about what the most- You were just so excited to watch it.
[Dan Hope]
You couldn't sleep.
[Andy Anders]
It's a Christmas morning. The presents under the tree. I was so excited.
Hooray, sign stealer. The documentary is out finally. But yeah, no, I got up in the middle of the night.
It's like, okay, well, I'm up. I might as well go ahead and watch this thing. Take notes, get my thoughts on it to have ready for the morning and crank out this story.
It was so funny to me because what I felt happened is, yes, the people that have made this documentary series Untold in the past have- Again, it's from the perspective of whoever is involved in the scandal and it's been puff pieces in the past, et cetera, et cetera. And they really tried to do that. I feel like there were parts of this where they even tried to make him a martyr.
Oh, he fell on a grenade for the university. And Connor's side of the story in the first half of the documentary was you get this whole lore about him being a lifelong Michigan fan that always wanted to coach. And then he learns how to steal signs really well while at the Naval Academy and coaching for Ken Yamatalolo and works his way up and gets introduced to the Michigan staff at a coach's clinic, all these things.
We knew a lot of this already. But in the second half of this story, it was just an unraveling of a web of lies. That's all it felt like.
Because I think there was multiple really telling scenes in this. I think the funniest part of that, the funniest pattern to follow in this was how he explained the fact that there were tickets purchased to over 30 different Big Ten games for future opponents that he coordinated for people to go to that were in his name and that sent him practice footage. Because at first he says, oh, I guess I'm just in trouble for sending my mom to a Michigan State game.
And then, oh, we have Venmo transactions of you playing other Michigan staff, other coaches to go to this. And other coaches are claiming that you paid them to send them to this. And there was this public Venmo transaction history.
And then the backpedal was, oh, I've made so much money buying and selling tickets. Why, if a guy wants a ticket for $100, I'll just give it to him. It's no big deal to me.
Okay. Well, then there was a huge shout out to bro Ohio, 11 Warriors forum poster, who did a lot of good investigative work as this story was unfolding originally and was the Ohio State voice in this documentary. Frankly, my favorite character.
I know I cover Ohio State, but he comes on in a full black outfit with orange mirrored sunglasses hiding his identity. You know, it was fantastic. Dude looked like a CIA operative, like he said.
But then the backpedal was, you know, you keep going. And in the investigation to NCAA, the NCAA, they then end up asking him if he got footage of opposing sidelines during games from the people he sent and he admits to it. And then the excuse is, oh, I didn't use it for scouting though.
I already had the signals from TV broadcasts. So I had possession of opposing sidelines, but I didn't use it for advanced scouting. Come on.
It's like a Christmas present that you already have. I'm like, all right, sure. Connor, whatever.
It was just like, they really tried to prop him up, but they just couldn't because he lied his way through a lot of it. And there were some truths in there too. And it was interesting to hear about the underbelly of sign stealing in college football.
But it was, come on, man. Do you really expect us to believe this?
[Dan Hope]
I don't know about you, but when someone gives me tickets to a game, I go and I just hold my phone up for the entire game and then send them a video. Like, you know, that's, that's very normal behavior when somebody gives, you know, somebody gives you tickets to go to, go to a football game. And then, you know, I, I think the other part of it for me that, that really stuck out to me was, you know, the big defense kind of is, oh, I don't need film to watch this.
I just, I'm just so good at memorizing all the signals. Like I, you know, he's like showing how he, you know, made his whole database. He filmed every signal and like, he's just like, I'm just so good at picking and like, and we'll give him some credit.
Like he's obviously is good at this. Like there's no, there's no denying that he is good at like deciphering signals. Like that's why he was in this position in the first place.
Like, there's no question he's good at it. The question is, did what he did go fall outside the NCAA rule book? And, and certainly one of the more egregious things that he seemingly did was dressing up in disguise and going to the Central Michigan game.
And for all the talk about how great his memory is and that he could remember the signals when he was asked about it by the NCAA, he could not remember whether he went to a Central Michigan game. I mean, that's, that that's pretty dubious that after looking at his attorney for 10 seconds and pausing that he could not recall whether he went to the Central Michigan game. And then after being pressed on that answer, immediately his lawyer deflects to, well, Ohio state hacked his computer.
We're done with this interview. So, you know, that's, that's typically how people behave when, you know, they're, they're innocent. Right.
So, you know, I think those two things, you know, in particular, the, the dubious explanation of why people were sending him film from games and the not being able to recall that he was on the sideline at the Central Michigan game. Even though Dave Portnoy of all people who as, as was shown in the documentary has a legitimate connection with Conor Stallions because Conor Stallions has appeared in multiple barstool sports videos since this whole thing broke out kind of trolling people. Yeah.
And, you know, it, you know, it's so funny, Andy, because like, I remember like when we first like saw those videos, like and people were like, was that Conor Stallions in the background of Dave's pizza review? And I'm like, there's no way, right? Like, there's no way this guy is, is actually doing this.
And it turned out he was, you know, Nicole Auerbach from NBC sports made that point in the documentary of how, you know, and we see it. I mean, there's so many examples of stories that we've had to cover where you see the rumors on the message board. And so many times, you know, they're just so outlandish.
I'm not talking about, you know, our board specifically, just message boards in general. There's so much outlandish stuff out there on message boards that you always take anything you see just coming from an anonymous user on a message board of a grain of salt. Like you might kind of go, Hmm, that's interesting.
Like, is that, if that's true, that's really interesting, but you never know, like how credible any of it is. But to Nicole's point, like most of the stuff that has been like leaked out there, like, Hey, was this Conor Stallions in disguise? It actually, it actually was.
And again, a shout out to our own bro, Hayo, because he's been, I think, probably along with a couple of our other commenters, some of the best investigators out there on the web in terms of this, in terms of unearthing details about this sign stealing scandal that have proven to be true. And, you know, if you go to 11warriors.com right now, I don't, not sure, most likely between the time we've recorded this and the time you're listening to this, there's already been multiple new threads about the Michigan scandal because they restart every time they get to 300 comments, but we're up to some obscene Roman numeral at this point of, of all the threads that have been had by our commenters about the Michigan scandal.
And, you know, I I'd be lying if I said I read all of them because there's just so many comments, but if you dig through those threads, there are lots of interesting nuggets there from some of our readers who have proven based on their, their track record of stuff that they've unveiled in this sign stealing investigation, but they know what's going on. Like they're not just making stuff up. So again, shout out to bro Hayo and the others in our 11 Warriors community who have been investigating this and, you know, pretty cool that bro Hayo got the opportunity to be a part of this documentary.
And I know he's got a AMA going on in the forum right now. That's definitely worth checking out. He, he talks a lot about what it was like for him to be a part of that documentary and, and he wasn't just somebody that they had on for an interview and that was it.
Like he was somebody who actually was like integrally involved in this documentary. Like they were exchanging information and he said that he even helped them devise questions to ask Connor Stallion. So very cool that, you know, one of our own in the community was able to play such a big part in this documentary that's getting so, so much attention.
And you know, certainly, you know, encourage everybody to go, you know, check out, you know, what he's saying in the forum right now, if you're looking for more, more perspective on this Connor Stallion story.
[Andy Anders]
After this documentary, you know, it's just going to be interesting to see exactly what sanctions are levied at Michigan. Now that the official notice of allegations has been given to Michigan this past week, timed up pretty, I would say it wasn't a coincidence that the NCAA timed this up a little bit with the release of the documentary. And Michigan has 90 days to respond less than that now to those notice of allegations.
So, you know, this time in several months, we'll know exactly what Michigan's punishment is. But for me, it was, I went into the documentary expecting a puff. He's expecting them to go to every length to try and stretch what Connor was saying.
But to me, it just, anytime you talk to, whether it was for Ohio or whether it was Hobson, the sorry, Will Hobson, Will Hobson, Will Hobson, I was blanking on his first name for a second there, the Washington Post reporter, whenever he was talking about the evidence, he'd obtained. And he said it best too, you know, the whole deflection about, well, Connor's team thinks Ohio State hacked his computer or hired an investigative firm to hack his computer and get that info. We still don't know the exact details of how the NCAA was first leaked this information.
We still don't know the full details of how the NCAA found out that this was going on with Connor Stallions' computer, right? We know it was given to them. A third party told them to look into this, essentially.
There's really only been very loose circumstantial evidence, it seems, to link Ryan Day to anything related to Connor Stallions' data being leaked or whatever. And there's not even anything more than loose circumstantial evidence, it seems, that any, there was anything nefarious in obtaining the information from his computer, necessarily. It might have just been the result of an investigation from a third party.
And Michigan had computer crimes that their co-offensive coordinator was involved in earlier in 2023, so that could have also had something to do with it. But the deflection, I thought Will Hobson summed it up well, is that it doesn't matter, you know, how the information got out there. The information is what it is.
It clearly shows evidence that advanced scouting happened. There was footage from opposing sidelines to decipher signals and to hear Connor backpedal throughout the documentary, I thought was really revealing and more revealing than I thought this documentary would be. So I guess that part of it was very entertaining to watch.
And also, again, just great to see our website be involved in the storytelling of this. One of our posters be so integral to how this documentary kind of came forth.
[Dan Hope]
Well, we'll certainly continue to follow Connor Stallion's Michigan story as it unfolds, since it is a big point of interest among Ohio State fans. But, you know, most likely we're not going to get any word really on penalties until 2025 because of the fact that, you know, Michigan has 90 days to respond. You figure they're going to take both 90 days.
They're probably not going to agree on some joint resolution, which means it's probably going to go to a hearing. And so it's unlikely that any penalties are going to actually come out here until 2025, at least not final agreed upon, you know, determined penalties for Michigan. And so, you know, most likely, you know, this is a story that's going to continue to linger in the background for some time yet.
But college football season is here. Ohio State football season begins Saturday when the Buckeyes play Akron. And so we will be focusing a lot on that and how this year's Buckeyes, this year's Wolverines, everything in college football unfolds over the next five months before that extended college football playoff wraps up in mid-January.
So an exciting season ahead. We'll be here with you on Real Pod Wednesdays to cover it all. And we hope that you'll continue to join us all season long.