This Week in Twitter: Buckeyes Sign NIL Deals, Tons of OSU Pro Hoops News, and Nicholas Petit-Frere Does Not Look Like an Offensive Lineman

By 11W Staff on July 3, 2021 at 2:34 pm
Nicholas Petit-Frere at a game versus the Nebraska Cornhuskers
Nicholas Petit-Frere
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This Week in Twitter is our weekly look at some of the week's best and most entertaining tweets from current and former Ohio State players and other Ohio State accounts.

It was a windstorm of a week for Ohio State athletics. Following a few Olympics qualifications the week prior, the end of June and beginning of July saw several significant developments for Buckeye football and basketball alike.

Chief among them was the introduction of the interim NIL policy across college athletics, allowing student-athletes to utilize themselves as a brand for endorsements and other endeavors.

Though there have been several notable NIL deals already inked—such as the $2 Million Master P's son will receive over four years at Tennessee St.—the public agreements for Ohio State's players have come in slowly.

The latest—and for many, the most significant—would be Sevyn Banks' partnership with Raising Cane's alongside Oklahoma and LSU quarterbacks Spencer Rattler and Myles Brennan.

Banks was quick to endorse Cane's on Instagram as his preferred post-workout meal of choice. No word on if Mickey Marotti has taken note yet.

Banks didn't merely settle for chicken fingers, however. He also set up a Cameo and is gladly taking requests for Ohio State fans everywhere.

Returning All-American Haskell Garrett is taking advantage of the new legislation by launching his own brand, Impact by HG. Details on what Impact will offer are still a bit vague, but Garrett is sporting a nice hoodie in the brand's first promotional video. 

Back to endorsements, Tyreke Smith was quick to laud Gopuff on Twitter less than twelve hours after the interim NIL law went into effect—as well as an underwear brand earlier today.

On the other side of the line, Nicholas Petit-Frere received an endorsement deal from Flix CV, a cloud-based video interview platform. NPT even got a fancy press release to go along with his announcement.

Given the climate around student-athletes and sponsorships that existed merely a month ago, seeing an active Ohio State player's name in a corporate document announcing a business partnership is pretty remarkable.

Endorsements and new brands weren't merely limited to the football team, however. Zed Key also gave an endorsement to Gopuff around roughly the same time Smith did—and appears to be in such good spirits following the rule change that he's going to sponsor some meals at the Union Cafe. 

Of course, the most significant Ohio State hoops news of the week prior to the weekend was the announcement that Duane Washington would stay... in the NBA Draft. After a couple strong performances in the evaluation stage, Washington felt he had played himself into legitimate consideration as a prospect. Ohio State Twitter was quick to offer him praise and thanks.

In contrast to the bittersweet farewell to Washington, several notable former Ohio State players came back to campus this week for what Chris Holtmann deemed the first annual Hoops Pro Week.

D'Angelo Russell, Jared Sullinger, and Jae'Sean Tate were among numerous former Buckeyes that stopped in to help the current squad work on their craft (and yes, Aaron Craft was there too).

They will certainly need all the help they can get, as Ohio State announced this week that they will host Mike Krzyzewski's swan song Duke Blue Devils team in Columbus on November 30th for the B1G/ACC Challenge.

A quick pivot back to football, where many were surprised to learn this week that the Ohio State football players have incredibly swanky business cards. You can hear Patrick Bateman sweating already from the tasteful thickness of Miyan Williams' marketing material.

The MiyanHive will also be delighted to learn he has a nickname that doesn't reference a bowling ball. 

By the way, one of the guys Williams may be running behind later this year truly looks like he has no business playing offensive line. Nicholas Petit-Frere was already a physical specimen at tackle when he arrived at Ohio State, but now everyone can see the results that spending time with strength coach Mickey Marotti has.

That is a large man that added nearly 40 lbs. in two years and somehow looks like he cut weight. I do not envy the folks that have to line up opposite of NPT come the fall.

Speaking of other large OSU linemen, the defensive side of the ball got together for a cookout this week. The lesson here is do not get between an All-American and their food.

In Ohio State sports news beyond football and basketball, former OSU Women's Hockey Player Tatum Skaggs went fourth overall to the Toronto Six in the NWHL Draft earlier this week.

Skaggs is in fact very good at making other people look foolish on ice skates, so a top five selection was well-justified:

Finally, though we usually enjoy ending TWIT with a bit of light-heartedness, today we will just stick with good vibes. Buckeye fans got some great weekend news earlier today when E.J. Liddell announced his intent to return to Ohio State for the next basketball season.

Kofi Cockburn, come on down.

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