We made it.
Ohio State will finally play its season opener on Saturday at noon against Nebraska, so we spend this week's show talking about our expectations for the first game and what we're most intrigued to see the Buckeyes as they play an actual football game for the first time in 10 months.
In the first 30 minutes of this week's show, we hit on why a mostly-empty Ohio Stadium shouldn't have much impact on the actual game but will make for a weird environment, the top matchups to watch in Saturday's game (10:30) and what could actually allow Nebraska to keep this game close (17:00). We also discuss how we'd bet on the game (25:30 – take our advice at your own risk) and come to the conclusion that the current spread is right where it should be but the over could be in play – both because of Ohio State's offense and because of Ohio State's defense.
In Three Things We Think (31:30), Dan discusses how much Georgia would benefit from having Justin Fields right now, why Ohio State's secondary absolutely must be good for the Buckeyes to have a chance to win in the College Football and why we're still not exactly sure what Greg Mattison's role will be this season. Colin talks about the Ohio State players he's most fascinated to watch on Saturday, including offensive tackles Nicholas Petit-Frere and Thayer Munford, wide receiver Garrett Wilson and safety Marcus Hooker.
Finally, we answer your questions (54:10) about why you shouldn't read into C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller still having their black stripes, how confident we are that Ohio State will actually get to play all of its games this fall, which running back should be in the game on third-and-long and why Jameson Williams may or may not be a factor in the return game this year.
Check out our new audio player above to listen to this week's Real Pod Wednesdays and/or subscribe on your listening platform of choice. (P.S. We just moved RPW to a new hosting platform, so there may be delays in this week's episode uploading to some podcast apps – if you run into issues, let us know so we can address them.)
