The Ohio State football team is back on the practice field, the NFL Scouting Combine is complete and the postseason is about to begin for Ohio State men’s basketball.
Tuesday was the first day of spring football at Ohio State, and that’s where we begin on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, on which we share our takeaways from watching the first 30 minutes of the Buckeyes’ opening practice and from talking to Ryan Day, Jim Knowles and Kevin Wilson after practice.
We explain why there’s already a clear group of frontrunners to start on the offensive line, discuss how Kourt Williams and Ronnie Hickman could coexist within Jim Knowles’ defense and talk about some of the players who are clearly already making an impression on Ohio State’s coaches this offseason, including second-year wide receiver Jayden Ballard and second-year cornerbacks Jordan Hancock and Jakailin Johnson.
Dan also learned more about which Ohio State football players could have breakout years and about some of Ohio State’s new coaches by talking to players at last week’s NFL Scouting Combine, where he also watched former Buckeye wide receivers Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave solidify themselves as first-round draft picks. We talk about what he learned in Indianapolis, including what three former Cincinnati defensive backs had to say about new Ohio State safeties coach Perry Eliano and what former UCLA offensive lineman Sean Rhyan said about new Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye, beginning around the 25:20 mark.
While Dan just got back from Indianapolis, Griffin will be going to Indianapolis this week for the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament, so we also talk about what we expect to see from the basketball Buckeyes as they begin postseason play. Can they bounce back from losing three of their final four regular-season games to make a deep run in the conference tournament, or will they have a short stay in Indianapolis? Beginning at the 38-minute mark, we talk about why they could make a run and why they might not, why there’s an argument that they’d actually be better off not making a deep run and what NCAA Tournament seed we ultimately expect them to receive on Selection Sunday.
In the final 11 minutes of the show, we talk about how Ohio State women’s hockey has emerged as the best team on campus, how NIL is being used in recruiting and how Chris Holtmann can most effectively replace Ryan Pedon on his coaching staff.
You can listen to Real Pod Wednesdays in the audio player above or wherever you listen to podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
