Real Pod Wednesdays: Michigan Faces Challenging Transition, Ohio State Transfer Talk and Chris Holtmann’s Seat is Hot

It’s a big week for Real Pod Wednesdays.

RPW makes its YouTube premiere this week as every episode of the podcast going forward will now be available on video. If you’d rather just listen to us talk, RPW remains available on all the audio platforms where it’s always been available – including Spotify and Apple Podcasts – and you can listen to the audio in the player below.

We begin this week’s episode by talking about the big news of the week up in Ann Arbor, where Sherrone Moore is now the head coach following Jim Harbaugh’s departure. While we agree that Moore was the right choice to succeed Harbaugh, we foresee a challenging season ahead for the defending national champions as they replace their head coach, several other key assistants and the majority of their starters from last season.

In Columbus, meanwhile, expectations are only growing for the 2024 Ohio State football team after a January full of key additions and retentions. Ohio State’s five veteran transfer additions all met with the media on Tuesday, and all of them are starting their Buckeye careers with national championship hopes. We share our biggest takeaways from conversing with all five of them.

On the other end of the spectrum, Ohio State men’s basketball had a miserable January as it won just two of its eight games during the month, knocking the Buckeyes from solidly in the NCAA Tournament field to well outside the bubble. As a result, Chris Holtmann’s seat is scorching hot with the Buckeyes needing a big finish to the regular season to avoid missing the Big Dance for the second year in a row.

The full rundown for this week’s show:

4:26: Ohio State has had much more momentum than Michigan since the 2023 season ended
5:28: Sherrone Moore was the obvious choice to replace Jim Harbaugh, but he has a lot of work to do
9:38: Predicting Michigan’s 2024 record and whether that will be enough to make the CFP
12:11: Ohio State is now a 6.5-point favorite over Michigan, but it can’t take the Wolverines lightly
18:33: Caleb Downs is a better man than us returning 80 phone calls
19:48: Downs excited to be a Buckeye, expects Ohio State defense to be one of nation’s best
21:48: Will Howard’s challenges at Kansas State prepared him well for challenges at Ohio State
24:05: Howard excited to play in Ohio State offense, likely won’t run as much as he did at KSU
31:10: Seth McLaughlin’s experience, football IQ at center can be vital asset for offensive line
37:51: Downs set to play free safety and could also be Ohio State’s punt returner
38:59: Quinshon Judkins isn’t at OSU because he wanted to split carries, but it didn’t deter him
41:32: Will Kacmarek an underrated addition who can bolster Ohio State’s tight end blocking
45:20: Time is running out for Chris Holtmann to save his job after a miserable January
47:40: Keeping Holtmann after another NCAA Tournament miss would be harder to justify this year
52:13: Decisive losses to teams with clearly less talented rosters can’t be excused
53:49: Ohio State likely needs seven wins in its last 10 regular-season games, starting Friday at Iowa
54:50: Reading between the lines, Gene Smith and Ross Bjork sound prepared to make a change
56:49: Whatever the standard is for OSU basketball, it hasn’t been reached for the past decade
57:54: It wasn’t that long ago that OSU basketball was a big deal, but excitement has plummeted
1:01:32: Holtmann and his team need to show urgency with season on the brink