Joey Bosa's out here commissioning high-end SpongeBob art.
Finally, some normalcy.
Song of the Day: "Someone New" by Hozier.
Word of the Day: Prattle.
2021 > 2020. Ohio State finished the 2020 recruiting cycle with the No. 5 class in the nation, landing three five-stars and seven top-100 players among the 25 commitments.
But things are finally going the Buckeyes' way in the 2021 cycle.
Ohio State has now topped last years recruiting class
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) May 4, 2020
with eight fewer commitments.
This 2021 class is absurd. https://t.co/oNQJQZUgzs
And we're still going to see about three more five-star commitments in the coming months, which math tells me would already be enough to give Ohio State a top-five recruiting class of the past decade – with at least five fewer commitments than the other four.
Needless to say, this class is about to be NSFW.
THE MAN FOR THE JOB. Chris Holtmann has his fair share of doubters, especially with the number of players leaving the program recently, but Keith Wesson went out of his way to let the world know he ain't one of them.
The father of two sons who played under Holtmann is adamant he's the man for the job.
In a recent, unsolicited phone call to The Dispatch, Wesson — whose sons, Andre and Kaleb, have been on the roster for all three seasons that Holtmann has coached the men’s basketball team — said he and his family believe the Buckeyes to be in good hands both now and in the future with Holtmann at the helm.
“I went through a coaching change when I played,” said Wesson, who during his five years at Ohio State played for Eldon Miller before finishing with one year under Gary Williams. “I didn’t like it. Having gone through it, I was a little hesitant even though we’d had some connections” with Holtmann, who previously coached at Butler.
This experience, Wesson added, was different.
“It was night and day,” he said. “For us, he’s been fantastic.”
...
“I don’t know what people leaving are feeling,” he said. “That’s on the kid if they think that it’s better to go somewhere else. I think the program is in great hands. I couldn’t be happier with the opportunities that were provided for Kaleb and Andre.”
Personally, I find it a little odd that anybody is questioning a coach following a national championship season, but everyone's different, I guess.
BUCKEYE SPIELBERG. I learned long ago that it's not just the players who are elite, everyone even tangentially associated with Ohio State's football program is among the best in the nation at what they do.
Example: I guarantee this 3:31 YouTube video by video coordinator Zach Swartz is the best movie you'll watch all year.
"There is fun to be done, there are points to be scored, there are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winningest winner of all."
It's a proper masterpiece, and Doug Lesmerises of Cleveland.com spoke with the artist about his glorious creation.
What Swartz did with Ohio State football is point us forward by taking us back, which is why I wanted to talk to him. He took Ohio State highlights through the decades and in this film, fit them onto old TVs, computers and cell phones, through hours of painstaking editing.
“I wanted to make people feel things as they are in the moment,” Swartz said, “but also to throw them back to the time when we could all be in the same place together.”
...
“I just tried to think of, you know, where are we all in the world?” Swartz said. "Then I realized we’re all in different places. The idea sprouted from we’re all used to gathering in the same place. We all have our routines and football is one of those routines. You know every year that spring ball’s coming, you know every year that winter workouts are coming, you know every year that fall camp is coming, that the season is coming every Saturday.
“We’re all going to meet up in the same place, essentially, whether it’s at the stadium or with friends on a couch. So I kind of started thinking about the concept of places, and the way that we’re all no longer able to have that routine of getting together in the same place. That’s kind of expected every year. And that’s taken for granted.”
As someone who routinely pines for a running clock midway through the third quarter of about half of Ohio State's annual contests, I am beyond guilty of taking Buckeye football for granted. It will never happen again.
IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM... As a guard, Michigan Man Ben Bredeson didn't even have to line up against J.K. Dobbins these past few years, but after watching the Buckeye back ravage his team three years in a row, he'd still had enough.
Now, he gets to block for him.
Bredeson on now being teammate of Ohio State's J.K. Dobbins. "Whenever we played them, I just heard the name J.K. Dobbins over the loudspeaker over and over again." Said he's happy to be teammates with Dobbins because "he's done enough damage against me."
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) May 4, 2020
This development probably makes Bredeson giddy for a couple of reasons. First, the guy who gashed his team for years will now be on his team, but also, he finally gets to block for a competent running back in a functioning offense.
Consider this – Michigan had four offensive linemen drafted this year and somehow still finished *77th* in rushing. For five years their entire offense has revolved around forcing carries to a running back in multiple tight-end sets and they haven't had a top-25 rushing attack in almost a decade.
Enjoy Dobbins and Lamar Jackson, Ben. You were the victim of a crime while you were Ann Arbor. To be fair, you chose that, but I can't help but have sympathy for all wasted talent. Send Donovan Peoples-Jones my regards, as well. At least Tarik Black got the hell out.
MADDEN RATINGS. I'll say this, "please rate your value on a scale of 40 to 100" is a hell of a way to greet new hires to the workforce, but since that's what we're doing, I'll gladly turn it into #content.
With all due respect to Jordan Fuller, if he's rated higher than Joe Burrow and the same as Chase Young when I pop that game into my electric box of fun, I want every cent of my money back.
I'm also unreasonably sad that this question wasn't posed to Damon Arnette. Dude would have looked dead at the camera and said "100 or 105" with the straightest of faces.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A cunning hitman who embarrassed NYPD was the target of the biggest manhunt in New York City history... The lure of mafia money during the COVID-19 crisis... A Bronx biker gang leader was assassinated by two masked gunmen in broad daylight... A naked Australian man wrestled a giant python to save his kitten... The life and fiery death of the world's largest treehouse... Kim Jong Un has an enormous and bizarre waterpark barge...
