Well, this would certainly be one way to replace E.J. Liddell and Malaki Branham.
Do you have any eligibility left
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) May 17, 2022
Hey man, shoot your shot!
Word of the Day: Colloquy.
DISRESPEK. Listen, I love Pro Football Focus. I love their player grades and think they're generally very helpful for positions like offensive line and defensive line, where there aren't a ton of numbers and stats to tell the whole story.
But every now and then, their numbers spit out something like the famous "Alex Hornibrook is better than Dwayne Haskins, actually," and we all just kind of have to point and laugh.
This is the latest example:
Is Blake Corum RB1 in the Big Ten? pic.twitter.com/ZoDsIllVcj
— PFF College (@PFF_College) May 16, 2022
TreVeyon Henderson – the actual RB1 in the Big Ten – was less than enthused.
Lol ok..
— TreVeyon Henderson (@TreVeyonH4) May 16, 2022
And it's not like I'm being overly biased here. Henderson had more touchdowns on the ground and through the air, rushed for more yards, had a better yards-per-carry number, had more receiving yards, and a better yards-per-catch number – all while playing basically the same teams Blake Corum played.
If you have some formula that's spitting out Blake Corum as the best back in the Big Ten, you probably need to reconsider and readjust. Cause just rolling with it without a second thought gives off extreme "The Machine Knows!" energy.
FIVE-STAR FACTORY. Generally speaking, a five-star prospect wants one thing out of a prospective college – to get them to the next level.
Sure, there's some nuance in there and some exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, a five-star prospect is coming to college with their sights set on a career in football, and they're looking for the school that's most likely to get them there.
Thankfully for the Buckeye faithful, Ohio State's one of the best in that department – maybe *the* best, actually.
The Buckeyes don’t have the sheer number of five-star prospects as Alabama and Georgia, but the conversion rate of turning those players into draft picks is right on par with those programs (slightly better, actually). The average draft position of its five-star prospects is the third-best among the teams that have signed double-digit five-stars, behind Alabama and Clemson. All four first-rounders were top-10 picks. Two of them — Chase Young in 2020 and Nick Bosa in 2019 — went at No. 2.
Here’s something else: Of the 10 five-star prospects who started and finished their careers with OSU, eight were drafted. The outliers are offensive lineman Harry Miller, who medically retired this year, and linebacker Justin Hilliard, who signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021.
For the purposes of this exercise, we’re not factoring in Fields — who developed for two seasons in Columbus after transferring from Georgia before becoming a first-round pick — or cornerback Kendall Sheffield, who was a fourth-round pick out of Ohio State in 2019 after initially signing with Alabama in 2015. But both players spent the majority of their careers with the Buckeyes before turning pro. (The average draft position for OSU would basically be the same if we did include those players.)
The two players still on the roster have a good shot of getting drafted in 2023. Defensive end Zach Harrison is a projected first-round pick by The Athletic’s Dane Brugler. Meanwhile, two of the three five-star prospects OSU signed in 2020 could be first-round picks next year: receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. Smith-Njigba could be the top receiver in the 2023 draft.
I like this analysis because there's a conundrum you run into whenever you have this conversation – are these schools *really* that good at producing NFL prospects, or do they simply just get the best players out of high school and naturally produce more NFL talent as a result?
But when you compare programs just by their track record with five-star prospects, that conversation's kind of just irrelevant. You all have roughly the same talent level; who had the most success with it?
But I really respect Ohio State's simplified approach to this whole thing: simply load the roster with the absolute best players in the country and open the checkbook for the best coaches. They've cracked the code!
DON'T MAKE IT WEIRD. Harry Miller's continuing to fight the good fight against mental health issues, and now you can help by simply upgrading your wardrobe.
— Harry Miller (@h_miller76) May 16, 2022
I say this without even a hint of sarcasm or hyperbole: Harry Miller is my hero, and when I eventually bring children into this world, I pray endlessly that they are like him.
EVERYBODY'S INNOCENT. Y'all are going to be shocked to hear this, but it would appear that a system that's almost entirely based on schools snitching on themselves isn't working at all!
Sources: Despite several active investigations (including one into a noteworthy collective), not a single school has reported violations of the NIL interim policy to NCAA enforcement or various Power Five compliance offices since it went into effect on July 1.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) May 16, 2022
Personally, I think all laws should be enforced this way. If I don't self-report that I was going 95 in a 55, was I really speeding? Impossible to say!
SONG OF THE DAY. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by The Stooges.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. So you want to be a bootlegger... A ransomware gang threatens to overthrow the Costa Rica government... A child porn investigation reveals an Arby’s worker peeing in milkshakes... The unfathomable problem of suicide as a protest tactic... How timing your meals right can benefit your health... The arctic explorer who saved himself from an avalanche with a dagger made from his own shit...
