Ugh.

• Will Howard was pretty good today until late. He again had an underthrow to JJ, but he seemed to be in control throughout the game (obv that last drive is a different story). He's a redzone wizard. Obviously didn't love the bobbled snap on the one third down.
• Howard just has to know the clock better on that last drive. No excuse for that from an experienced quarterback.
• Trey was mostly good today. The one drive was especially great. He had the first down on the 3rd and 1 but for some reason tried to bounce it outside. They ended up punting.
• Judkins wasn't his usual self. Maybe the hand injury was partially responsive for the strip?
• Smart move snapping it so quickly after the Kacmarek "catch" on the opening drive.
• Chip had an up-and-down day. There were some cool play designs and some other stuff that just wasn't working. The one full house backfield play didn't work at all.
• Second drive was rough for the offensive line. There was a total miscommunication in pass protection. Then Donovan Jackson got completely smoked on the play where Judkins was stripped. Derrick Harmon made the play and Tegra was blocking him, but Jackson letting his man through was the bigger issue.
• Josh Simmons going out is probably going to be catastrophic. Michalski wasn't particularly bad from what I could see, but there were way too many penalties on the line.
• Receivers are still great. No concerns there.
• I though they'd put time back on the clock after the illegal substitution on the last drive.

• The defense was terrible today.
• Denzel Burke had the worst game of his career. I won't even fault him for that first TD since he had good coverage and that was just a hell of a throw and catch. Everything else though? He was just flat out bad.
• Still concerned about the lack of pressure. I have no idea how many times they blitzed, but it was hardly noticeable when they did. Too many of those dumb delayed blitzes too.
• They did get some pressure on the opening drive of the second half. Oregon ended up punting. Weird!
• The defensive line rotation is still really annoying at times.
• Credit where it is due: Oregon's 4 and 1 play-action conversion was a great call.
• I don't have much more to say about the defense. It was just a gross performance. Rough night for Jim Knowles.

***I didn’t even mention Ryan Day at first when I absolutely should have. His handling of the game’s final moments was dreadful.

Seriously , $2million for that tripe?

Curious where everyone is at because tonight not entirely aside, I felt it coming into the year he is extremely overrated.

His first year was entirely over-aggressive and cost us a Natty with the best QB we ever had.

Year 2 swung too far the other way with vanilla conservatism and couldn’t get off the field when needed.

Before tonight, we had evidence of overmatched teams moving the ball. Tonight, more of the same despite a lot of day 2 draft picks that decided to come back and an all-world transfer.

Day won’t do it mid season and probably shouldn’t, but if we don’t bring home the trophy this year Knowles time should be up. Curious if y’all agree?

There is a football contest tonight and I believe I am interested in watching it. Give me Ohio State 33, Oregon 20.

Derrick Harmon scares me but Ohio State’s interior OL has been impressive. Oregon’s linebackers are meh as is its interior o-line.

Excited to see more Jordan Hancock and obviously hoping Sonny keeps it up after a great showing against Iowa.

Login to view embedded media

I see at least three major mistakes from Chiles. Ohio State 40, Sparty 13. May the good lord bless me with my Mylan Graham touchdown 🤞🏻 (doubtful).

Didn't see a thread yet so figured I'd start one so I can talk about this NW-Maryland game.

Other than OSU-Oregon, not a great week but some other interesting (to me) games:
PSU-USC
Iowa-Washington
Utah-ASU (tonight)
Wisky-Rutgers
Texas-Oklahoma
Tennessee-Florida
Ole Miss-LSU
Stanford-ND

A lot to be happy about. Also some things that could be a concern heading into the meat of the schedule / matchup games.

more aggressive with our CBs in coverage? How's that working out for us? I'll admit I'm shocked Gabriel's throwing the ball so well and Burke is getting torched.

As the "Crootin" thread continues to devolve I figured it may be in our best interest to create class-specific threads to help manage offers, final schools lists, etc.

This is the 2025 thread.

Wont lie, cant really focus on work or really anything else going on with life. I'm so pumped for Saturday.

Figured we just start the thread now

Well thats anticlimactic

Login to view embedded media

Unfortunately I’m not going - but if you like whiskey and looking for things to do I Ioved this place.

Thread for all transfer portal discussion about non Ohio State related players.

In Escanaba, MI! GO BUCKEYES!!!!!!!! O-H!

Reading material to help with your bets this week.

Victor King Totals Tip Sheet
Gold Sheet
Gridiron Gold NCAA
Gridiron Gold NFL
Pointwise


As always Ill go through these tip sheets and as many other smart people/computers/trends as I can find that are above 50% win percentage, record who they all like to cover the spread this week, add em all up in a composite database, and see who is the most universally loved teams are this weekend. Hopefully it translates to some winners for us all.


LFG

Login to view embedded media
I saw this announced a week ago and they’ve already raised 3.5 million. Seems like a smart idea. Im sure there’s a handful of Ohio born/based artists and bands that would be interested. An obvious one would be Twenty One Pilots as their lead singer is a huge Ohio State fan and they can sell a ton of tickets. They were just at Nationwide Arena a few days ago. Rascal Flats is another obvious one. Maybe O.A.R. I’m sure there’s others.

Seems like a quick and relatively easy way to raise a few million dollars.

After ranking 5th last season with 81% returning production, Michigan’s 2024 team plummets to 128th, returning just 36% of their production from 2023.

24% on offense
47% on defense
(Ohio State returns 61%)

It’s going to be really interesting seeing who ends up as their QB1 next season. I have trouble believing anyone on their current roster is starting caliber, but who knows what they’ll be able to find in the spring portal. They could have a major step back, especially if they lose any of their top players in the portal.

Today


Friday, October 11


Saturday, October 12

As the "Crootin" thread continues to devolve I figured it may be in our best interest to create class-specific threads to help manage offers, final schools lists, etc.

This is the 2026 thread.

How long do we expect Chip to stay in his current role?

Does he want to be a HC again? Would he be interested in an NFL OC role?

Sure feels like it.

One stop shop to share all things fall camp related that you see out there on the web.

Login to view embedded media

Been asked to start a new thread here for 2027 info/discussion so that's what I'm doing.

Some frustrating moments early on, but it was mostly smooth sailing after that.

• The opening drive was great, but other than that it was a rough first half for Chip Kelly. Hated the 4th down QB run out of the shotgun.
• Will Howard had an up-and-down day. He had some beauties to Emeka but also made some poor decisions and underthrew some deep balls.
• He made some nice reads in the running game and ran hard on the designed carries. He missed a few open receivers and there was one play in particular where I wished he had thrown it out of bounds rather than taking a big loss. The INT was bad and again he needs to get better with the deep ball.
• I thought the offensive line was solid for the most part but Donovan Jackson had a rough showing. He especially seems to struggle against stunting defenders.
• I love how hard Quinshon Judkins continues to run.
• Jeremiah Smith is pretty good imo. Emeka had some great catches today. Loved to see him get the trifecta.
• I wonder what is going on with Jelani Thurman.
• My favorite play of the game might have been the 4th and 2 play-action pass to Inniss late in the third.
  
  
  
• Is Tyleik Williams the most important player on the defense? The man is impossible to block. I am sad every time he's taken off the field in favor of the rushmen.
• I though Sonny Styles had his best game of the season. He was caught flat-footed on a third down crosser early on, but other than that I thought he was pretty good today.
• The defense did a hell of a job against Kaleb Johnson. Simon missed him once but that's going to happen on occasion against a good back.
• I'm not gonna fault them too much for the second-team defense giving up the TD run. I hate that Arvell is the guy who missed the tackle though.
• Ty Hamilton annihilated the blocker on the McNamara fumble to start the 4th
  
  
  
• I've been impressed with the half-time adjustments and how they come out and look after the break.