The coaching carousel is always a fascinating thing to follow

Open Jobs:

College:

NFL:
Carolina(Matt Rhule)
Indianapolis(Frank Reich)
Denver(Nathaniel Hackett)
Houston(Lovie Smith)
Arizona(Kliff Kingsbury)

Filled Jobs:
Arizona State(Kenny Dillingham)
Nebraska(Matt Rhule)
Wisconsin(Luke Fickell)
Auburn(Hugh Freeze)
Georgia Tech(Brent Key)
UAB(Trent Dilfer)
Charlotte(Biff Poggi)
FAU(Tom Herman)
Colorado(Deion Sanders)
USF(Alex Golesh)
Liberty(Jamey Chadwell)
Coastal Carolina(Tim Beck)
Cincinnati(Scott Satterfield)
UNLV(Barry Odom)
Tulsa(Kevin Wilson)
Louisville(Jeff Brohm)
Texas State(GJ Kinne)
Western Michigan(Lance Taylor)
Stanford(Troy Taylor)
Purdue(Ryan Walters)
North Texas(Eric Morris)
Mississippi State(Zach Arnett)

Briefly chatted with the new Buckeyes center yesterday

Per a source in the WHAC. Bill Landis is writing up an analysis on what it means for Ohio State.

Ohio State beats out Alabama, Texas A&M and everyone else for the nation’s top corner and No. 5 overall prospect. Tim Walton is on a roll.

Story from @Birm:


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Folks have been posting updates throughout the week in THIS thread. We can go ahead and use this one for the game itself.

Buckeyes in the game: WR Jeremiah Smith, RB James Peoples, DE Eddrick Houston, OL Ian Moore, LB Garrett Stover, LS Morrow Evans

Roster: https://www.nbcsports.com/college-football/all-american-bowl/roster

As a reminder, Devin Sanchez will be committing during the game.

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I am not going to kick the dog but it’s time for him to look in the mirror. Does he want to play the game or not. He can’t be afraid to make moves. Offensive line is a clear issue. QB is a clear issue. This might have been the most embarrassing offensive performance I have ever seen as a Buckeye fan. Honest question… when was the last time osu was held without a touchdown?

How does it work for draft purposes if the NCAA drags their feet on making a decision?

Curious if this eliminates his ability of getting picked on day 3. Sometimes the NCAA takes many months to make a determination.

I have my own opinions about the work he does for this program, and am in favor of him getting replaced by someone who has a much better understanding of the advancements in sports science over the last decade. But I want to foster a healthy debate and hear dissenting opinions. If you think Mick is doing well in his role here, could you lay out why you think that is? Or you can just vote. I want to see what the current sentiment among fans is.

Michigan launched their fundraiser today to “keep our rivals from stealing our players” Always the victims.

Honestly, it feels pretty late to be launching this with the deadlines fast approaching. If they win on Monday I’m sure they will be able to capitalize on that, but still.

In Chris Balas’ words:
“Michigan is behind — quite a bit — in its NIL funding, and time is running out. Kids are being approached by agencies all the time now (current players through backchannels, etc.), and if the money's not there, they're going to be enticed to go somewhere else.”

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I looked up this stuff mostly out of curiosity, thinking I might use it for a story. But then I just decided to drop it here instead.

Been thinking about the impact of transfer OL as Ohio State finds itself in the market again.

• In the 2023 NFL Draft, only six of the 43 offensive linemen drafted were guys who had transferred at some point in their career, and one of those was a JUCO transfer. Three of those six players were one year plug-and-play guys before getting drafted.

• I went through all of the all-conference teams for the five power leagues. The Big Ten and ACC do three teams. The SEC, Pac-12 and Big 12 do two teams. Out of all of those offensive line spots, only six went to players who had transferred at some point in their careers. Only one of those players, Michigan center Drake Nugent, earned a first-team nod. The Big Ten had three total transfer OL selected. The ACC had two. the Big 12 had one. The SEC and Pac-12 had none.

• By my count using the data that was available, there were 39 OL who transferred from a G5 program to a P5 program last year. Less than half (19) started double-digit games.

• Of the top-25 OL in Rivals portal rankings last year, 16 were regular starters. Josh Simmons, who was ranked No. 38, had a higher PFF grade than 8 of those 16 regular starters in the top 25.

• Was curious about the Sun Belt in particular with OSU hosting Troy's Derrick Graham after taking Vic Cutler from the same league last year. There were seven Sun Belt to P5 OL transfers last year. Three became immediate full-time starters at their new spots. Two of the three were All-Sun Belt players the year before. The third, Oklahoma State's Dalton Cooper, was a really nice player for OSU last year despite not being an all-league player in the Sun Belt the year before (though he was a third-team selection in 2021). I mention that because I'm a proponent of guys needing to show a baseline all-conference level of play in the G5 if Ohio State is gonna try to bring them to the Big Ten. Graham isn't that, Cutler and Simmons weren't that. But Simmons was (arguably?) Ohio State's best lineman this year and Cooper is at least another example of a guy playing really well as an up-transfer despite not being an all-conference selection. So maybe I shouldn't bang that drum so loudly.

Why look all of this up? I don't really know. I think I'm of the mind that, while all portal shopping is a crapshoot, offensive line portaling feels especially treacherous. There are success stories, no doubt, but the list of super high-impact transfer offensive linemen seems short. I just don't know that you want to be in the portal looking for offensive linemen every offseason and I'd like to see Ohio State get off that particular carousel as soon as possible.

Saw an ad at the top listing college blaster boxes. Since I had never heard of them of course I had to go see what they were. The following was listed in the description of Buckeye greats:

Ohio State Panini College Team Collection features all-time greats from the past in their Buckeye uniforms.The ultimate product for the Ohio State fan!

The Collection is highlighted by Cris Carter, Paul Warfield, Ted Ginn Jr., A.J Hawk, James Laurinaitis, Devin Smith, Jeff Heuerman, Doran Grant, Ryan Shazier, Jim Jackson, D’ Angelo Russell, Jared Sullinger and Rutheford B. Hayes.

Just reading that list brought back such good memories. It seems like just yesterday that Rutherford B Hayes was running wild in the Horseshoe and leading us to a national championship

And where I think Ohio State needs to go

Which would you prefer as QB1 for the 2024 Buckeyes?

Dave Biddle reporting from several trusted sources that Ohio State did not make use of all available 15 bowl practices before the Cotton Bowl. Only 12-13 practices that were on the lighter side.

Pretty inexcusable, if true.

The Buckeyes struggled badly on offense against Missouri because of an injury to Devin Brown and poor offensive line play. Here are some other games since 2001 where the Buckeyes just couldn't put it together. Thoughts?

#9. 12-31-16: (3) Clemson 31 - (2) Ohio State 0
Rushing: 22-88 - Passing: 19-33-127-0-2 - Total: 55-215 - 3 TO's - 9 FD's

#8. 9-17-11: Miami, Fla 24 - (17) Ohio State 6
Rushing: 37-174 - Passing: 4-18-35-0-1 - Total: 55-209 - 2 TO's - 15 FD's

#7. 9-13-08: (1) USC 35 - (5) Ohio State 3
Rushing: 34-71 - Passing: 21-30-136-0-1 - Total: 64-207 - 3 TO's - 15 FD's

#6. 12-29-23: (9) Missouri 14 - (7) Ohio State 3
Rushing: 33-97 - Passing: 10-24-106-0-0 - Total yards: 57-203 - 1 TO - 12 FD's

#5. 10-1-11: (15) Mich St 10 - (17) Ohio State 7
Rushing: 39-35 - Passing: 12-25-143-1-1 - Total: 64-178 - 1 TO - 12 FD's

#4. 10-15-04: (16) Iowa 33 - (25) Ohio State 7
Rushing: 29-27 - Passing: 14-26-150-1-1 Total: 55-177 - 3 TO's - 12 FD's
#3. 9-22-01: (14) UCLA 13 - (21) Ohio State 6
Rushing: 35-121 - Passing: 5-23-45-0-2 Total: 58-166 - 2 TO's - 9 FD's

#2. 11-21-15: (9) Mich St 17 - (2) Ohio State 14
Rushing: 29-86 - Passing: 9-16-46-1-0 - Total: 45-132 - 0 TO's - 5 FD's

#1. 1-8-07: (2) Florida 41 - (1) Ohio State 14
Rushing: 23-47 - Passing: 4-14-35-0-1 - Total: 37-82 - 2 TO's - 8 FD's

Since the end of the Michigan game until now, it’s borderline nauseating watching morons stoke the fire/regurgitate falsehoods and simply take shots at kids, coaches—you name it, just to see what sticks on the wall. You can call me crazy, but the job that these guys are doing should stand for something. Not only is it vetted as best as possible, but it’s communicated with a degree of integrity AND humility that isn’t found anywhere else in the corners of Buckeye Cybernation. It may not be splashy, it may not it garner the clicks. But the “outrage” that is being displayed by some morons is embarrassing. And it turns into some bullshit high school pissing match because so and so carry’s water, or such and such won’t “ask the tough questions”. There is a reason why those jackasses can’t ask those questions, yet their platform empowers them to project a voice that is so squeaky that unsubstantiated validity becomes the grease.
Birm, Austin, Bill and Doug, thanks. The right way isn’t always the easiest.