Buckeye Talk: Ohio State podcast by cleveland.com

On this Buckeye Talk, Nathan Baird and Doug Lesmerises get into spring football, which is right around the corner for Ohio State. The Buckeyes open practice Friday, so on Wednesday, Ryan Day spoke with reporters for 40 minutes. Nathan and Doug go through the most important things that were learned in that conversation about players like Paris Johnson, Zach Harrison, Kourt Williams, Cam Brown, TreV...

On this big Wednesday Buckeye Talk, it's all about the bracket. First, Stephen Means, Nathan Baird and Doug Lesmerises make their NCAA Tournament picks, revealing their Elite Eight teams and then their national champions. Who will pick Ohio State to reach the Final Four? Who will predict the Big Ten to break a two-decade drought and win a national title? Stephen, Nathan and Doug run through all of...

Ohio State's quarterback competition resumes at a new level this week when the Buckeyes officially begin spring drills on Friday. On today's Buckeye Talk we essentially asked what sort of deadline Ryan Day must work with in making biggest decision of his tenure so far. If August comes and two contenders remain neck-and-neck, should OSU find a way for both of them to play to start the season? Also,...

Ohio State spring football practice prepare to begin. The NCAA basketball tournament. Ohio State Basketball highest seed in NCAA since 2013. Could the big 10 win its first basketball national championship in 21 years? Latest in Ohio State Buckeye football recruiting.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are three parts to this weekend Buckeye Talk from cleveland.com. First (starting at 3:04) Doug Lesmerises and Nathan Baird are joined by QB film expert Derrik Klassen, who recently wrote a piece for FootballOutsiders.com about Justin Fields as an NFL Draft prospect and why he thinks Fields is even better than recent prospects like Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray and Jared Goff. If you've been seein...

Another edition of Buckeye Futures Friday kicks off with an introduction to the "recruiting battles" series Stephen is writing throughout the month of March. Ohio State already has 11 commits for the 2022 class. Which targets are the Buckeyes really still pursuing and which ones will be toughest to sign? Also, a discussion about how and why in-state five-star prospects have been so critical for OS...

On this Buckeye Talk episode from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises and Nathan Baird discuss how to view allegations of cheating made by a high school coach in Georgia this week. A recording of the coach saying that Georgia and Alabama have plans for paying players was made public and spurred this discussion. It's hard to discuss the facts, because nothing is close to proven. So the idea was to ask O...

Trying something new here on Buckeye Talk, as suggested by a text subscriber. It's time to dive into changing one decision in Ohio State history, and figuring out what would have happened. We're calling it Buckeyefly Effect (like Butterfly Effect) and we're starting with Ryan Day. What if the Buckeyes had not hired Day to replace Urban Meyer when Meyer resigned in December 2018? Who would the Buck...

This is the second part of the Buckeye Talk that dropped on Saturday. That one dealt with the top five offensive players that need to raise their games for the 2021 season. Now Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means dive into the same question on the defensive side, with five Buckeyes who need to raise their games, and it gets a lot more complicated. With fewer sure things on defense, the...

The Buckeyes would have had 14 players invited to the NFL combine, but it's not happening this year. The Buckeyes set the start of spring football practice. Ohio State announces April 17 for a tentative spring game date. Buckeye spring battle for lineup positions. Ohio State leading Big 10 recruiting race.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices...

For this weekend Buckeye Talk episode, Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird, Stephen Means and the Ohio State text subscribers ranked the players that Ohio State most needs to raise their games on offense in the 2021 season. It could be a jump from average to good, from good to great or from great to the best in the country. But who would make the biggest difference? The guys agree on some players and di...

Welcome back for our end-of-the-working week recruiting focus. Nathan and Stephen allowed promising young newcomer Doug Lesmerises to join. Topics included Kiyon Grayes' commitment and what it means for the wide receiver position and the 2022 class, early recruiting returns from Michigan's revamped coaching staff and some surprising (or maybe not-so-surprising) Big Ten recruiting rankings over the...

A couple of weeks ago, Ohio State men's basketball was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament committee's early bracket reveal and bracing to play The Game of the Year against Michigan. The Buckeyes head into Sunday's season finale against Illinois on a three-game losing streak. What happened, and can Chris Holtmann's squad regroup for the postseason? We invited our text subscribers for this live Zoo...

On this big Wednesday Buckeye Talk from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means tackle two questions with the help of the OSU texters: Which Big Ten teams are the greatest short-team threats to the Buckeyes, and which Big Ten teams are the greatest long-term threats to the Buckeyes? Doug, Nathan, Stephen and the texters rank the other 13 Big Ten teams in both categories, and...

With a change in the weather and a change in the calendar to March, it was time for Buckeye Talk to dive in headfirst to spring football discussions. Our text subscribers sent us their No. 1 question for the spring and we compiled them into a top 10 list. Obviously a lot of people wanted to discuss the quarterback competition and structural changes in the secondary. But we also delved into defensi...

Ohio State lands another receiver recruit, Kyion Graves. Ohio State now with 11 recruits in the class of 2022. Ohio State on track to host Oregon in the 2nd game of season. Ohio State planning to practice, spring game potentially April 17. Vegas odds on teams to potentially challenge Ohio State this season.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choice...

The top three programs in college football are not in dispute as the offseason ramps up into spring practices. However, could there be another team lurking in the weeds as LSU did in 2019, ready to spoil the party and make a run at "Super Team" status? Doug, Nathan and Stephen give their criteria on what attributes such teams need to have, and which programs seem poised for a peak in 2021. Also, t...

Ohio State football sent out a flurry of Class of 2023 offers over the past few days. Nathan and Stephen open this episode of BFFs discussing what foundation OSU is laying for that class and how the extended dead period and last season's lack of visits might impact early commitments. They also run through questions from text subscribers about Philadelphia-area recruiting, Kerry Coombs and continui...

Branching off of our Big Wednesday draft, we wanted to continue the conversation on the young vs. old position battles facing Ohio State football in 2021. is there really evidence that this Buckeyes coaching staff has a blind spot when it comes to leaning to veterans, to the detriment of team performance? Which positions will the young vs. old question apply to the most for the 2021 season? Also,...

We came up with another big draft for the Big Wednesday episode of Buckeye Talk. Doug, Nathan and Stephen each built eight-man teams for a fictional parking lot football game of Ohio State players. They were spending on a budget, based on the recruiting ranking tiers the Buckeyes fell into when they came out of high school. Along the way they discussed the stars who need to step up on defense, the...

In a rare sporting event that lived up to the hype, Ohio State and Michigan played one of the season's best college basketball games on Sunday. Nathan and Stephen open this episode by discussing where the Buckeyes came up short in a 92-87 loss and what this game told us about their deep NCAA Tournament hopes. Also, they took questions from Buckeye Talk text subscribers on OSU's first-round prospec...

One of Doug's favorite features on Buckeye Talk is when he and Stephen critique one of Nathan's projects. For this weekend episode of Buckeye Talk, Nathan combined all of the Big Ten football and men's basketball programs together and ranked them 1-28. The No. 1 team is fairly obvious, and there wasn't much argument about the bottom few, either. How do Sweet 16s and bowl victories compare? Which s...

Nathan and Stephen are back for another edition of Buckeye Future Fridays focusing on Ohio State recruiting. Today they open with a discussion on the NCAA extending the dead period through May 31 and the consequences for both athletes and the Buckeyes. Then they delve into OSU's success at finding prospects before they climb the recruiting rankings and who might fit that description for 2022. Last...

Ohio State and Michigan play this weekend, with the winner potentially taking the driver's seat for the Big Ten championship and rising even higher than its current lofty national stature. That is how we should be talking about The Game every November, but alas, the Wolverines are not living up their end. Of course last football season, we did not even get to have The Game. But Sunday's men's bask...

Many months ago, a text subscriber posted the question: What one quarterback, one running back and three receivers would you pick from the year 2000-on for Ohio State football? We decided that challenge was not tough enough. Doug, Nathan and Stephen picked TWO quarterbacks, TWO running backs and FOUR receivers from that era. Even better, the did so via a draft, so they could take the players each...