Real Pod Wednesdays

With one week to go until National Signing Day and two weeks to go until the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State is simultaneously preparing to play its final game of the 2023 season and working to fill holes on its 2024 roster. We start this week‘s episode with some Cotton Bowl-related conversation after speaking with 11 Ohio State players on Tuesday. We talk about how the initial fears of mass opt-outs appe...

Now that Kyle McCord is in the transfer portal, the biggest question surrounding Buckeye football is who will replace him as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. Plan A might be bringing in a transfer quarterback – and we see Washington State’s Cam Ward as Option A – but we also think Devin Brown and Lincoln Kienholz are both viable candidates to start next season if the Buckeyes don’t land a top pa...

It’s not quite as easy to pinpoint what went wrong against Michigan this time around. In 2021, Ohio State lost because it couldn’t run the ball or stop the run. In 2022, Ohio State lost because it gave up five touchdowns of 45 yards or more. This year, the Buckeyes needed to be just a little bit better across the board. Unfortunately for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes, there’s no moral victories in The...

It’s all about The Game on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. Typically, we start each week’s episode of RPW by breaking down the previous week’s game before previewing the next opponent. This week, however, we jump right into previewing Ohio State’s season-defining rivalry game with Michigan, weaving in a few takeaways from the Buckeyes’ 37-3 win over Minnesota but otherwise focusing ful...

Ohio State still has to beat Minnesota this week, but we’re already looking ahead to The Game. While the Buckeyes are keeping their focus on the task at hand of beating the Golden Gophers, we aren’t expecting Ohio State to face much resistance from Minnesota in the final home game of the season. Next week’s game at Michigan, however, will make or break the Buckeyes’ season – and we get our best lo...

Ohio State might be making a habit of winning ugly, but it still covered the spread in Piscataway. The Buckeyes had their most competitive game ever against Rutgers this year but still came away with a 35-16 win , and we felt there was more good than bad to take away from Ohio State’s performance – even if it wasn’t the most prolific day for the Buckeyes’ passing offense, run defense or special te...

Ohio State football is the No. 1 team in the country as it enters the final month of the regular season while Ohio State basketball season begins next week. We talk about both sports on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, though our discussion mostly centers around the football Buckeyes, who earned the top spot in the initial College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night. We think tha...

Ohio State’s defense keeps getting better. The Buckeyes had their most impressive defensive performance of the season yet as they held Penn State to just one touchdown and one third-down conversion in a 20-12 victory that was good for Ohio State’s second top-10 win of the season. We begin this week’s episode by discussing what impressed us most in Ohio State’s win over the Nittany Lions – includin...

Ohio State played one of its most complete games of the season against Purdue, but a much bigger test awaits this week against Penn State. We spend the first half of this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays breaking down what impressed us most from Ohio State’s 41-7 rout of Purdue, including the performance of Dallan Hayden (and why Ohio State should scrap its plan to redshirt Hayden), more crea...

Ohio State has a defensive-driven team for the first time in Ryan Day’s tenure. Five games into the 2023 season, it’s become increasingly clear that the Buckeyes’ defense is their strength this year. The Buckeyes currently rank in the top 10 nationally in points allowed per game (3rd), yards allowed per play (4th) and yards allowed per game (8th), but their offense – which has perennially ranked a...

Maryland is better than all but one team Ohio State has played so far this season, but are the Terrapins good enough to actually challenge the Buckeyes for a win? The Buckeyes don’t have any easy games in October, and that starts this week with Maryland, who has won its first five games of the season. We’re not sure the Terrapins are as good as their records and statistics indicate, however, given...

We’ve never seen Ryan Day as fired up as he was after Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame on Saturday. Usually calmer and more reserved, Day used both his postgame interview with NBC and his postgame press conference to fire back at Lou Holtz for comments the former Notre Dame coach made one day before the game, in which Holtz predicted that Notre Dame would win and critiqued Day by claiming that “ev...

Ohio State’s first big game of the season has arrived, and the Buckeyes look to be hitting their stride at the right time. The Buckeyes face a big step up in competition this week against Notre Dame, which will serve as this year’s first real test of how good Ohio State actually is. That said, the Buckeyes are entering the game with momentum on their side after looking the part of an elite team in...

Ohio State’s quarterback competition is now complete, but the pressure is increasing for the Buckeyes to find their A-game. Tuesday’s press conference at Ohio State brought the expected news that Kyle McCord would remain the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback going forward, bringing an end to the competition between McCord and Devin Brown that extended into the season. Ryan Day had good reason to shut...

Ohio State’s first game of the 2023 season gave us plenty to talk about. While the Buckeyes were never in danger of losing and came back from Indiana with a 1-0 record and a Big Ten road win, Ohio State and its fans were left generally unsatisfied with the team’s performance on offense after the Buckeyes scored just two touchdowns in a 23-3 win . That’s exacerbated concerns about whether Ohio Stat...

Ohio State finally has a starting quarterback and the 2023 season is about to begin. That gives us plenty of topics for conversation on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. We start today’s show by evaluating Ohio State’s decision to name Kyle McCord the starting quarterback and how likely he is to be the starter all year long. We also assess Ohio State’s indecision at free safety and how m...

Ohio State’s first game of the 2023 season is 10 days away, but the Buckeyes still don’t have a quarterback. With it now appearing likely that Ohio State’s quarterback competition will continue into the start of the season, we start this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by weighing what we make of the Buckeyes still not picking a starter, when they must settle in on one quarterback and who wi...

While Ohio State hasn’t yet named a new starting quarterback, Real Pod Wednesdays has named a new co-host. In his first episode sharing co-hosting duties with Dan, we introduce you to new Eleven Warriors reporter Andy Anders, who outlines his journey from posting in the 11W forums to becoming a full-time member of the staff. Then, we get into our usual hourlong discussion of the biggest topics in...

Ohio State is nearly one week into preseason camp and two more teams are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. That gives us plenty to talk about on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays as Chase Brown joins Dan Hope to discuss the most notable things we’ve seen and heard during the first six days of preseason camp and weigh the pros and cons of the Big Ten continuing to expand by adding Oregon...

Ohio State’s current football players are about to return to the practice field while there’s been no shortage of happenings – both good and bad – impacting the Buckeyes on the recruiting trail over the past month. With all of that to talk about as well as a new wave of conference realignment starting, Garrick Hodge returns to Real Pod Wednesdays this week for a discussion on what’s gone well and...

This week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays comes to you one day late but from on location in Indianapolis as we react to everything we heard from Ryan Day and the Buckeyes at Wednesday’s Big Ten Media Days. There was plenty to react to on Wednesday, particularly Ryan Day’s suggestion that the Ohio State vs. Michigan game could be played before the final week of the regular season, as well as Day’s...

Ryan Day, Marvin Harrison Jr., Cade Stover and JT Tuimoloau will be in Indianapolis participating in Big Ten Media Days one week from today. We’ll be in Indianapolis too to catch up with those Buckeyes and cover the first official media availability of the preseason for Eleven Warriors. With that in mind, we look ahead to next week’s event on this week’s Real Pod Wednesdays with a discussion on wh...

If you could pick only 22 Ohio State football players to go win a game for you against 22 other Ohio State football players, which Buckeyes would you choose? That’s the question we were tasked with answering on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays as we held our annual Eleven Warriors preseason team draft, going head-to-head to pick the best possible lineups for a hypothetical intrasquad gam...

On the latest edition of Real Pod Wednesdays, we discuss another massive commitment for Ohio State's 2024 class and take a look at what's on the horizon for the Buckeyes. With regular podcast co-host Dan Hope on vacation, resident Eleven Warriors recruiting expert Garrick Hodge joins the show once again as Griffin Strom returns from a trip to Florida. While we usually record the show on Tuesday, t...

The summer official visit season is now over, but more BOOMs could still be coming to Ohio State. Ohio State already landed three big BOOMs from in-state prospects over the past week as quarterback Tavien St. Clair committed to the Buckeyes’ 2025 class last Wednesday and Glenville teammates Bryce West and Damarion Witten joined Ohio State’s 2024 class on Saturday. With Eleven Warriors recruiting r...