Real Pod Wednesdays

It’s the final week of the 2021 Ohio State football season, and we’re in Los Angeles to watch it all unfold. Although we arrived in California one day later than expected thanks to travel issues, both members of the Real Pod Wednesdays crew are in Los Angeles to cover the Rose Bowl, and we spent the entirety of this week’s show previewing Saturday’s clash between Ohio State and Utah. First up, we...

As the Rose Bowl draws nearer, dominoes are continuing to fall that could shape next year’s Ohio State roster. There’s still one last order of business for Ohio State to take care of in the 2021 season, and that’s beating Utah in the Rose Bowl. While we’ll dig deeper into the matchup with Utah on next week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays after we arrive in Los Angeles, we begin this week’s episod...

It’s early signing day for the class of 2022, so we had to bring in our recruiting analyst to help us break it all down. With Dan Hope’s voice recovering from a weekend bout with laryngitis, Garrick Hodge fills on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays at the perfect time for him to make his debut on the show, as Garrick and Griffin Strom talk about the players who just signed with Ohio State...

It's been an eventful last few days for the Ohio State football program. Ohio State learned Sunday that it will be finishing its season by playing Utah in the Rose Bowl, and we spend the first 18:45 of this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays discussing our initial thoughts on the matchup. We have mixed feelings about the game; it undoubtedly feels like a consolation prize, but we still think it...

This feels weird. For the first time in five years, Ohio State isn’t playing in the Big Ten Championship Game. In a week where we thought we’d be going to Indianapolis to watch the Buckeyes play for a fifth consecutive Big Ten title and compete for a berth in the College Football Playoff, we’re instead waiting to find out where the Buckeyes will finish their season in what will almost certainly be...

Ohio State’s win over Michigan State couldn’t have been much more impressive, but another huge test looms this week. The Buckeyes were utterly dominant against the Spartans in their final home game of the season, defeating Michigan State 56-7 in an “ass-whooping” – as Haskell Garrett predicted – that was even more lopsided than the final score reflected. While C.J. Stroud, Chris Olave and the rest...

On last week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, we were asked if the defense could become Ohio State’s strength this season. On Saturday against Purdue, it became clear that it isn’t. The Buckeyes looked like who we thought they were against the Boilermakers, as they re-emerged as an offensive juggernaut by putting up 59 points and 624 yards but looked vulnerable on defense as they gave up 31 point...

While one bad game can be chalked up as an off day, two games is a trend, and Ohio State’s offense has had some recurring issues in its last two games against Penn State and Nebraska. The Buckeyes have scored just two offensive touchdowns while settling for four field goals in each of their last two games as they’ve struggled to run the ball effectively and finish off drives in the red zone. Ryan...

The Ohio State football team just won one of its biggest games of the year, the first College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night and the Buckeye basketball season is about to begin. That – not to look past another game that could be a test for the football Buckeyes against Nebraska this week – gave us a lot to pack into this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, but we still...

Ohio State keeps looking better and better each week, but this week's game should – or at least could? – give the Buckeyes a tougher test. The Buckeyes kept things rolling with another blowout win over Indiana on Saturday, and that's what we spent the first half of this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays discussing. There's plenty of good things to say about both Ohio State’s offense and defens...

A week off for the Buckeyes gave us the opportunity to watch more of other teams playing college football this past weekend, and it only gave us more reason to believe Ohio State is still the team to beat in the Big Ten. Iowa got beaten soundly by Purdue and Michigan State barely beat Indiana, taking some wind out of the sails of two of Ohio State's top competitors in the conference. At the same t...

We've officially reached the halfway point of the 2021 Ohio State football season. With no game on the schedule this weekend, that made it a perfect time for a midseason report on this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, on which we discuss what’s impressed us most so far, what concerns we still have and what’s surprised us most from the first half of the year. We begin that discussion a little...

Ohio State was impressive in every facet of the game against Rutgers. C.J. Stroud showed why he's Ohio State's starting quarterback while the defense was dominant for the second game in a row, and we begin this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by discussing the tangible improvement we saw from Stroud and from the defense in Piscataway. Now that Ohio State is starting to look like the team it'...

Although Ohio State's 59-7 win over Akron wasn't competitive, the game didn't lack for interesting storylines. It was our first opportunity to watch Kyle McCord and Jack Miller throw passes for the Buckeyes, and that's where we begin this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, as we discuss what we saw from McCord and Miller and why their performances weren't enough to change Ryan Day's mind on wh...

A 41-20 win over Tulsa didn't do much to alleviate the concerns about Ohio State's 2021 football team. Ohio State's defense gave up 501 yards against the Golden Hurricane while C.J. Stroud had his worst performance so far as Ohio State's starting quarterback. The Buckeyes' rushing offense and rushing defense were both better against Tulsa than against Oregon, but the passing offense and passing de...

Coming off of Saturday's loss to Oregon, there's one question that most Ohio State fans have on their minds: Can the defense be saved? After sharing our initial reactions to Ohio State’s 35-28 loss to Oregon and Ryan Day’s Tuesday press conference – where he made clear his displeasure with the performance of Kerry Coombs’ unit – we bring on Eleven Warriors film guru Kyle Jones (beginning at 17:00)...

We've had five full days to digest Ohio State's season opener, and there was plenty to take away from the Buckeyes’ first game. On this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, we spend a full hour discussing the many things we learned from the Buckeyes’ 45-31 win over Minnesota. Among the many topics we dive into: 2:50 : The good and bad of C.J. Stroud's first start 10:00 : Assessing the defense's...

Ohio State's season opener is just one day away. Of course, that means this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays is dedicated to previewing Thursday night's game at Minnesota. Our topics of discussion ahead of the Buckeyes’ matchup with the Gophers include: 2:44 : Expectations for C.J. Stroud's first game as Ohio State's starting quarterback 8:58 : How Ohio State could split carries between Miyan...

This week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays features a brand new co-host and an exclusive interview with Ohio State's head football coach. As the newest beat writer at Eleven Warriors , Griffin Strom is also the new co-host of Real Pod Wednesdays, so we start the show – the 101st episode ever of Real Pod Wednesdays – by introducing Griffin to our audience. Dan sat down with Ryan Day for a one-on-on...

If you want to spend an hour hearing about what Ohio State's offensive and defensive schemes could look like this season, you've come to the right place. Eleven Warriors scheme analyst Kyle Jones guest hosts this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. As we look ahead to the start of the 2021 season in just a couple weeks' time, we discuss a wide variety of topics related to what we could see from...

Preseason camp gave us plenty of talk about, our listeners gave us plenty of questions to answer and we shared some show news on this week's Real Pod Wednesdays. First up, we react to an interesting day at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Tuesday, where we learned that Ohio State is moving toward making some major changes on the offensive line. Does it actually make sense for Thayer Munford and...

On a day like today, we'd typically start Real Pod Wednesdays by talking about what we just saw at preseason camp. After all, we recorded this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays – together in person for the first time in more than a year – just hours after watching some of Ohio State's first practice of preseason camp on Wednesday morning (which is why this week's episode of RPW comes your way...

While we were at Big Ten Media Days, the college football landscape began to change again. We start this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by discussing our biggest takeaways from Big Ten Media Days, including: How it could impact Ohio State's linebacker competition if Palaie Gaoteote isn't cleared by the NCAA by next week's start of preseason camp Good vibes on Kourt Williams, Harry Miller, J...

For the first time in 16 months, we finally get to interview Ryan Day and Ohio State players in person. Day, Thayer Munford, Zach Harrison and Jeremy Ruckert will all be in Indianapolis on Friday for the second day of Big Ten Media Days, and we'll be there too to talk to them as well as other coaches and players from around the conference. It'll be the first time Day and Ohio State players have be...

With Big Ten Media Days and preseason camp on the horizon, it's time for our annual Ohio State football team draft for Real Pod Wednesdays. As we did last year, Colin and Dan went back and forth selecting players from Ohio State's 2021 roster to build dueling 22-man rosters – 11 players on offense and 11 players on defense – with the objective of building a lineup that would beat the co-host's lin...