Real Pod Wednesdays

It certainly hasn't been a quiet two weeks since our last episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. There was no shortage of Ohio State sports news while Dan was on vacation – headlined, of course, by the long-awaited news of J.T. Tuimoloau committing to Ohio State and becoming the highest-rated defensive player to sign with the Buckeyes in the modern recruiting era. We discuss why landing Tuimoloau is such...

Ohio State has unofficially added a former five-star recruit to its roster for the upcoming season, while it's still trying to woo a current five-star recruit to become a Buckeye this fall. Although it still hasn't been officially announced by him or the program, all indications are that former USC linebacker Palaie Gaoteote is transferring to Ohio State, so we begin this week's episode of Real Po...

The College Football Playoff appears set to expand to 12 teams, and we're here for it. Even though Colin previously said on Real Pod Wednesdays that he didn't think the playoff should be expanded to more than eight teams, he's changed his mind and now believes 12 teams is the right move for the CFP. Dan agrees, and we discuss why we believe College Football Playoff expansion will be both good for...

With June now underway and the dead period over, all eyes are on the recruiting trail as college football teams throughout the country finally get to host visitors for the first time in over 14 months. Eleven Warriors ' own Andrew Ellis joins us for the first 30 minutes of this week's Real Pod Wednesdays to help us preview the month ahead for Ohio State football recruiting. Who are the most import...

With an unprecedented year in Ohio State sports nearing its conclusion and significant changes coming soon in college sports, we thought it would be a good time to invite Gene Smith on Real Pod Wednesdays. In his first-ever appearance on the show, Ohio State's athletic director spent 35 minutes talking to us about a wide variety of topics, including: 2:50 : Navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, what h...

With the throes of the offseason upon us, it's time to take a look ahead to Ohio State's 2021 football schedule. That's our main topic of discussion on this week's Real Pod Wednesdays, in which we dissect Ohio State's 2021 football schedule from start to finish, identify the “most losable” games for the Buckeyes and predict whether Ohio State will have another undefeated regular season or drop a r...

The biggest news in Ohio State football over the past week wasn't good news for the Buckeyes. That news came on Saturday, when Tennessee linebacker Henry To'o To'o – Ohio State's top target in the transfer portal this year – announced he was transferring to Alabama, thwarting the Buckeyes' plans to add him to the middle of their defense. We start this week's episode by discussing the impact of To'...

Another NFL draft is complete, and people are already looking to ahead what could be another prolific class for Ohio State next year. Before we look ahead, we start by talking about the 10 Buckeyes who were drafted last year – starting, of course, with Justin Fields, and how we expect things to play out for him as he starts his career with the Chicago Bears. We also discuss how the Cleveland Brown...

The speculation is almost over. After months of debate on where Justin Fields could be selected and an exhausting cycle of rumors about why the former Ohio State quarterback might not be a top pick, we'll finally find out on Thursday night where Fields is going. We start this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by discussing where we think Fields will end up when the picks are finally made tomor...

Saturday's Ohio State spring game left us with plenty to analyze and discuss on this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. We finally got to watch Ohio State's quarterbacks throw passes in Ohio Stadium, saw numerous early enrollees impress in their debuts in the Shoe and learned that the bullet is in fact real among other takeaways from Saturday's scrimmage, which concludes Ohio State's spring pr...

It's the final week of spring practice at Ohio State, and there's still plenty happening at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. After talking to Ohio State's offensive linemen and defensive linemen last week and then watching another spring practice on Monday, we have new takeaways on how the quarterback competition is going, how things might stack up at wide receiver, why there's a real competition...

We're finally about to talk about spring football observations that we've made with our own eyes. Well, Dan's own two eyes – as only one media member per outlet was able to attend the two practices that were open to the media this past week – but nonetheless, we have plenty to talk about on this week's Real Pod Wednesdays as we've learned more about how the quarterback competition could stack up,...

With everything that happened on both the Ohio State football and basketball fronts over the past two days, we needed a little extra time to digest it all before recording this week's Real Pod Wednesdays. That's why this week's episode is coming a little later on Wednesday than usual, as we talked about the latest happenings in Ohio State sports (though E.J. Liddell's decision to test the NBA wate...

Ohio State's basketball season came to an earlier end than expected with a first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament, leaving some questions about the state of the program after Chris Holtmann's fourth year. That's where we begin this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, as we discuss what happened to Ohio State basketball in Friday's loss to Oral Roberts, what we make of the Buckeyes' 2020-21 bas...

It's a big week for both the Ohio State men's basketball and football teams as the basketball Buckeyes begin NCAA Tournament play while the football Buckeyes begin spring practice. The men's basketball Buckeyes have momentum back on their side after making a run to the Big Ten Tournament final this past weekend, and we start by reviewing the action from Indianapolis. We liked what we saw from the...

Spring football is (hopefully) on the horizon, and the Big Ten Tournament is on tap this week. Ohio State is scheduled to start spring football practices on March 19, though a bit of doubt was cast over that start date when Ohio State announced Tuesday it had paused football activities for one week due to a rise in COVID-19 cases. We don't believe that pause is anything to panic about, though, and...

This is March, which means two things are coming soon: The NCAA Tournament and spring football. Ohio State basketball fans might not be quite as excited for March Madness as they were a couple weeks ago because the Buckeyes have lost their last three games, including losses to Michigan State and Iowa since our last podcast, but we don't think Ohio State fans should give up hope of a deep tournamen...

Ohio State couldn't beat Michigan, but the basketball Buckeyes still look like one of the nation's best teams. With less than three weeks to go until Selection Sunday, that's where we start on this week's Real Pod Wednesdays, discussing the outlook for Ohio State basketball following Sunday's 92-87 loss to the Wolverines. Although there's been a lot to like about this year's Buckeyes, particularly...

The Ohio State football program got some good news last week, and the Ohio State basketball team is entering a huge week. We start this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by discussing the football news of the week, led by Al Washington's decision to stay at Ohio State rather than become the defensive coordinator at Tennessee. We also discuss the three new hires Ohio State made last week – Todd...

Ohio State's defensive struggles in 2020 shouldn't be blamed solely on Kerry Coombs, and there's reason to believe he can fix the Buckeyes' defense in 2021. Eleven Warriors ' own Kyle Jones joins us on this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays to explain that, as we spend about 30 minutes talking with our X's and O's expert for a deep dive on what went wrong with Ohio State's defense in 2020 and...

Even though it's been an uneventful National Signing Day, there's still a lot to like about Ohio State's 2021 recruiting class. While the Buckeyes would have liked to land a commitment from four-star linebacker Raesjon Davis on Wednesday – and they certainly still want to land a commitment from five-star defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, who isn't making his decision for another two or three months –...

Ohio State has a vacancy to fill on its coaching staff, it just might have a frontrunner at quarterback and we're ready to discuss how the Buckeyes' depth chart could stack up in 2021. We begin this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by discussing our takeaways from Ryan Day's recent press conference, led by the news that co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison is retiring at the end of the mont...

Now that we know which key players will and won't be back, it's time to start looking ahead to Ohio State's 2021 season. The Buckeyes' 2021 roster took shape over the last few days as Justin Fields, Tommy Togiai, Josh Myers, Wyatt Davis and Shaun Wade all announced they'd be leaving early for the NFL draft, but Ohio State also got some great news as Chris Olave, Thayer Munford, Jeremy Ruckert and...

The national championship game didn't go well for Ohio State, but there are still plenty of positives we can take away from the 2020 season. Ohio State was blown out by Alabama, 52-24, in Monday night's national title game, and we start by discussing our takeaways from the Buckeyes' disappointing performance against the Crimson Tide. Of course, much of that discussion centers around their struggle...

Ohio State proved us wrong. Yes, we both picked Clemson to beat Ohio State in last week's Sugar Bowl, and we're here to admit we whiffed on our predictions. The Buckeyes didn't just beat the Tigers, they rolled to a 21-point victory, as Justin Fields had the performance of his career, Trey Sermon continued his Ezekiel Elliott-esque postseason run and Ohio State dominated both sides of the line of...