More than 1,000 high school football players have made their way through the Woody Hayes Athletic Center over the past week for Ohio State’s first three high school football camps of the year, and we’ve been there to watch all the action unfold. For the first half of this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, we share what we’ve learned from attending those three camps, including a list of the most impressive prospects we’ve seen on the field so far, the most interesting things we’ve heard from...
Jun 08, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 142
Ohio State’s biggest recruiting month of the summer has begun. The first of seven camps for high school football players is taking place on Wednesday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Over the next 21 days, Ohio State will host thousands of high school football prospects hoping to earn an offer from the Buckeyes or at minimum, get some valuable coaching from members of OSU’s coaching staff. Ohio State is set to also host more than 30 official visitors over the next four weeks, and those visits...
Jun 01, 2022•58 min•Ep. 141
Day is now one of the five highest-paid coaches in college football after receiving a two-year contract extension through the 2028 season that upped his compensation to $9.5 million per year. Holtmann received a pay bump to $3.5 million while his contract was extended through the 2027-28 season. Why was now the time to give both of them extensions, considering Ohio State football did not achieve its goals last year and men’s basketball once again fell short of the Sweet 16? We analyze the timing...
May 25, 2022•59 min•Ep. 140
We now know exactly when Ohio State’s 2022 season will kick off, and it's hard not to start getting excited. Ohio State’s Sept. 3 season opener against Notre Dame is still more than three months away, but the buildup to the Buckeyes’ first game of the year received a big jolt of energy Tuesday when ESPN announced that the highly anticipated non-conference clash at Ohio Stadium will be played under the lights, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. on ABC. So we begin this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays...
May 18, 2022•52 min•Ep. 139
We couldn’t have picked a better week for Garrick Hodge to co-host Real Pod Wednesdays. With regular co-host Griffin Strom vacationing in Costa Rica, Eleven Warriors recruiting writer Garrick Hodge took his place on this week’s episode of RPW, and the timing worked out perfectly as it gave us the opportunity to talk about Ohio State’s biggest commitment of the year to date. Of course, we’re talking about Dylan Raiola – ranked by multiple recruiting services as the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2...
May 11, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 138
Ohio State’s 2022 NFL draft class was smaller than usual, but the Buckeyes should have a larger draft class in 2023. Those two topics get most of our attention on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, just a few days after Ohio State had six players selected in the 2022 NFL draft. This year’s NFL draft was a mixture of good and bad for the Buckeyes, as there were plenty of moments worth celebrating, like Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave (and Jameson Williams) going back-to-back and Jeremy Ru...
May 04, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 137
It’s time to make our predictions for where each Buckeye will land in the 2022 NFL draft. On this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, we preview the NFL draft by making predictions for which teams we think Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson will land with on Thursday night, what rounds we think Nicholas Petit-Frere, Jeremy Ruckert, Thayer Munford, Haskell Garrett and Tyreke Smith will be selected in and whether Master Teague, Antwuan Jackson, Demario McCall or Chris Booker could sneak into the dr...
Apr 27, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 136
The final week of spring football gave us our closest look yet at the 2022 Buckeyes. Ohio State took the field on Saturday for its annual spring game in Ohio Stadium, and while there wasn’t necessarily any overarching storyline that came out of this year’s scrimmage, there were no shortage of individual players who stood out. We begin this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by talking about some of the biggest standouts from this year’s spring game, including players who have received plenty ...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 135
While we’re looking forward to this weekend’s spring game at Ohio Stadium, we had to start this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by looking back. Following this weekend’s tragic death of Dwayne Haskins , we took some time at the beginning of this week’s show to reflect on the impact Haskins made on Ohio State and remember some of his most memorable performances as a Buckeye, including Ohio State’s comeback wins against Michigan in 2017 and Penn State in 2018. After paying tribute to Haskins...
Apr 13, 2022•59 min•Ep. 134
You often ask us who’s standing out and making a move up the depth chart at spring practice, and now, we feel equipped to actually answer those questions. Saturday’s Student Appreciation Day gave us our first opportunity of the spring to watch the Buckeyes practice actual football – as in, we got to watch team drills, 7-on-7 drills and head-to-head competition rather than just warmups and individual drills – and as a result, we got our first real glimpse of who’s where on the depth chart and who...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 133
A national championship-winning coach joins us on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. Just over one week after she led Ohio State women’s hockey to its first national title in program history, Nadine Muzerall joins us on RPW to talk about the Buckeyes’ journey to making history. In a 20-minute interview with the Buckeyes’ head coach, Muzerall tells us what makes winning a national championship so special, what former Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella told her after the win and ...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 132
While the college basketball season still has two more weeks to go, Ohio State’s men’s basketball season is over. Ohio State’s 2021-22 season came to an end on Sunday, when the Buckeyes lost to Villanova in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Although the loss to Villanova wasn’t particularly surprising, it still made for an unsatisfying ending to the season as Ohio State has now gone nine years without making the Sweet 16. The men’s basketball Buckeyes draw the majority of our focus on thi...
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 131
Ohio State will play its first game of the NCAA Tournament at 12:15 p.m. Friday in Pittsburgh, where the seventh-seeded Buckeyes will face No. 10 seed Loyola in a matchup that has many calling for a first-round upset. Will the Buckeyes’ late-season skid continue with a first-round NCAA Tournament loss for the second straight year, or will they make the most of their talent advantage against the Ramblers? We discuss where Ohio State should have the edge over Loyola and what makes Loyola a dangero...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 130
The Ohio State football team is back on the practice field, the NFL Scouting Combine is complete and the postseason is about to begin for Ohio State men’s basketball. Tuesday was the first day of spring football at Ohio State, and that’s where we begin on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, on which we share our takeaways from watching the first 30 minutes of the Buckeyes’ opening practice and from talking to Ryan Day, Jim Knowles and Kevin Wilson after practice. We explain why there’s a...
Mar 09, 2022•57 min•Ep. 129
This is March, which means there’s plenty happening in the world of Ohio State sports. The Ohio State football team is expected to begin spring practices next week, so we start this week’s episode – after Griffin recounts his near-death experience during his trip to Champaign for last week’s basketball game at Illinois – by looking ahead to the start of spring ball and discussing who and what we’ll be most looking forward to watching and what questions most need to be answered once practices beg...
Mar 02, 2022•55 min•Ep. 128
Gene Smith’s press conference at Ohio State last week provided plenty of fodder for this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. Of course, we had to start by talking about the news that got everyone talking: Smith saying he does not think Ohio State should host a College Football Playoff game at Ohio Stadium. Would it really make sense for the Buckeyes to give up home-field advantage in the CFP to play in Indianapolis instead? We can see why Ohio State might prefer to play indoors – and why Ohio...
Feb 23, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 127
Should Ohio State really be a 17-point favorite over Georgia? That’s a question we ask on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays after early bowl projections released by The Action Network earlier this week listed Ohio State as a 17-point favorite for a hypothetical College Football Playoff semifinal game over Georgia, as well as a 2-point favorite in a hypothetical national championship game against Alabama. We’re buying that the Buckeyes are one of the top two frontrunners to make the nati...
Feb 16, 2022•58 min•Ep. 126
Ohio State’s early enrollees met the media last week, there’s been lots of coaching staff drama in Ann Arbor and Joe Burrow is about to play in the Super Bowl. We discuss all of those topics on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays – but first, we share our thoughts on the new turf at Ohio Stadium and our favorite fan-submitted designs. After projecting which players would be the stars of the 2022 recruiting class on last week’s episode, we got the opportunity to meet more than half of the ...
Feb 09, 2022•58 min•Ep. 125
Ohio State is wrapping up its recruiting class of 2022 today, and we finally got to meet the Buckeyes’ new assistant coaches this week. We start this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by sharing our overall thoughts on the Buckeyes’ recruiting class of 2022 and making our picks for which players we expect to make the biggest immediate impact from the class, who we expect to be the biggest stars long-term and who could be the class’ hidden gems. At the 23:24 mark of the show, we shift the con...
Feb 02, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 124
This week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays is all about Ohio State’s 2022 depth chart. After Dan published his initial projection of Ohio State’s 2022 depth chart on Eleven Warriors on Wednesday morning, the guys spend an hour analyzing the potential depth chart position-by-position. How will this year’s wide receiver rotation look following the departures of Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson? Who will step up at tight end? Where could Harry Miller factor into the offensive line depth chart, and wh...
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 123
Ohio State continued to overhaul its defensive coaching staff, the Buckeyes got good news at the NFL draft entry deadline and Ohio State has a new schedule for the 2022 season. All of that made for a newsy week since our last episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, and we dive into all three of those topics as Griffin returns to the show this week. First up, we take a closer look at Ohio State’s new hires on the defensive coaching staff – secondary coaches Tim Walton and Perry Eliano, as well as multipl...
Jan 19, 2022•58 min•Ep. 122
You’ll hear two different voices on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. With Griffin Strom feeling under the weather, Kevin Harrish joins Dan Hope for the first half of this week’s episode while Garrick Hodge joins Dan for the second half of the show as we talk about all of the latest developments in Ohio State football. Kevin and Dan start by sharing some Ohio State-themed takeaways from the national championship game – watching that Georgia defense sure looked different than watching O...
Jan 12, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 121
Ohio State’s 2021 football season ended in dramatic fashion. After spending a week in Southern California, where we watched Ohio State beat Utah 48-45 in what we both agreed was one of the wildest games we’ve ever covered, we have plenty to discuss from the Rose Bowl on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays. Of course, we had to start by talking about Jaxon Smith-Njigba and C.J. Stroud, as we discuss how both Buckeyes rewrote the record books to cap off spectacular sophomore seasons and pot...
Jan 05, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 120
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 talk about the biggest news of the week so far – that Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Nicholas Petit-Fr...
Dec 29, 2021•56 min•Ep. 119
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 episode by talking about some of the biggest storylines that were discussed by more than a dozen players d...
Dec 22, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 118
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 and who could be the early and long-term stars among the newly inked Buckeyes. In more than 30 minut...
Dec 15, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 117
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 matters for the Buckeyes to get a win. And from a football perspective, we think it will be an inte...
Dec 08, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 116
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 a non-playoff bowl game. That’s because the Buckeyes suffered a 42-27 loss to Michigan in their fin...
Dec 01, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 115
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 of Ohio State’s offense deservedly got plenty of love for their performances – and do from us on th...
Nov 24, 2021•57 min•Ep. 114
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 points on 481 yards, including 390 yards through the air. We begin the show by discussing Ohio State’s re...
Nov 17, 2021•56 min•Ep. 113
