Buckeye Talk: Ohio State Podcast By Cleveland.com

Allatoona, Georgia tight end Bennett Christian took matters into his own hands when the NCAA instituted a recruiting moratorium during the coronavirus pandemic. He made his own visit to Columbus and committed to the Buckeyes soon after -- though he waited to announce the decision on his birthday a couple of weeks later. Christian joined Buckeye Talk to discuss the factors that went into that decision, his relationships with coach Ryan Day and tight ends coach Kevin Wilson, and who else he is trying to bring on as the second tight end in OSU's 2022 class. He also talked with Stephen Means and Nathan Baird about why he believes Ohio State is a destination for tight ends and what role his faith played in his recruiting decision. Thanks as always for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Buckeye Talk from cleveland.com, the big Wednesday pod isn't quite as big as usual. But it's instructive. As everyone waits for what's next from the Big Ten, Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means took a crack at ranking every major college football team in tiers, but with a purpose. The exercise was intended to shed some light on how the 14 Big Ten programs might be thinking about playing football this fall, based in part on their standing in the college football landscape. So Doug assigned a tier to all 65 power conference teams, and Nathan and Stephen offered up where they believe Big Ten teams fall. From regular national title contenders to programs that are just bad, the guys ranked them all. Listen, disagree and enjoy. And thanks for making Buckeye Talk part of your day. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Tuesday Buckeye Talk Podcast from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means eagerly dive into a new mock draft from Bleacher Report draft analyst Matt Miller. He released a three-round 2021 NFL mock draft on Monday, and six Buckeyes were included. The guys discussed all six of those Buckeyes and compared them to past OSU draftees while deciding if they should be projected to go higher or lower. They also talked about the Buckeyes who didn't make the 96 picks in this mock, including one surprising omission in particular. Draft talk is always fun and this was a good look ahead for another group of future Ohio State pros. Thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Buckeye Talk podcast for Monday, Nathan Baird and Doug Lesmerises split things in half. The first part of the pod has nothing to do with the debate and discussion over when the Big Ten might play football again -- it's talking about favorite gameday memories, what was missed most on a Saturday with no Ohio State football, a Buckeye to look forward to seeing play in the 2021 season, and that annoying chicken wing guy from Nebraska. Then, the second half of the pod is all that other topic, the one everyone has been talking about for the last month -- what's up with Big Ten football? Nathan and Doug took seven questions around the latest news and speculation on that topic. So, if you're sick of that, then just enjoy the first half of the pod. If you want more of that, enjoy the first half of the pod and then stick around. Either way, thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk from cleveland.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc

Welcome to a new feature here on Buckeye Talk. Get ready for Buckeye ReTalkables, a new series in which Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means watch an old Ohio State game and then break it down. The guys, with the help of text subscribers, came up with a variety of categories named after Buckeyes like Jim Tressel, Maurice Clarett, Kenny Guiton, John Cooper, Ted Ginn Jr., J.T. Barrett, Bill Davis and Tim Beck. The first game up is Ohio State vs. Virginia Tech in the 2015 season opener in Blacksburg, with Cardale Jones starting at quarterback for the defending national champs. The conclusion from this pod? This first game represented a lot of what that 2015 season would be like. This game is on YouTube in its entirety, so you can watch that before or after listening, or just let the guys relive the game for you. Either way, thanks for joining us on this first version of Buckeye ReTalkables. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm

Discussion continues around the Big Ten decision to cancel fall football. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Way back in the first week of April, Buckeye Talk's Nathan Baird and Stephen Means drafted starting lineups for a hypothetical Ohio State football spring game. We asked our text subscribers to vote on who came out on top, and by a 105-12 margin, they gave the edge to Team Baird. Stephen vowed that day to find rosters and play out the game on Xbox 360 to determine once and for all who had assembled the better collection of talent. For a brief respite from the roller coaster that is the extended Big Ten offseason, Baird Bunch and Means Machine finally faced off in a living room in Dublin on Wednesday. The final score, like with any spring game or scrimmage, is not especially important. We tried to use the simulation to imagine what we might have learned about the Buckeyes during a normal season without the coronavirus pandemic. What would CJ Stroud and Jack Miller have displayed in their race to back up Justin Fields? Who would step up defensively and make a mark? Which of the freshmen receivers might have emer

A lot of ground to cover on this week's big Wednesday edition of Buckeye Talk. We covered everything from the use of anonymous sources to Justin Fields-Georgia transfer speculation to heartbreaking sports moments from our past to which fast food fry Ohio State football would be. We tried to push the nonsense towards the end but this was one of the most fun episodes we have recorded in a while after weeks of Big Ten process and non-developments. However, Nathan Baird, Stephen Means and Doug Lesmerises opened the show by discussing a major development. President Donald Trump spoke with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren about "immediately starting" football. That sparked a day of reports, some of which suggested the Big Ten could play as early as Oct. 10, others disputing the league had any traction towards restarting before late fall. The cleveland.com OSU beat discussed how much the Trump-Joe Biden dynamic brings a new political angle to the situation, and whether Tuesday's call could potentially push Big Ten

Many have torn into the Big Ten and Commissioner Kevin Warren for both the decision to cancel fall sports and the continued lack of a plan for the winter or spring. We at Buckeye Talk invited our text subscribers to help the league out. Based on what we know today, and the limitations of the calendar ahead, what would be your optimal design for the Big Ten schedule? Nathan Baird and Stephen Means both lay out their preferred plans. Many of the cleveland.com Buckeye Talk text subscribers wanted to start preseason camp right away and play as many games as early as possible. Some had more unique takes on how the Big Ten should move forward. To start the show, we discussed Monday's news, including the Big Ten answering the lawsuit filed by Nebraska players by releasing the results of its cancellation vote. Also, an update on Ohio State defensive tackle Haskell Garrett, who was injured in a weekend shooting. Thanks as always for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this Monday Buckeye Talk from cleveland.com, Nathan Baird talks about the protest he covered Saturday from Ohio State parents at Ohio Stadium, as they continue to push for answers from the Big Ten and for the chance for the Buckeyes to play football this fall. Doug Lesmerises and Stephen Means join Nathan to discuss some cleveland.com polls about how fans are viewing the risks of coronavirus and college football, and to ask if the parents and Big Ten officials are even asking the same questions at this point. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Big Ten is discussing the idea of a November restart of the football season. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More guests this week on Buckeye Talk as Nathan Baird and Stephen Means sit down -- virtually -- with 2022 Buckeye linebacker commits CJ Hicks and Dasan McCullough. Hicks and McCullough have developed a close friendship despite having not yet met in person. They discuss how that happened, their approach to recruiting more players for the still-early 2022 class and their impressions of linebackers coach Al Washington and head coach Ryan Day. We also heard the inside story of how Hicks found out McCullough would be committing to the Buckeyes last week. But first, Stephen and Nathan discuss an even newer commitment than McCullough. Four-star defensive tackle Tyleik Williams became the Buckeyes' 19th commit for the 2021 class on Thursday. How does he fit in and what does he mean for OSU's pursuit of the nation's No. 1 ranked class? Thanks as always for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Buckeye Talk episode from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises is joined by Ralph Russo, the national college football writer for the Associated Press. They discussed whether other leagues will be able to play college football this fall; whether a January plan for the Big Ten will work; if Ohio State will have any negative long-term effects for not playing this fall; how AP poll voting will work in the fall and the winter; and if there might be a combined poll at the end of it all that rates the fall and winter teams together and awards a combined national championship. It's a great conversation with Ralph, and thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The NCAA granted a free year of eligibility to fall sports athletes for 2021, meaning seniors now could come back as seniors next season. How will that work? What decisions might the Ohio State football program and the Buckeyes players face as a result? While things remain up in the air for this season, on this big Wednesday Buckeye Talk from cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means dove into what the starting lineups for next fall could look like. How much might they be affected by players who were expected to be gone, and how much influence might a winter football season now have on that? There's a lot to go over, so thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means of cleveland.com look at the Associated Press preseason top 25 rankings released Monday and talk about how many Buckeyes should make the preseason All-American team. Nathan is a voter on both of them. Then came a breakdown of winter football (led by the Big Ten and Pac-12) and fall football (with the SEC, ACC and Big 12 still planning to play). How does the quality of the teams planning to play in the winter or spring compare to the teams planning to play in the fall? How big is the gap? Thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will the Big Ten Conference pull off a football season in the winter or spring? If so, will Ohio State's best players participate? With so much uncertainty in the air, the Buckeye Talk crew at cleveland.com puts their names on predictions for whatever season might unfold after the first of the year. Perhaps more intriguingly, they gauged the interest of their Buckeye Talk text subscribers -- henceforth known as Ded Eds, for reasons explained on the show. Are they interested in a winter or spring season at all? What if Ohio State plays but without many or most of its NFL Draft-bound stars? Are Buckeye fans committed to whatever season unfolds, or would a compromised season also hamper their enthusiasm for their team? Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means predict what they believe the Big Ten will do, and what that in turn means for the Buckeyes with big decisions to make. Thanks as always for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your

The Big Ten reaffirms the cancellation of fall sports in a letter from commissioner Kevin Warren See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Big Ten will not play football this fall, and does that mean Justin Fields will never play football for Ohio State again? If so, he left a fleeting glimpse of a growing leadership presence with his national media appearances over the past week. Will that enhance his legacy at Ohio State, or does it become one more tantalizing "what if" for Buckeye fans to mourn into the offseason? Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means opened Friday's daily Buckeye Talk with a discussion of how Fields changed as a person over his year in Columbus, They also argued about how good Ohio State might still be in a winter or spring season if Fields decides to pursue professional opportunities. (For that matter they also disagreed about what decision he might make on that.) From there the guys discussed how SEC fans would react to a canceled season compared to how Big Ten fans reacted, whether the cancellation makes it more likely Ryan Day seeks a future in the NFL and more. Thanks as always for listening to Buckeye Tal

Ohio State player and parent-led initiatives to convince the Big Ten to reconsider its cancellation of the fall football season began as soon as the announcement came down a week ago last Tuesday. Prior to early Wednesday evening, the Big Ten had not responded to those concerns. When Commissioner Kevin Warren broke his silence with an open letter the Big Ten Community, he emphasized that the decision of the presidents an chancellors was final and "would not be revisited." So we finally have closure on the fall, or do we? Nathan Baird and Doug Lesmerises discuss what else the Big Ten can do to repair its image right now and how much blame for this rollout that Warren deserves. Rather than spend the whole podcast rehashing the past week, your cleveland,com crew looks ahead to the other big decisions that will follow this one. First up: will the Big Ten go for Ohio State coach Ryan Day's plan for a season beginning in January? Thanks as always for listening to Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and

Doug Lesmerises, Nathan Baird and Stephen Means are back for the big Wednesday Buckeye Talk as the Big Ten and Ohio State continue to attempt to figure out the next step for football. The guys talked about: Randy Wade's planned visit to Chicago, as the father of OSU cornerback Shaun Wade hopes to organize a Friday protest Ohio allowing high school football to continue while the Buckeyes aren't playing The future of Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren Whether any other schools would consider a January schedule The long-term ramifications for Ohio State The correct way to eat onion rings And there was news on the recruiting front, as the Buckeyes landed a top-100 player at linebacker in the Class of 2022. Thanks for listening to the latest Buckeye Talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices