Category: Buckeyes Wire

Dallas Cowboys reportedly have interest in Urban Meyer

While it’s all just pure speculation at this point, the Dallas Cowboys reportedly have interest in Urban Meyer.

While there’s no reason to expect he’d return to coaching, Urban Meyer is apparently being sought after by the Dallas Cowboys. Let’s just say it’d be shocking to see him return to coaching.

That said, interest at the NFL level is never something to turn your nose up at. It’s not even that it’s the NFL level but rather the Dallas Cowboys, arguably the most popular franchise in league history.

Meyer, who left Ohio State after last season, is well-respected, making him a perfect fit for the Cowboys.

According to NFL Network’s Jane Slater, the Cowboys, who are 6-7 after a stunning loss to Chicago in Week 14, have “very real interest” in Meyer.

Meyer has been a top interest for many teams in search of a new head coach throughout the past year, and as the growing frustrations with Jason Garrett grow, the shouts for a new head coach will become increasingly heard.

Meyer, who coached Ohio State from 2012-2018, doesn’t have NFL experience, but he did make a bit of news by saying he’d have to take a hard look if the Cowboys’ job was offered.

Meyer has three collegiate national titles and is a stellar 187-32 throughout his career. He’s the quintessential target for most organizations, and if there is one that brings him out of retirement, it could be this one.

Nonetheless, it’d still be shocking to see his return.

Ohio State defensive end Chase Young wins Chicago Tribune Silver Football Award

Ohio State defensive end Chase Young has won the Chicago Tribune’s Silver Football Award that recognizes the best player in the Big Ten.

Ohio State defensive end Chase Young has been awarded the Chicago Tribune’s prestigious Silver Football Award that goes to the best football player in the Big Ten annually. It has been handed out annually since 1924 and is a result of a vote by all of the Big Ten head coaches.

Young is still up for a slew of national awards after already taking home the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Lineman of the Year earlier this week. With 16.5 sacks on the season, and highlight after highlight of dominating moments so far in 2019, Young is still a finalist for the Walter Camp, Bronko Nagurski, Bednarik, Maxwell, and Ted Hendricks Awards.

By winning the 2019 Silver Football Award, Young adds to a run of six of the last eight awards going to Ohio State.

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Here’s a complete listing of all the Buckeye players that have taken home the Silver Football:

Ohio State Silver Football Award Winners

  • 2019 – DE Chase Young
  • 2018 – QB Dwayne Haskins
  • 2016 – QB J.T. Barrett
  • 2015 – RB Ezekiel Elliott
  • 2013 – QB Braxton Miller
  • 2012 – QB Braxton Miller
  • 2006 – QB Troy Smith
  • 1998 – QB Joe Germaine
  • 1996 – OT Orlando Pace
  • 1995 – RB Eddie George
  • 1984 – RB Keith Byars
  • 1981 – QB Art Schlichter
  • 1975 – QB Cornelius Greene
  • 1974 – RB Archie Griffin
  • 1973 – RB Archie Griffin
  • 1955 – HB Howard Cassady
  • 1950 – HB Vic Janowicz
  • 1945 – FB Ollie Cline
  • 1944 – HB Les Horvath
  • 1941 – FB Jack Graf
  • 1930 – E Wes Fesler

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Ohio State releases depth chart and availability information for Big Ten Championship Game

Ohio State released the depth chart, availability and injuries for the Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin.

Every Friday Ohio State releases information on the depth chart and player availability for the upcoming game. In this case, it’s for the Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin. It’s one of just a handful of conference title games that will help shape the College Football Playoff.

By the looks of the depth chart, the Buckeyes might be as healthy as they’ve been all year. That’s outstanding for being at the tail end of the season, but also probably has something to do with players being able to rest a bit when things have gotten out of hand at times.

Justin Fields appears all ready to go — at least on paper. How healthy and effective he is on a sprained MCL remains to be seen.

Game-time decision

None

Unavailable

WR Kamryn Babb

RB Marcus Crowley

OG Gavin Cupp

DL Noah Donald

WR Ellijah Gardiner

SAF Ronnie Hickman

WR C.J. Saunders

DT Taron Vincent

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Next … Ohio State Depth Chart – offense, defense, and specialists

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Ohio State vs. Wisconsin Big Ten Championship Game Buckeyes Wire staff predictions

It’s about time to go for this Big Ten Championship thing. Our staff members take turns predicting the winner of Ohio State and Wisconsin.

It’s time for the sequel, and we can only hope in this case the second one is better than the first — well, at least if you’re Wisconsin. In Columbus in late October, there was some “Midwest” weather, then things got away from the Badgers in the second half.

Weather won’t be a problem in Lucas Oil Stadium unless there’s a roof leak, but there’s still the little issue of dealing with this Ohio State team that has cast aside every challenge faced before it with bad intentions.

We’ve already previewed the game and made a bold prediction, asked for a Badgers’ writer perspective on things, and now we’re asking our staff to make their call on the game individually.

Does anyone give Wisconsin a chance? Let’s find out …

Next … the predictions

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Ohio State vs. Wisconsin Big Ten Championship Game roundtable: 4 questions with the enemy

We worked with our sister site Badgers Wire on a roundtable Q&A session on the Big Ten Championship Game between Ohio State and Wisconsin.

It’s an even bigger one that what we saw in round one when Ohio State and Wisconsin matched up. That’s because this one is for a title and some hardware that’ll go in one of the two team’s trophy case.

We worked with one or our sister sites Badgers Wire on a Q&A on the game. We’re always interested in the perspective of the opposing team, and Matt Zemek gives us that as he did the first time around when the Badgers and Buckeyes tussled in Columbus.

If you’re a Wisconsin Badgers fan, we encourage you to give Badgers Wire a follow, bookmark the website. There’s a ton of good stuff going on over there, and they are good people.

But we digress. We lobbed four questions over Zemek, and here’s how it went.

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Next … How is the rematch going to be different?

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WATCH: Ohio State hype video for Big Ten Championship Game

Ohio State released the hype video for the Big Ten Championship Game against the Wisconsin Badgers. Watch the epic production here.

And off we go.

The Ohio State creative team shared the hype video for the Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin, and it’s a good one as always. Everything up until this point has exceeded anyone’s expectations, but it doesn’t mean anything if the Buckeyes can’t seal the deal in Indianapolis and walk away with a conference title to move on to bigger and better things.

If you haven’t had a chance to view this trailer, take a moment and click on the below video shared by the official Twitter feed of Ohio State Football. It goes through some Ryan Day passionate speeches and includes highlights of the season to date as it opens up with an overhead shot of Lucas Oil Stadium — the setting for Saturday nights’ game.

Enjoy!

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Ohio State vs. Wisconsin Big Ten Championship Game preview: 5 reasons the Buckeyes win

Ohio State handled Wisconsin pretty handily the first time around, now it has to beat the Badgers one more time in the Big Ten Championship.

The first one was so nice, they’re playing it twice.

Ohio State outlasted and outmanned the Wisconsin Badgers the first time around 38-7, and now it’s tasked with beating them again in the Big Ten Championship Game Saturday. They say it’s hard to beat a good team twice in one season, but the reality is, we’ve not really seen that in the Big Ten, or with the Buckeyes for that matter.

Either way, Wisconsin does have one of the best running backs in the country, a physical brand, and the culture to pick itself off the proverbial mat to try and make this one a game this time. Oh, and there’s a championship and trophy on the line, so getting up to play this one shouldn’t be an issue.

Here’s five reasons the Buckeyes win Saturday in Indianapolis

Deep and wide

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Ohio State football: The three key players needed in the postseason

Ohio State has made it this far on the backs of three dynamic players. It’ll need those three to still come up big in the postseason.

Ohio State beat Michigan to continue its dominance against that team up north. It finished an undefeated regular season and now has a chance to win consecutive Big Ten Championships. Is it realistic that this could end in a picturesque season? Imagine Ryan Day hoisting the trophy alongside Dobbins, Fields, and Young. Here are three reasons why Ohio State could win it all this year which boils down to the three best players on Ohio State’s team. 

JK Dobbins

On the offensive side, it comes down to the ability to run the ball to open up the passing game. With Dobbins being one of only two players in Ohio State history to run for the 4,000 yards during his career, he’s been a beast. In fact, based on history, when Dobbins runs for two touchdowns and 140 yards, the Buckeyes normally win. 

While he’s been an unstoppable force in almost every game this year, it will be critical that he continues to eat up the defense with his rushing ability to create passing opportunities for Justin Fields and the passing game.

Chase Young

Young has lived up to expectations this year. So much so that he’s in the conversation for the Heisman as a defensive player. With his ability to pressure the quarterback, it has limited the time and space opposing quarterbacks have had. In the Michigan game, he didn’t statistically show out, but a lot of it factored into him being constantly double and tripled teamed. But he still took on multiple players, which allowed for others along the D-line to get into the backfield. 

Coming down the stretch, if Chase Young continues his dominance and continues to be a game-wrecker in the backfield it’ll allow OSU to slow down teams like LSU and Clemson since they have mobile quarterbacks.

Justin Fields 

At the helm of it all is Justin Fields. He has more than met expectations after the departure of Dwayne Haskins last season. So far this year Justin Fields has been incredible with his decision making with just one interception all year. He does have a tendency to hold onto the ball a little too long at times, but that’s just nitpicking at this point.

His ability to continue and make plays with a bum leg bears watching, but he’s been a warrior so far. For Ohio State to meet its ultimate goal of winning a national championship, he has to still provide that threat on the ground.

So far Field’s youth has not been in question and he has handled the big stage incredibly well. It will be interesting to see how the end of the season finishes. Maybe, just maybe, it will end with Ohio State hoisting a large trophy in New Orleans.

Ohio State Women’s Basketball upsets No. 2 Louisville 67-60

The Ohio State Buckeyes women’s basketball team upset No. 2 Louisville 67-60 on Thursday night as part of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

One night after the Ohio State men’s basketball crushed North Carolina, the women’s team followed up with perhaps something more impressive. Also as part of the Big Ten-ACC challenge, the Buckeyes women’s basketball team took out No. 2 Louisville by a score of 67-60 on Thursday night.

The Buckeyes have not had the greatest start to the season. They played very well in a tough loss to UConn two weeks ago, but they also dropped two early-season games against Ohio and South Dakota. The Buckeyes were clearly talented, but the results weren’t following. Louisville, meanwhile, came into the game undefeated, and had just upset then-No. 1 Oregon on Saturday.

The game was a tight, back-and-forth affair, which highlighted just how much potential these Buckeyes have. No team led by more than nine points, and Ohio State was able to stick with the No. 2 team in the country play for play throughout the game. In an astounding stat, the Buckeyes led for the entirety of the fourth quarter–but the lead stayed between two and six points for the first half of the quarter. Ohio State built the lead to nine after that, then held on as both teams went scoreless for three of the game’s final four minutes.

Four Buckeyes scored in double figures, including Slovenian freshman Rebeka Mikulasikova coming off the bench. Dorka Juhasz, another international player (from Hungary) led Ohio State with 15 points and seven rebounds.

This Buckeyes team is very young–there are only two seniors on the roster, neither of whom saw the floor in this game. The team is also very talented. There are some growing pains that come with the youth, as we saw in losses earlier this season, but there is also a ton of potential, put into action against Louisville. The Buckeyes will soon get another chance to show off just how far they’ve come, as they travel to face No. 1 Stanford a week from Sunday.

Is Ohio State Football a lock for the College Football Playoff?

While it likely won’t happen, if the worst-case scenario becomes a reality, are the Ohio State Buckeyes still a top-four team in the nation?

While it likely won’t happen, if the worst-case scenario becomes a reality, are the Ohio State Buckeyes still a top-four team in the nation? Do they still get into the College Football Playoff?

There are multiple “worst-case” scenarios, and they all start with Ohio State losing the Big Ten Championship Game. While I don’t believe Wisconsin will have a chance in the two teams’ rematch, it could be closer than many expect.

The Buckeyes, if they lose in Indy, would then be 12-1 with dominant wins over Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin, the latter two by over 25 points each.

That’s impressive.

In a worst-case, Georgia wins the SEC, Utah wins the Pac-12 and Oklahoma wins the Big 12.  Georgia and Clemson would be the two automatic bids then.

LSU and OSU would both lean on its dominant regular seasons to get in. However, Oklahoma and Utah would both also have just one loss and would also have a case for inclusion into all the fun.

All four would have one loss and Oklahoma/Utah would have their conference championship, which we know the committee values. The committee looks at the full body of work, but still, that’s a feather in the cap the Buckeyes would not have.

But the body of work is what helps Ohio State.

The Committee has also historically valued bad losses, which Oklahoma has. While Utah lost to USC, the Trojans are now a top-25 team according to the committee, a boost to the Utes resume to be sure.

If this scenario somehow turns to reality, it’s still difficult to see Ohio State out. With as complimentary as the College Football Committee has been on the Buckeyes and Tigers, it’s hard to see either one of them being left out, even with a loss.

Clemson would be in as an undefeated Power Five Conference Champ, then it would all boil down to Utah and Oklahoma most likely for that final spot. Then again, we’ve all been surprised by what this committee does, so hold the phone I guess.

Let’s just hope that even in this worst-case scenario Ohio State still makes it.