Category: Buckeyes Wire

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.

Ohio State Men’s Basketball moves up to No. 3 in ESPN’s BPI

The Ohio State men’s basketball team continues its rise in all types of rankings, including advanced metrics.

After a complete demolition of North Carolina on Wednesday night, the Ohio State men’s basketball team continues to rise in all sorts of rankings. Most notably–and useful because it updates daily–the Buckeyes are now up to the No. 3 team in the country in ESPN’s BPI analytics ratings.

Much like its football counterpart, FPI, BPI also underrated the Buckeyes at the start of the season. And, much like in FPI, Ohio State’s rise has been meteoric. Ohio State’s rise from the start of the season, where BPI placed it at No. 25, has been steady. The Buckeyes have moved up after each game, as they outperformed BPI’s expectations in each of them.

Ken Pomeroy’s major analytic KenPom ratings currently have the Buckeyes at No. 2, trailing only Louisville. It’s still early in the season, though, so metrics ratings don’t always have enough data to properly gauge how efficient a team was relative to its competition.

It’s still very early, but BPI really likes Ohio State’s long-term prospects, as well. It gives the Buckeyes a 22.5% chance of reaching the Final Four, and a 7.8% chance of winning the National Championship. Only Duke and Michigan State have better outlooks so far. It’s a long season, but the Buckeyes are certainly off to a very strong start.

Now 8-0, the Buckeyes will face BPI’s No. 17 team and KenPom’s No. 23 team, Penn State, on Saturday. Win that game in blowout fashion as well, and the metrics will start looking at Ohio State as the No. 1 team in the country.

Week 15 College Football Bowl Projections

With just the conference championship games remaining, our Bowl Projections look at how all teams currently stand in the bowl picture.

Welcome to the second-to-last set of bowl projections that I will be providing. Make sure not to miss Phil Harrison’s projections. Every week, Phil projects to the end of the season and gives you where he thinks the Big Ten teams will end up.

I, however, will not be predicting who will win games. Instead, these projections are based on where every team sits now. Meaning, if the season ended today, where would every team be heading to bowl games? That way, readers can know what their team needs to do to move up or down in bowl selection order.

My final set of bowl projections will come out on Saturday night, right after the games end. Those might look very different than these, depending on what happens Saturday. (For example, there are currently two SEC teams in the Playoff. That will almost certainly no longer be true if LSU beats Georgia.)

Also, remember that nowadays, bowl projections are more of an art than a science. Most conferences no longer allow the bowls to select teams in order, but instead provide “pools” of teams for certain tiers of bowls. The Group of 5 conferences often have no selection order preference. The conferences then work with the bowls to determine which team goes where. Anything can be the cause for this–geography, fan interests, matchup quality, whether the conference thinks its team is more likely to win, or any other reason. Therefore, at the end of this article, I will provide a list of which conference pools would be tied to which bowl. That way, you have as much information as possible when figuring out where each team could be headed.

As we approach Selection Sunday, we will be able to hear rumors and whispers as to which team is headed where. I do my best to keep track, and my projections on Saturday night will be based mostly on those. For now, though, all we know is that BYU has accepted an invitation to the Hawaii Bowl and that the Bahamas Bowl will be Buffalo against Charlotte.)

79 teams are bowl-eligible this year, and there are 78 slots available in bowl games. Right now, I have Eastern Michigan being the unlucky team that will stay home, though it could definitely be Toledo or Kent State.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s bowl projections:

College Football Playoff

Peach Bowl Sat, Dec 28, 4:00 PM LSU vs Clemson
Fiesta Bowl Sat, Dec 28, 8:00 PM Ohio State vs Georgia

This is simple enough. No. 1 plays No. 4, and No. 2 plays No. 3. The committee will ensure that the No. 1 team is not given a geographic disadvantage, so Ohio State will not be forced to play Georgia in Atlanta.

The times for these matchups are flexible and not yet set, but given that Ohio State vs Georgia will likely be the bigger draw, I expect that to be the game given prime time billing.

Next… NY6 and other Big Ten bowls

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