\n\tJohn Legend! What a legend!\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\tSpecial Guest in Columbus stopped by the Woody @johnlegend<\/a> \t\u2014 Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) November 10, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tHave a good Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0BOOOOOOM. Ohio State landed four\u00a0commitments in five days. Is that good?\n<\/p>\n \n\tLegend Bey flipped from Tennessee to Ohio State<\/a> on Monday. Bey is \u201cthe most explosive prospect in Texas,\u201d according to On3\u2019s Steve Wiltfong, and recruiting analysts from across the nation see the four-star athlete becoming a potential gamebreaker due to his 4.3 speed.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\t#BOOM<\/a> Four-star athlete Legend Bey flips from Tennessee to Ohio State, giving the Buckeyes a dynamic offensive weapon with game-breaking speed in the class of 2026. https:\/\/t.co\/D9xvHfMtNr<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 10, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tBey\u2019s commitment was just one of the BOOMs On3\u2019s Hayes Fawcett<\/a> predicted for Ohio State this week. He also hinted at potential commitments from more prospects from the 2026 class, as well as the 2027 class.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA final note on Bey is that he\u2019s a candidate for Sports Illustrated National Boys Athlete of the Week<\/a>. One of his competitors is Ryan Day\u2019s son, RJ, who threw for 482 yards and three touchdowns in DeSales\u2019 33-29 win over Ashland on Friday.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tPlease vote for me for national male athlete of the week!https:\/\/t.co\/BTjNBIh2mt<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 RJ Day (@rj_day1) November 10, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s the most (yards) that\u2019s ever been throw in my house,\u201d Day said of his son\u2019s performance while he appeared on Buckeye Roundtable<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to say that. I can say I never threw for 480. I\u2019m proud of him. He loves it. He puts a lot into it. There\u2019s a lot that comes at him. And he played great. He did. But that game\u2019s over with. \u2026 We have Massillon coming to town, so he better not be reading his press clippings.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tI don\u2019t care who you vote for \u2014 just vote for one of them!\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0HOLD YOUR DANG HORSES! This week, ESPN\u2019s David Hale<\/a> articulated well how I view the current Heisman race between Julian Sayin, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. He correctly ranked the candidates in that order \u2014 Sayin, Mendoza and Simpson \u2014 but he didn\u2019t have Jeremiah Smith at No. 4, which\u2026 fine. Instead, Hale picked Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love and UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano to round out his top five.\n<\/p>\n \n\tHere\u2019s what Hale wrote about Sayin, Mendoza and Simpson:\n<\/p>\n \t1. Ohio State QB Julian Sayin<\/p>\n \n\t\tThere’s something that just feels off about Sayin’s Heisman candidacy. It has been too easy, like an email from a deposed prince assuring you of millions if you can just help him out by providing your credit card number. Sayin threw for 303 yards and a score against Purdue, even without one of his top receivers, while Jeremiah Smith picked up the slack, catching 10 balls for 137 yards. Sayin looks like he shouldn’t be able to get into an R-rated movie without a member of the Ohio State coaching staff accompanying him, and yet he has been nearly flawless all season. How is this possible? It feels like someone is about to explain that he’s as much a real quarterback as a sentient Jugs machine developed by OpenAI to eliminate the need for human quarterbacks.\n\t<\/p>\n \t2. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza<\/p>\n \n\t\tIf Mendoza takes home the Heisman as many pundits seem to feel is inevitable now, his final drive that toppled Penn State \u2014 and shredded Gus Johnson’s vocal cords \u2014 will be lauded as his “Heisman moment.” Hard to argue. It wasn\u2019t just that he found the holes in Penn State’s defense. There weren\u2019t holes. He created them. He put the ball, time and again, in the one spot his receivers could catch it, and each time \u2014 miraculously on the final throw \u2014 they did. We’re not quite ready to hand him the hardware yet, but the Big Ten title game, if it\u2019s a matchup between Indiana and Ohio State, figures to be the deciding factor.\n\t<\/p>\n \t3. Alabama QB Ty Simpson<\/p>\n \n\t\tYears from now, our greatest scientists will study the game film of Simpson’s Week 1 loss to Florida State, and the first one to explain it rationally will win a Nobel Prize.\n\t<\/p>\n \n\tOK, Hale\u2019s three lines about the deposed prince, the R-rated movie and the OpenAI quarterback are some of the funniest I\u2019ve read in an article in quite some time. Bravo to him.\n<\/p>\n \n\tI also appreciate Hale\u2019s desire not to get caught up in the moment \u2014 or, should I say, the Heisman moment. Yes, Mendoza was excellent on Indiana\u2019s game-winning drive against Penn State. But let\u2019s not ignore that he finished 19-of-30 for 218 yards, one touchdown and one interception against a Nittany Lions defense that Julian Sayin torched for 316 yards and four scores a week earlier in Columbus.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe shouldn\u2019t be so quick to guarantee Mendoza the Heisman when he and the Hoosiers are on a collision course with Sayin and the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game. Unless one of the quarterbacks goes nuclear in a losing effort, the winner in Indianapolis \u2014 assuming both teams get there \u2014 will likely see its quarterback hoist the Heisman in New York City a week later. Someone tell Gus Johnson and other national media to hold their dang horses!\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0DOES OHIO STATE HAVE A FATAL FLAW? I\u2019ll return to the Worldwide Leader in this section, as ESPN\u2019s Bill Connelly<\/a> wrote this week about the fatal flaw that could unravel the College Football Playoff hopes of 26 teams this season. I think it\u2019s worth sharing what Connelly sees as the biggest weaknesses for Ohio State, Michigan and Indiana.\n<\/p>\n \tOhio State: A merely decent run game<\/p>\n \n\t\tIndiana’s combined playoff odds are ever-so-slightly higher than those of top-ranked Ohio State, primarily because the Hoosiers only have two remaining regular-season games left and the Buckeyes have three (including one against 7-2 Michigan). But OSU is indeed the top-ranked team per both the computers. It’s not hard to see why: The defense ranks first nationally in points per drive and yards per play, and the offense features the best receiver in the country (Jeremiah Smith) and a quarterback completing over 80% of his passes (Julian Sayin).\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tSayin will face plenty of elite defenses down the stretch, however — Michigan ranks ninth in defensive SP+, likely Big Ten championship opponent Indiana ranks fourth despite the big plays, and the CFP will obviously feature lots of good defenses — and there’s a chance the Buckeyes are rendered one-dimensional at some point because of a run game that ranks 19th in rushing success rate* but doesn’t really go anywhere (4.7 yards per carry). Sayin could carry the offense anyway, but he’s still a redshirt freshman.\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t(* Success rate: how frequently an offense is gaining 50% of necessary yards on first down, 70% on second and 100% on third and fourth.)\n\t<\/p>\n \tMichigan: Not enough risk or reward<\/p>\n \n\t\tMichigan runs the ball well, prevents big plays and takes as few risks as possible with freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood. The issue: The Wolverines can’t force the issue very well. They can’t knock opponents off schedule to take advantage of a good pass rush, and among 132 QBR-eligible QBs, Underwood ranks 95th in completion rate (60.9%) despite ranking 86th in air yards per attempt (7.6).\n\t<\/p>\n \tIndiana: Big-play glitches<\/p>\n \n\t\tIndiana has had a dynamite defense since Curt Cignetti and coordinator Bryant Haines moved to Bloomington, but when the Hoosiers give up a successful play, it’s a very successful play. Usually that comes via run defense — as evidenced by a 59-yard run for Penn State’s Nicholas Singleton on Saturday — but IU also gave up six completions of 19 or more yards against an iffy PSU passing attack, and, combined with an ill-timed interception from Fernando Mendoza, it almost cost them their unbeaten record.\n\t<\/p>\n \n\tI can\u2019t speak much to Michigan and Indiana\u2019s weaknesses \u2014 only that I\u2019m hopeful the Buckeyes can jump out to an early lead against the Wolverines and make Underwood throw the ball as much as possible, and that Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Bo Jackson can generate enough explosives to smother the Hoosiers.\n<\/p>\n \n\tI can speak to Ohio State\u2019s weakness, however, and it\u2019s that the Buckeyes know about it and are actively working to address it.\n<\/p>\n \n\tOhio State ran the ball a season-high 43 times against Purdue (the next highest total is 38 against Grambling State), and Ryan Day made it clear that the Buckeyes had emphasized establishing the run against the Boilermakers as a point of emphasis at practice last week.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s been an emphasis point,\u201d Day said on Saturday. \u201cI thought we got better today because I thought they had more opportunities to run. These are young backs that we\u2019ve got to continue to give them the opportunity to grow. I think we\u2019ll get on the film and get better from this game.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tMoments later, Day added, \u201cYou could see that the emphasis of this game was to try and get these backs some carries and establish the run and continue to work on that. \u2026 We need to continue to improve in certain areas, and that was certainly an emphasis point in this game.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe\u2019ll see what improvements the Buckeyes make against a UCLA team with the No. 77 total defense (376.7 YPG) and No. 112 scoring defense (30.7 PPG) and No. 124 run defense (191.11 YPG) in the nation.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0WHAT MAKES CALEB DOWNS GREAT? Last week, Fox Sports\u2019 Michael Cohen<\/a> wrote an article titled \u201cThe Obsession That Built Caleb Downs \u2014 and Made Him College Football\u2019s Top Defender.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\t\t#OhioState<\/a> S Caleb Downs vs. Purdue<\/p>\n Watch him trust his eyes, plant, and drive on the dig route over the middle to cause an INT. pic.twitter.com\/lWEbV86sOW<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) November 10, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tIn his article, Cohen shared Downs\u2019 story in four parts: The Subconscious, The Realization, The Maturation and The Future. Here\u2019s an excerpt from each section \u2014 though I highly recommend you read the entire piece soon.\n<\/p>\n \tThe Subconscious<\/p>\n \n\t\tIn football, a sport Caleb was initially reluctant to try, Tanya recalled one particular touchdown where her son deliberately ran through the more crowded side of the field. Afterward, Caleb told his mother that he\u2019d noticed some of the defenders\u2019 shoes were untied, meaning they wouldn\u2019t have caught him even if they tried. He was 6 years old.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tSuch rationality from Caleb was in lockstep with Gary\u2019s personality, especially when it came to their preferred subjects at school. In an academic sense, neither Caleb nor Gary had much use for anything theoretical or make-believe. They were unbothered by classic novels in language arts. Instead, both of them preferred social studies and history because those topics were rooted in knowledge they could absorb, analyze and apply. The self-improvement books and biographies that lined Gary\u2019s bookshelves at home soon became Caleb\u2019s favorites as well.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t“He was like, \u2018I\u2019m not going to read something where I get to imagine what the end of the story is,\u2019” Tanya told me. “He just wanted facts. He\u2019s always been about facts.”\n\t<\/p>\n \tThe Realization<\/p>\n \n\t\t[When Caleb was a high school sophomore], father [Gary] and son devised a plan inspired by the following words: “Put before your eyes that which you want to be,” meaning if Caleb wanted to embody the top-ranked safety in the country, he needed to become an expert on players who fit that mold. His new list of study subjects included Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, Brian Dawkins, Troy Polamalu, Ronnie Lott and Eric Berry, a handful of the best safeties in NFL history. Caleb pored over highlight tapes, interview footage, feature stories and documentaries \u2014 anything and everything from which he might glean bits of what made those players into stars.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t“What types of plays they were making, what type of work ethic do they have, what did they stand for, who these people were to be considered great, to be considered the top in their field, elite in that category,” Caleb told me. “I mean, that\u2019s how I saw myself.”\n\t<\/p>\n \tThe Maturation<\/p>\n \n\t\t[Matt] Patricia quickly realized that Caleb had the unique ability to apply ideas and concepts on the field without first needing to see them drawn on a whiteboard. Caleb could visualize the moving pieces “like a chessboard,” Patricia told me, to a degree that reminded him of interactions he\u2019d had with NFL veterans, the types of players whose schematic catalogs should include twice as many entries as a college junior.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t…\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tTogether, [Downs] and Patricia have formed a symbiotic brain trust powering the sport\u2019s best defense.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t“He\u2019s the best college football player \u2014 defensive football player \u2014 in the country, for sure,” Patricia told me. “And as you\u2019re going into the draft, we would always say, \u2018Hey, our first-rounders better be the face of the franchise.\u2019 And he is a guy that is going to be a face of your franchise.”\n\t<\/p>\n \tThe Future<\/p>\n \n\t\tThe breadth of Caleb\u2019s intellectual curiosity \u2014 from sports and real estate to finance and psychology \u2014 meant that there\u2019s never been a consensus among those close to him about what he\u2019ll do when football inevitably ends. They believe his talents are applicable to virtually anything.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tSaid Gary: “I think he would be a business leader. And I think he would also be in [politics], whether that\u2019s some kind of local, state or federal government.”\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tSaid [Downs\u2019 sister] Kameron: “I feel like he would find something very niche that he could get really good at and then somehow create a business where he consults other people on how to be good at it.”\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tSaid [former Alabama safeties coach Charles] Kelly: “It wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he was an owner of an NFL team one day.”\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tSaid [Downs\u2019 mother] Tanya: “Figure out how to conquer the world. I think he wants to own a bunch of real estate and be a big real estate mogul.”\n\t<\/p>\n \n\tMan, Downs is just so, so impressive. I thank Nick Saban every day for retiring and allowing Ohio State a second chance at landing him!\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0DAILY DUBCAST.\u00a0Today’s Eleven Dubcast welcomes back Kyle Jones to preview the upcoming episode of Film Study after he described Ohio State’s 34-10 win over Purdue last Saturday as “the most infuriating rewatch of the season” so far.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0SONG OF THE DAY.\u00a0“All of Me” – John Legend.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0SONG OF THE DAY.\u00a0Giants coach Brian Daboll fired with team at 2-8 midway through his fourth\u00a0season<\/a>…\u00a0Alex Singleton has now shown the world why he is a captain for the Denver Broncos<\/a>…\u00a0Bengals’ Joe Burrow practices, hopes to return Thanksgiving Day<\/a>…\u00a0The costs of instant translation<\/a>… The Edmund Fitzgerald sank 50 years ago. How big was the ship<\/a>?\n<\/p>\n
#GoBucks<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/KMmwRvTLiv<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n